New York. Yellow taxis line the corner of a wide street, a diner offers burgers and pancakes, the Stars and Stripes adorn windows. Any moment you expect NYPD cops to patrol down the street. The smell of Manhattan – the hustle and bustle – are somehow palpable even though I’m actually a lone wanderer in a ghost town. I look up at the sky. I expect to see the Empire State Building. Instead, snow-capped Vitosha in all its splendour peers down at me.

This "New York" backlot, just one of many sets, is part of the master plan of David Varod, Nu Boyana’s chief executive. Nu Boyana was created in 2006 after the privatisation of state-run Boyana Films, which produced Bulgarian films during the communist era. Rival consortiums Ealing Studios and Bavaria Films were defeated in their bid to buy the studios by Nu Image, now the owners together with Millennium Films and their respective partners and shareholders.

At the time of the contest – and particularly considering the acrimony surrounding the takeover – few could have anticipated such a bright future for the studios.

On the day of my visit, Varod has just lost a likely mega-budget movie because – and this is a longstanding grievance – Bulgaria does not offer tax incentives to filmmakers.
"I just had a call from one producer who wanted to shoot an $80 million movie. He asked me if I had incentives. I told him no and he said, ‘ok, thank you’ and put the phone down," Varod told me.

Yet the news doesn’t seem to depress him for long. In his spacious office Varod smiles and talks softly. He has no need to speak loud. Forget Ahmed Dogan - Varod is the real "instrument of power" in Bulgaria – at least in artistic terms. He is, to quote Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, "the best ambassador to Bulgaria we have" – and in Varod’s case this is no idle flattery. Movies transcend borders, cultures and prejudices. Bruce Willis arrives in town and suddenly everyone’s interested. Where is he staying? What does he think of banitsa? Has he been seen in a mall? Which one? People pretend otherwise but secretly want to know.

Sets
Varod shipped over several New York taxis to make his backlot more authentic and he has plans to expand it, so that even movies set entirely in the Big Apple can be shot at Nu Boyana. If that isn’t enough, he can do more. "I can give you more parts of Sofia that you can use," he says. As for the skyscrapers and the skyline, computer generated imagery (CGI) takes care of that; his office is full of drawings showing what the new technology can do.

The Manhattan set is not the end of the story. There’s ancient Rome, the Middle Eastern set – which could double as Baghdad or Damascus – and plans are afoot for a London and Paris set. One day perhaps the Kings Road will be transplanted to Sofia, which will be great for those like me who miss Chelsea. Parts of Nu Boyana’s exterior have even doubled for Venice.

Nu Boyana is already Europe’s biggest studio but you sense it’s on the cusp of greatness, that Bulgaria could break through and compete with the world’s finest. Later this spring Willis and Jamie Foxx come to Sofia to film Kane & Lynch. Sylvester Stallone is also lined up to star in, and direct, Rambo V in the autumn. Bulgaria certainly won’t hit the international headlines through the Governments’s attempts to cut the deficit. Bring a a couple of superstars over, however, and suddenly "backward Bulgaria" is centre-stage.

Nu Boyana is convinced that films put a country on the map. "Look what Lord of the Rings did for New Zealand. It was always a beautiful country but nobody knew it. Look at Greece; tourism really started after Zorba the Greek came out," he says. "When I first started bringing actors to Bulgaria, it was a real mission. ‘Sofia, where’s that, is it safe?’ they would ask.

But Hollywood is a small place. Now people like Morgan Freeman (who starred in The Code) will tell others what he told me – ‘it’s paradise, full of wonderful people and great hospitality’. The little Bulgarian bulb on the globe is pulsing and it’s becoming attractive not only to tourism but also to business people," says Varod.

He has certainly proved sceptics wrong. "Avi Lerner (chairman of Nu Image and Millennium) recently said to me – ‘when you said you wanted to make the biggest studio in Europe, I had doubts. Today, I have no doubts.’" Varod’s achievement is even more remarkable, when you consider the logistics. "When I came here it was a black hole. I took out 6000 trucks of rubbish. I wasn’t sure if I’d bought the municipality’s garbage dump!" he says with a laugh.

Stars
Varod has invested 35 million euro in the studio since he took over, producing bigger and better stages, more modern equipment and a CGI department that employs 250 people. Nu Boyana now has a permanent staff of 500, rising to 1000 during a production. The stars speak for themselves. Many action flicks starring the likes of Dolph Lundgren and Jean Claude Van Damme have been filmed in Sofia. Lundgren, in particular, the giant-sized Swedish tough-guy, has been a frequent visitor, filming, among others, The Mechanic, Direct Contact and Command Performance.

