Heart-pounding Opening Scene in Netflix “Heart of Stone” filmed in the Italian Alps

While Netlfix new film, “Heart of Stone” is shot throughout Europe, it opens with a dizzying sequence that begins in a glamorous casino and ends with Gal Gadot’s special agent parachuting off a 3,000-foot cliff after a high-speed ski chase that was filmed at the Glacier Hotel Grawand in Senales, Italy.

Perched at an altitude of 10,538 feet,the Glacier Hotel Grawand is the highest elevation hotel in all of Europe — the only one in the Alps that looks down at the mountains rather than up. Extreme sports stunt coordinator J.T. Holmes helped construct the speed riding sequence there.

“We had huge challenges,” Film Director, Tom Harper said. “It was freezing cold. We were working at high altitude. But we were fortunate enough to be able to work with some of the best speed flyers in the world — that’s when you ski down a mountain with a parachute, and it was lit up with an LED. I don’t think we’ve seen that in film before.”

Other films shot in the Italian Alps include “Kinsgman:The Golden Circle;” “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service;” “The Agony and the Ecstasy” and “Night Ambush.”

“Heart of Stone” is a Netflix release of a Skydance, Mockingbird Pictures, Pilot Waves Motion Pictures production. Producers: David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Jaron Varsano, Gal Gadot, Bonnie Curtis, Julie Lynn. Executive producers: Patricia Whitcher, Tom Harper, Greg Rucka.