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Game of Thrones makers decide on Swedish shoot

Lee Roden
Lee Roden - [email protected]
Game of Thrones makers decide on Swedish shoot
To Swede or not to Swede? Game of Thrones star Kristofer Hivju. Photo: Terje Pedersen/NTB Scanpix

There's some big news for Swedish Game of Thrones fans today after the American producers of the show reached a decision over whether they will film on Sweden's Baltic island Gotland.

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Last week it emerged that the fantasy show’s producers HBO had asked for a series of images of the island from Swedish company The Line Gotland, who assist film and TV productions in the country.

At the time, The Line founder Olivia Munck said there was a “50/50 chance” the show would come to Sweden, but she also emphasized that a lack of tax breaks for filming there could play a role in the outcome.

Unfortunately, that appears to have been decisive, as the makers of Game of Thrones have now opted not to film in Sweden.

“Unfortunately that’s the case,” Munck told The Local on Wednesday. “It’s down to us not having any kind of tax reductions for filming in Sweden.”

The Swede added that there is “absolutely” a chance that Game of Thrones could consider shooting in the country in the future, but for the moment at least, it isn’t meant to be.

To add insult to injury, it looks like the HBO show will instead opt to set up shop across the border in Norway.

Speaking to newspaper Hela Gotland (which broke the news that Game of Thrones was looking into filming in Sweden), a spokesperson for regional film production organization Filmregion Stockholm-Mälardalen explained why Norway had the upper hand when trying to lure international producers.

“Given that Norway has a film production tax break it has a competitive advantage,” Filmregion Stockholm-Mälardalen film commissioner Mia Uddgren noted.

For the moment, any Swedes hoping to get a glimpse of Jon Snow and the wildlings may need to pack their bags for Norway then. One of them is even a local in real life.

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