Yet A-listers, too, are now flocking to Sofia. Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank brought glamour to Brian de Palma’s The Black Dahlia, Ben Kingsley, Antonio Banderas and Freeman a touch of class to The Code and, just recently, Stephen Lang, his acute intelligence to current production Conan*. As Varod makes clear, however, the cachet of a Hollywood star making a foray into Bulgaria is not enough. "I want to see the same customers again and again," he says.

Varod’s office is full of photos of some famous visitors. He’s a positive person, so he gushes about stars he likes. A couple of names, however, whom we shall omit to mention, elicit only a polite "no comment".

His favourite star so far is Freeman, "a wonderful man with a great sense of humour". Varod also likes Stallone, who has already visited Sofia. Stallone has just completed The Expendables for Nu Image. "There are two Sly Stallones," says Varod. "In person, he’s very funny and very charismatic; he’ll crack you up all the time and he loves to talk. On the set he’s very different – serious, disciplined and professional. He’s also a great director," says Varod, which should augur well for the next instalment of the Rambo saga.

‘Shylock’
Varod (62) is the son of Jewish British parents from Liverpool and London who emigrated to Israel. Born on a kibbutz, his parents, both 86, still live in Israel. He worked for a while there as a production manager and set dresser, on "kick arse" movies such as The Delta Force. In the 1970 and 1980s Israel was trying to establish a fledgeling movie industry, but costs proved too high. "The business has no loyalty to a country – it’s simply a question of money," says Varod.

It was 11 years ago, after a period working as a designer for Nu Image in South Africa, that Varod first turned to Bulgaria. Since then he has done 170 films in Bulgaria.
Varod’s winning bid for Nu Boyana was controversial. Varod says that the Bulgaria Privatisation Agency reneged on the deal,  leading to much mudslinging.

"It’s no secret that there was a big fight around the studio when I bought it. I was accused of all kinds of crazy stuff –they dragged me into politics and I’m not a politician; I’m an artist and I came to make movies here. In the end I made a co-production with the people who attacked me. The whole industry was shocked. They said, ‘David, that is your enemy’ because here I was making a film with guys from the former board of Boyana who’d been attacking me for three years. I’d been turned into the Shylock of Bulgaria. You don’t know what they called me."

Clearly Varod had no wish to wrestle with chimney sweeps. "They were fighting to keep something and I was fighting to buy something but that doesn’t turn them into enemies. I don’t like the way they did it. I believe in being a bit of a gentleman. You can have a fight but let’s keep it at a decent level," he says.

Support
When Varod took over as chairman of the board, he was viewed as something of a pariah. "The media said it was a bad day for Bulgaria’s film industry. ‘Bulgaria has lost the only studio it had,’ they said. I replied that, on the contrary, Bulgaria had gained a studio. Today, they understand what I mean. I’m supporting the industry. They all know that my door is wide open in Boyana, whether it’s for a student who wants to make a movie, or a producer. I’m a big supporter of the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (Natfiz), the Bulgarian film academy – when this was a government-owned institute students used to have to finance projects they wanted to do. With me it’s free."

Varod admits his support is not entirely altruistic. "I see it not only as something you have to do. At the back of my head I know that by investing in these kids I’m investing in myself. They are the next generation of students coming to work here."

So has Bulgaria finally come to terms with Varod?

"They have learned that everything that comes out of my mouth is real. During the fight to buy the place, the university professors at the academy always believed in me. I also explained my plans to the students. They said ‘a lot of people who came before made promises but didn’t keep them’. I told them my father never taught me to lie."
Depsite his big game plans, Varod admits he still needs help from the powers-that-be. "The government must understand that if they want these kinds of movies to come to Bulgaria they have to provide incentives."

Maybe Bulgaria doesn’t yet realise what a big asset Nu Boyana is. If support is forthcoming – and provided Borissov delivers before other Eastern European countries catch up – perhaps, in the near future, Sofia could have visits from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Clint Eastwood. First of all, though, Borissov must make Boyana’s day. And it’s in the interests of everyone in Bulgaria – not just Nu Boyana – that he does so.  

*Conan, starring Jason Momoa, has been shooting at Nu Boyana since March 2010. Filming is also taking place outside Varna.