Debt-Ridden Greece Turns to Sacred Sites for Help Angelos Tzortzinis/Bloomberg News Tourists at the Acropolis. The Greek government will make monuments and archaeological sites available for about $1,300 a day for a photo session and about $2,000 a day for filming. ATHENS - This is what it has come to in Greece: the Acropolis, the quintessential symbol of Greek culture and identity, could soon become a popular destination for fashion photographers and Hollywood producers, as cultural officials look for ways to raise money to make up for cuts in public financing. With the coffers for maintaining cultural sites quickly running dry, the authorities say they had little choice but to make the Acropolis - along with dozens of other revered sites like Delphi and Ancient Olympia - more attractive to foreign film crews, advertising firms and publishing houses by slashing the cost of permits. While most of the sites were available already, the costs were prohibitively high. But now, monuments and archaeological sites will be available for $1,300 a day for a photography session and about $2,000 a day for filming, the Culture and Tourism Ministry announced last week. The prices are about a third of those on a list drawn up in 2005, a year after the Olympic Games put Greece in the global spotlight. The decision has not been universally applauded. Apparently, visions of Will Smith fighting aliens on the Acropolis did not sit well with some people. "The Acropolis is not a film set, it's the soul of Greece; this is sacrilege," said Chloe Kakaouni, a 35-year-old tour guide, as she prepared to lead a small group of Japanese tourists through the monumental gateway of the Parthenon, the 2,500-year-old marble temple that graces the Acropolis hill. "It's one thing charging entrance to visitors, and it's another allowing every aspiring director with a bit of cash to trample all over our heritage," she added, echoing a common sentiment expressed on blogs. Officials say they will be quite selective in approving projects, and note that opening up ancient sites for commercial use is a routine practice in other European countries and a far cry from selling them off - as some news reports had suggested that Greece would do last year when the debt crisis took hold. Not everyone is dead set against the idea. "As long as it's a quality film and not an action movie with bad guys shooting and hiding behind the columns I think it would be O.K.," said Yiannis Manolakos, a 22-year-old student of economics drinking coffee in a snack bar on the pedestrian walkway under the Acropolis, also known as "the sacred rock." "I don't think it's demeaning," he said. What is demeaning is going cap in hand to our foreign creditors or when a handful of demonstrators deface the Acropolis with a huge banner. Greek authorities say that all projects will need the approval of the country's archaeological council, which has been very strict in the past. Only a select few, including Francis Ford Coppola and Tom Hanks, have been permitted to use the Acropolis to date. Other sites, like the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus, have long accommodated foreign theatrical productions, including Shakespeare's "Richard III," directed by Sam Mendes, last summer. George Andrew Zannos, an adviser to the Culture and Tourism Ministry, said there had been no change in policy, just a more friendly approach - lower prices and less red tape. "We want to bring foreign productions to Greece, and we want to simplify procedures so that bureaucracy is not a barrier," Mr. Zannos said. Just because the ancient sites are in need of cash, Mr. Zannos said, that does not mean they will be opened up to anyone who can pay the bill - the Acropolis will not be used as a backdrop for a soft-drink commercial, for example. "It will still be given out on rare occasions," he said, noting that the venture must pose no risk of damaging the monument. Apart from attracting revenue, the initiative is seen by the authorities as a way of creating jobs - on movie sets and photography sessions - and promoting Greece abroad to bolster tourism, which accounts for a fifth of domestic product. The 2008 movie "Mamma Mia!" was filmed on and around the archaeological sites of Skopelos, and it put the virtually unknown Greek island on the map for thousands of tourists. A year later, the Greek-Canadian director Nia Vardalos was granted access to the Acropolis to film "My Life in Ruins," the story of an American historian working as a tour guide in Greece. Both movies were co-produced by Mr. Hanks, whose wife is part Greek, and both cast the country in a positive light, as friendly, hospitable and even life-changing. Argyris Papadimitropoulos, a 35-year-old Greek filmmaker, said he had no objections in principle to the landmark's being used, "as long as it's not whimsical rubbish showing stereotypes with women on donkeys and it's not a postcard image." Asked what he would shoot on the Acropolis, he said it had never crossed his mind. My work is more down to earth; it's about society and people. Some say the decision was inevitable, given the government's inability to do anything else to improve its financial position. "We're not privatizing, we're not cutting down on tax evasion, we've got to do something to make money," said Alekos Mainas, 55, who runs a small cafe near the Temple of Zeus, another central Athens landmark. It's not selling out; it's surviving.