Heaven on Earth

IF you love watching the hit programme Survivor you are in for something big right here in Fiji.

Endemol Productions will tell eight million viewers in America, not to mention countries around the world, what Fiji is made of.

Location producer Conrad Ricketts said he had been looking for locations all over the world but had found Fiji to be a paradise.

"We have sighted the Bahamas, Costa Rica and Hawaii and we decided Fiji should be the ideal place, it is a paradise," he said.

Mr Ricketts said the show will shoot seven one-hour epsiodes on Koro Island where they have bought a piece of land. He added " We will have close to 80 crew members here for the live shoot in September and it will also involve the villagers".

The company bought the for a half a million dollars and it is very beneficial for the villagers during and it is very beneficial for the villagers during these hard times.

"We had learnt that Fiji is about extended families, respect and the care-free settting of their lifestyle is just unique.

"We decided to bring across four Americans families to live on the island and they will be taught the tradition and culture of the villagers.

"They will have to interact with the villagers and the competition will be tackled by the whole family rather than as a individual," he said.

Mr Ricketts said he had been in and out of the country since last May to locate a place and have all the ground work ready for the shooting.

He said the thatched bure will accommodate the four families and have the same design as the Parliament House.

He added "it will be pre-built in Suva by Vitia Architects and then taken to Koro Island and will be fully furnished before the shooting in September".

Mr Ricketts explained that the response has been very good and they have interested families living outside America wanting to enter the competition.

The competition to choose the four families has been aired in all 18 states in America.

"The family that will win the competition will be given the land, house and enough money to enjoy themselves in the country," he said.

He thanked the Government and the fiji Visitors Bureau which allowed them to shoot the movies in the country.

He added the company is spending close to $6 million for the movie and hoped it would boost the economic position of the country.

"We will show Fiji like it has never been seen before to the world and the lifestyle that keeps the families and villagers together," he said.

However, Endemol aims to be a leading global developer and producer of creative and market driven entertainment, focusing on television content.

It was established in 1994 as a result of a merger between the two major producers in the Netherlands; Joop de Mol Produkties.

Since the merger, the company has had an aggressive international expansion through acquisitions of TV production companies outside the Netherlands.

The company has offices in the Netherlands and subsidiaries and joint ventures in 17 countries including the European markets, United States, Argentina, South Africa and Australia.

It is also part of the Telefonica group, one of the largest telecom and internet services in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world.

Last year, the company's turnover exceeded one billion guilders (F$1.2 billion) for the very first time.

The Endemol library contains 400 programme formats and the company employs an average of about 2000 full time employees and since last year it has become an indepedent member of Telefonica.

Endemol Entertainment aims to expand its position as a producer and distributor of content for television.

The company has just started on entertainment and leisure projects through joint ventures and partnerships.

Recently, it acquired 100 per cent of the London based television producer Brighter Pictures Ltd.

In the last year, the medium-sized company has more than doubled its turover while rapidly growing its reputation internationally for cutting edge format based entertainment programmes.