Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz will soon be on their way to Seville to film their upcoming romantic comedy 'Knight & Day'.
 
According to Maribel Montaño, Seville's council spokesperson for culture, the Hollywood stars' stay in the city means about seven million euros for the city, with over 10,000 hotel nights booked, making it the best November in many years for Seville's hoteliers.

The producers of the film (originally entitled 'Wichita') expect the film to be seen by about 300 million people all over the world, a massive advertising boost for the city as well.

In addition, about 3,000 extras will take part in the filming, more than originally thought, as well as the 300 technicians and 250 auxiliary staff involved in the production.

Restaurants and shops which will have to remain closed during filming will receive compensation from the film producers to the tune of 7.5 euros per square metre per day that they cannot open.  This translates into some 2,250 euros per day for a 300m2 shop.

Passers-by in the Plaza Nueva and Plaza de San Francisco parts of the city have been able to see that Seville will be the location for a car chase scene, involving cars, motorbikes and a lot of gun shots.
 
There will be between 16 and 20 days' filming in Seville, which will be done in two phases.  Next week, filming moves to Cadiz, where the cast and crew will stay for a week.
 
The production manager in Seville, José Luis Escolar, said that the complex action scenes they are filming in Seville will "show Hollywood that this type of cinema can be achieved in Europe", and he added that Seville was chosen because of certain script requirements, for the city's beauty and for its weather.

Escolar was full of praise for "the city's surprisingly high level of organization and coordination, which has made it possible to film extremely complex scenes involving hundreds of people".

For more information about traffic diversion or roads that have been blocked off, Seville City Council has provided the following telephone number 954.500.900.

Although the film crew began filming some of the action scenes yesterday, the production department was unable to confirm when Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz would arrive in the city as inclement weather is hampering filming in Boston and delaying their arrival.