Bourne Legacy and other films shot in the Philippines

Rachel Weisz on the set of The Bourne Legacy in Manila.

The shooting of the fourth installment of Ludlum's Bourne series The Bourne Legacy started yesterday. Many Filipinos are excited about the film; it's not everyday that a big budgeted major Hollywood production is shot here in the Philippines. Aside from the prestige, the shooting of the movie would create job opportunities for the community where the film is being shot and also generate revenues for the involved local government units and government agencies.   Another benefit of Hollywood movies being shot in the country is that it would promote the Philippines as a tourist destination, sort of a product placement.

The story of Boracay, I think, is the best example of what a movie could to do in promoting a tourist spot in the country. Boracay then was an unknown beautiful island where the 1970 Hollywood WWII movie Too Late the Hero, starring Michael Caine, was shot. Since then, foreigners took notice of the island especially the powder white sand beaches and soon after that Boracay became a favorite destination for foreign tourist especially for the budget conscious backpackers. And because of this popularity among the foreigners, many local investors saw the potential of the island to become a world class tourist destination and the rest, as they say, is history.

I am a bit at a lost about the tourism hype of the  Ludlum movie because it is being shot in the areas of Marikina City Market, San Andres Market, Navotas Fishport, Ramon Magsaysay Blvd., Ayala Avenue, Nagtahan, Pasay Taft, Intramuros and Jones Bridge. I don't want to douse cold water into the enthusiasm about the potential exposure the movie could generate for tourism because many (if not most) of these places are not your typical tourist destinations . That is, unless the expected tourist market we have in mind  are urban survivalists interested in simulating post-nuclear war survival scenarios or journalists who are interested in doing documentaries about Metro Manila's nefarious taxi drivers (not all of them of course).Or, I could be wrong, maybe there are tourists interested in third-world- urban tourism, sort of.

Anyway,  the movie is not yet finished, and there maybe beautiful places that would be included in the movie like Palawan, Boracay, Bohol etc. Or,  they would pan the camera so as to avoid the eyesores, etc.so its too early to tell. I maybe wrong of course!

I expect that the DVD of the movie would be available from your trusted DVD Bootleg vendor way before the shooting is over. Also one of the benefits....early, early, pre- screening.

Anyway I am curious about  Hollywood films were shot here in the Philippines. Here are some of them: (Wikipedia)

1. Missing in Action (1984) : Chuck Norris, Directed by Joseph Zito

2. The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) : Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver, Directed by Peter Weir

3. Platoon (1986): Tom Berringer, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen, Directed by Oliver Stone

4. Thirteen days (2000): Kevin Costner, Directed by Roger Donaldson

 4. Apocalypse Now (1979): Marlon Brando, Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

5. Enter the Ninja (1981): Franco Nero, Sho Kosugi, Directed by Menahem Golan