Thai tourism authorities, hoteliers and travel agents are gearing up for a surge in visitors off the back of the latest season of The White Lotus.
The HBO series helped put the spotlight on Hawaii and Sicily, cementing those destinations as bastions of luxury travel.
Dave Bernad, executive producer of the series, says he feels fortunate that so many people have responded positively to the series.
"When we went out to scout, we were thinking Japan originally, we were pretty certain it was going to be Japan - and then HBO said to check out one other country as a courtesy. And Thailand was the country that just made sense."
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Then twenty five minutes later from six on news Talk ZMB,
I'll explain this music in just a second.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Lots of feedback on the pregnancy on the plane thing.
A woman gave birth. I hope she's okay. It did.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
The article did say that she was okay and was
being transferred to hospital with baby, but gave birth on
the plane.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I was just asking, are you mean to fly with
the baby on the plane?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
And a lot of mums have got in touch to
say basically, it depends on how pregnant you are, so
it would be entirely up to up to that and
up to your doctor as well. Right time has just
gone twenty five minutes away from six. Now that music
we were playing is the White Lotus, and we're going
to talk about the White Lotus effect. Apparently it's influencing
the way that people are traveling all around the world.
(00:49):
This is the HBO show. It's a dark comedy dominating
our screens. One of the biggest TV shows in the
world period, and people are flocking to Thailand.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Where the show has been filmed.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Finney has added extra weekly fights to poo Quitt and hotels.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Dot Com has reported of forty percent Spike in bookings.
Dave Bernard is the show's executive producer.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And he's with us. Hi, Dave, thank you so much
for being on our program here in New Zealand. And
how do you feel season three is going?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah, I mean feel very you know, I think we
I think I speak for everyone, very fortunate, feel very
fortunate and lucky that you know, the fans have responded
to the season and seem to be finding this season.
And for me, the thing I'm most excited about is,
you know, people have no idea what's to come.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
It gets so much.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Crazier, so much bigger, and so much more demonic in
a really exciting way. And so I'm really really excited
for people to, you know, hopefully stick with the show
and the season and see what's to come.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So much of the chat around the show is always
where it's filmed, and you've gone with obviously with Thailand
beautiful place, and and why why Thailand?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
What? What did?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
What?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Gets that across the line.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, so you know, we we we knew this season
we wanted to tackle kind of Eastern philosophy, you know,
take religion being the kind of container of the season
and East versus West. And so when we went out
to scout, we were thinking Japan. Originally we were we
were pretty certain it was gonna be Japan, and HBO
(02:31):
kind of just said, you know what, check out one
other country as a courtesy, and Thailand was the one
country that kind of made sense weatherwise, made sense with
the rebate, made sense with crew, all that stuff. And
so we went to Thailand just had as a courtesy
to HBO. And I mean, the real story of what
happened is just the more time we spent in Thailand,
the more we fell in love with the country. And
(02:53):
Mike White ended up getting bronchitis while we were in Thailand.
We were in the north and Chang Mai, and he
ended up in the hospital. And you know, the nurses
there that the people of Thailand are such a it's
such a such a gentle, caring, warm culture to you know,
your your neighbor and also to strangers. And they took
such good care of him, and they gave him a
(03:15):
thing called a nebulizer, which is a really strong steroid
to deal with bronchitis. And he ended up being awake
for two days and he ended and he hallucinated the
season and when I saw him when he got out
of the hospital. He said to me, he goes, I
haven't something in two days, and I have these incredible hallucinations.
