Published: May 26, 2015| 10:15 AM

The trailer for the 50th Karlovy Vary IFF has been shot! It stars none other than last year’s recipient of the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema, actor and director Mel Gibson. The new trailer is going to be unveiled at the opening ceremony on July 3.

“We’re glad it was even possible to make the trailer with Mel Gibson happen in one year - it’s a minor miracle, considering how busy people like him tend to be,” says Karlovy Vary IFF President Jiří Bartoška, adding “Mel Gibson made no secret of being delighted by the atmosphere at the Karlovy Vary festival.”

The trailer was shot in Los Angeles at the beginning of May by director Martin Krejčí, who has also made the trailers with Jiří Menzel and Helen Mirren, among others.

Mel Gibson showed his professionalism during the actual shooting of the mini-story, in which both the crystal globe and its recipient play the lead roles. “He had been shooting until two in the morning the day before, so he was quite tired, but as soon as the camera started rolling it was like someone had pushed the “Mel Gibson” button on him. We shot the whole thing in four takes at most,” says the director.

The cameras used for the shoot have a long history, having been last used on Martin Scorsese’s famous film Casino. “Mel Gibson was most amazed that we were shooting everything on actual film – he looked the cameras over with surprise and disbelief… ‘I thought it was just decoration’, he said to us… I got the feeling that when he found out we were shooting on real film then he started to take the whole thing a bit more seriously,” recalls Martin Krejčí.