COLOMBO (AFP) Once a location of choice for directors shooting World War II classics and big 1980s adventure films, Sri Lanka is hoping to make a comeback on the movie trail as it emerges from civil war. Since the islands bloody conflict ended in May 2009, the government has been trying to promote a new image focusing on its elegant colonial buildings, tropical jungles and golden beaches. Post-war ethnic reconciliation is still far from certain after the Tamil Tiger militants were brutally crushed, but there are signs that international studios are again looking to Sri Lanka as a film location. Midnights Children, the screen adaptation by director Deepa Mehta of Salman Rushdies 1981 Booker prize-winning novel, was completed in Sri Lanka earlier this year. Sri Lankas next major foreign film is tipped to be Toomai of the Elephants, an adaptation of a story from Rudyard Kiplings Jungle Book, starring former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan and veteran Omar Sharif. Filming is set to begin in January, and many local film professionals see it as a major chance to advertise Sri Lanka as a flexible and attractive film location. The post-war era has opened doors for more movies to be shot in Sri Lanka, Chandran Rutnam, a Sri Lankan film maker who wrote the Toomai of the Elephants script, told AFP. Safety and difficulty to get insurance to cover film productions in Sri Lanka were the biggest drawbacks during the war. People are now willing to invest in films here because we are cheaper than other Asian locations. Rutnam knows better than anyone the islands potential as he has worked on more than 50 international projects over the decades. He was a 16-year-old film hand on the multiple Oscar-winning The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), directed by David Lean and starring Alec Guinness, which was filmed in a valley near the western town of Kitulgala. Rutnam was also production manager alongside director Steven Spielberg on the 1984 blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It was shot in and around the royal city of Kandy. We are encouraging foreign artists and film crews to shoot in our country to experience its beauty, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene, deputy minister of economic development, told AFP.