And he told me what he dreamt and that is
basically what we shot. And I think by the time
(03:38):
we left Thailand to go to Japan, we just knew
we were going to be filming in Thailand. So it
was a very organic, natural process.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I'm sure Thailand's tourism industry thanks his Broncntiest. Then how
do you you mentioned the rebake?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
What is the rebate?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Because I guess everyone in New Zealand we'll be asking
why didn't you come here where you know we we
love tom here, We've got a film rebate of twenty
percent here.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well did you consider it?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Well, now, well, you know, we you know, like Buddhism
and like I said, easter andful if if New Zealand
was a Buddhist country, we.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
May have considered it.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
But I think that was that was that was more
of a driver than than the rebate. But you know,
I love, we love New Zealand. We I've worked with
Jamaine Clement twice and A take it very well. The
brilliant brilliant guys and so, uh, you know, one day
we'd be lucky to be shooting in New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Just more generally. Obviously you're an executive producer, you're you know,
Hollywood big wig big wig type. What do what do
you need to see on paper before you would consider
coming to a place like New Zealand? You know, like,
what are the most important things? Obviously you've said in
this case it was the you know, the religion, the
influence of the country and its culture. But when it
(04:52):
comes down to business in New Zealand, we're having quite
a big debate about how we attract more films and
more productions here.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, what are the things you look for?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I mean, I think you know, if it's white little specific,
the the subject matter of the of the season is
always going to kind of drive us in terms of
what countries we're looking at. And you know, season two
we knew we wanted to kind of do a bedroom
farce and do something that kind of got into the
politics of sex in so we know we looked at
(05:24):
really Italy and France and those were two countries that
kind of it made sense for us story wise. I
think just kind of on a broader sense if you're looking,
you know, and I've shot all over the world. Really,
I mean, those tax rebates are a big driver for
productions because you know, there's an inherent cost to fly
people to countries and to put them up pay them
(05:46):
per diem. So the tax credit has to make sense
to then pay the cost of traveling everyone outside of
LA or New York or wherever they're based. So I
think for I speak for most producers. I think when
I say it's that, it's that hard number, that that
tax rebate number that's really going to drive production. Like,
for an example, you know, Italy had a forty percent rebate.
(06:09):
I did a movie with Sidney Sweeney called Immaculate. You know,
we ended up shooting it in Italy. That forty percent
rebate was a big you know, probably was a big
deciding factor of why we went to Italy to shoot it.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Wow, So it really doesn't matter. Do we need to
up our game in from twenty percent?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Possibly?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Possibly? But in obviously New Zealand is so you know,
just like I haven't been there, but I've seen plenty
of images. It's such a beautiful country and beautiful landscapes,
and and I know and again I know the crew
there is great and so for me it's like I think,
if if that rebate was upped in suddenly, you know,
Western or whatever European producers kind of saw that number
(06:50):
on a on a sheet of paper, I bet you
we would attract more attention interesting stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Dve, thank you sent out for that. And maybe that
is season four of the White Lighters here in New
in and Dave Bernard, who's executive producer of The White
Load is probably the biggest TV show in the world
right now. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Then twenty five minutes later from six on news Talk ZMB,
I'll explain this music in just a second.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Lots of feedback on the pregnancy on the plane thing.
A woman gave birth. I hope she's okay. It did.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
The article did say that she was okay and was
being transferred to hospital with baby, but gave birth on
the plane.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I was just asking, are you mean to fly with
the baby on the plane?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
And a lot of mums have got in touch to
say basically, it depends on how pregnant you are, so
it would be entirely up to up to that and
up to your doctor as well. Right time has just
gone twenty five minutes away from six. Now that music
we were playing is the White Lotus, and we're going
to talk about the White Lotus effect. Apparently it's influencing
the way that people are traveling all around the world.
(00:49):
This is the HBO show. It's a dark comedy dominating
our screens. One of the biggest TV shows in the
world period, and people are flocking to Thailand.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Where the show has been filmed.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Finney has added extra weekly fights to poo Quitt and hotels.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Dot Com has reported of forty percent Spike in bookings.
Dave Bernard is the show's executive producer.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And he's with us. Hi, Dave, thank you so much
for being on our program here in New Zealand. And
how do you feel season three is going?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah, I mean feel very you know, I think we
I think I speak for everyone, very fortunate, feel very
fortunate and lucky that you know, the fans have responded
to the season and seem to be finding this season.
