Filming will take place in rural Hungary.

The 230-member crew has 150 Hungarians including several in key positions in the make up, art, camera and electrical departments. Hungarian production services are provided by Mid Atlantic Films, founded by Adam Goodman and Howard Ellis. The company's credits include Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Eragon and TV-series John Adams and Dinotopia.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia has been in consideration as possible location, and Witches may still end up in Slovakia to complete a small number of sequences. Photography on sound stages is not planned at this point.

The fantasy movie is co-produced by Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media (www.relativitymediallc.com), Charles Roven's and Alex Gartner's Atlas Entertainment, the talent management firm Mosaic Media Group (www.mosaicmediagroup.com) and Propaganda Films. Kavanaugh is executive producing; Gartner and Roven share producing credit. The project marks the second collaboration between Relativity and Atlas.

The Austrian shoot was subsidized by state business promotion agency, Salzburg Agentur (www.salzburgagentur.at).

Set in the 16th Century in plague-stricken Europe, the film is directed by Dominic Sena. The movie stars Ron Perlman as the priest and tells the story of knight who must bring a girl accused of witchcraft to the priests for an exorcism.

The film is scheduled for a 2010 release.