Tourism and Sports Minister Sermsak Pongpanich has visited a film shoot location for the first-ever "Alien" TV series in Samut Prakan province as the government expects revenue from foreign film shoots to hit new record high this year.
Mr Sermsak was welcomed by Matt Magielnicki, Senior Vice President, Production at Disney’s FX Networks and two executives of Living Films – Christopher Lowenstein and Apinat Siricharoenjit – during his visit to The Studio Park in Samut Prakan's Bang Bo district on Saturday, which was the project’s final shoot day. One of the top production houses in Thailand, Living Films served as a local facilitator for the Alien project.
Mr Sernsak said the project, which began filming in Thailand early last year, had as many as 122 shoot days and was filmed at beautiful locations in Bangkok, Surat Thani, Krabi and Phang Nga.
The production spent more than 3 billion baht locally on hiring 1,600 Thai crew, renting studios and equipment, travel, accommodation and other items, making FX’s "Alien" series the foreign film production with the highest budget to date for filming in Thailand.
Mr Sernsak said the project booked rooms at more than 20 hotels in Bangkok and provinces for its international and Thai crew during the 2023-2024 stay, helping to distribute revenue to the country’s tourism sector.
“The ministry will continue to provide support to foreign filmmakers who select Thailand as a shooting location in order to generate revenue for the country’s film and hospitality industries and other related businesses,” the minister said.
“The ministry aims to promote Thailand as an ideal location for international filmmakers and in turn encourage people to come to Thailand and experience the locations of films they like.”
Over 466 films were shot in Thailand in 2023, generating over 6.6 billion baht, a new record high after posting 4.66 billion baht in 2022 from 346 film shoots.
Revenue from foreign film shoots totalled 3.41 billion baht for the first five months of 2024. The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has set the target of earning 7.5 billion baht from foreign film crew this year.