And for me, the thing I'm most excited about is,
you know, people have no idea what's to come.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
It gets so much.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Crazier, so much bigger, and so much more demonic in
a really exciting way. And so I'm really really excited
for people to, you know, hopefully stick with the show
and the season and see what's to come.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So much of the chat around the show is always
where it's filmed, and you've gone with obviously with Thailand
beautiful place, and and why why Thailand?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
What? What did?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
What?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Gets that across the line.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, so you know, we we we knew this season
we wanted to tackle kind of Eastern philosophy, you know,
take religion being the kind of container of the season
and East versus West. And so when we went out
to scout, we were thinking Japan. Originally we were we
were pretty certain it was gonna be Japan, and HBO
(02:31):
kind of just said, you know what, check out one
other country as a courtesy, and Thailand was the one
country that kind of made sense weatherwise, made sense with
the rebate, made sense with crew, all that stuff. And
so we went to Thailand just had as a courtesy
to HBO. And I mean, the real story of what
happened is just the more time we spent in Thailand,
the more we fell in love with the country. And
(02:53):
Mike White ended up getting bronchitis while we were in Thailand.
We were in the north and Chang Mai, and he
ended up in the hospital. And you know, the nurses
there that the people of Thailand are such a it's
such a such a gentle, caring, warm culture to you know,
your your neighbor and also to strangers. And they took
such good care of him, and they gave him a
(03:15):
thing called a nebulizer, which is a really strong steroid
to deal with bronchitis. And he ended up being awake
for two days and he ended and he hallucinated the
season and when I saw him when he got out
of the hospital. He said to me, he goes, I
haven't something in two days, and I have these incredible hallucinations.
And he told me what he dreamt and that is
basically what we shot. And I think by the time
(03:38):
we left Thailand to go to Japan, we just knew
we were going to be filming in Thailand. So it
was a very organic, natural process.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I'm sure Thailand's tourism industry thanks his Broncntiest. Then how
do you you mentioned the rebake?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
What is the rebate?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Because I guess everyone in New Zealand we'll be asking
why didn't you come here where you know we we
love tom here, We've got a film rebate of twenty
percent here.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well did you consider it?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Well, now, well, you know, we you know, like Buddhism
and like I said, easter andful if if New Zealand
was a Buddhist country, we.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
May have considered it.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
But I think that was that was that was more
of a driver than than the rebate. But you know,
I love, we love New Zealand. We I've worked with
Jamaine Clement twice and A take it very well. The
brilliant brilliant guys and so, uh, you know, one day
we'd be lucky to be shooting in New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Just more generally. Obviously you're an executive producer, you're you know,
Hollywood big wig big wig type. What do what do
you need to see on paper before you would consider
coming to a place like New Zealand? You know, like,
what are the most important things? Obviously you've said in
this case it was the you know, the religion, the
influence of the country and its culture. But when it
(04:52):
comes down to business in New Zealand, we're having quite
a big debate about how we attract more films and
more productions here.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, what are the things you look for?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I mean, I think you know, if it's white little specific,
the the subject matter of the of the season is
always going to kind of drive us in terms of
what countries we're looking at. And you know, season two
we knew we wanted to kind of do a bedroom
farce and do something that kind of got into the
politics of sex in so we know we looked at
(05:24):
really Italy and France and those were two countries that
kind of it made sense for us story wise. I
think just kind of on a broader sense if you're looking,
you know, and I've shot all over the world. Really,
I mean, those tax rebates are a big driver for
productions because you know, there's an inherent cost to fly
people to countries and to put them up pay them
(05:46):
per diem. So the tax credit has to make sense
to then pay the cost of traveling everyone outside of
LA or New York or wherever they're based. So I
think for I speak for most producers. I think when
I say it's that, it's that hard number, that that
tax rebate number that's really going to drive production. Like,
for an example, you know, Italy had a forty percent rebate.
(06:09):
I did a movie with Sidney Sweeney called Immaculate. You know,
we ended up shooting it in Italy. That forty percent
rebate was a big you know, probably was a big
deciding factor of why we went to Italy to shoot it.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Wow, So it really doesn't matter. Do we need to
up our game in from twenty percent?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Possibly?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Possibly? But in obviously New Zealand is so you know,
just like I haven't been there, but I've seen plenty
of images. It's such a beautiful country and beautiful landscapes,
and and I know and again I know the crew
there is great and so for me it's like I think,
if if that rebate was upped in suddenly, you know,
Western or whatever European producers kind of saw that number
(06:50):
on a on a sheet of paper, I bet you
we would attract more attention interesting stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Dve, thank you sent out for that. And maybe that
is season four of the White Lighters here in New
in and Dave Bernard, who's executive producer of The White
Load is probably the biggest TV show in the world
right now. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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