Written by new-contact on Feb 24, 2015. Posted in Production News

BBC starts filming War And Peace on location in northern Europe and Russia

The BBC has started filming its new TV adaptation of Tolstoy’s War And Peace in Lithuania, Latvia and Russia. Paul Dano and Lily James are leading the cast in the tale that follows several aristocratic Russian families against the backdrop of the French invasion of Russia in the early 1800s.

BBC Cymru Wales Drama is partnering on the six-hour miniseries with The Weinstein Company and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point.

“War And Peace will be a major event drama on BBC One and it is only fitting that Tolstoy’s epic masterpiece has attracted such a fine cast of actors to Andrew Davies’ stunning scripts,” said Charlotte Moore, Controller of BBC One, when the cast was announced in December.

The BBC previously filmed The Eichmann Show (above) in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, recreating a Jerusalem courtroom to tell the story of the 1961 trial of former prominent Nazi Adolf Eichmann. Baltic Film Services worked on The Eichmann Show and is also involved with War And Peace.

Lithuania has become a viable production location in northern Europe partly because of its 20% filming incentive, which is administered by the Lithuania Film Centre.

The BBC still films on mainland Europe but more productions are now being shot in the UK as a TV tax credit launched in 2013 has made costs much more viable. High-profile period dramas like New Worlds, Wolf Hall and the upcoming Poldark have been filmed across southern and western England, and The Bottle Yard Studios has become a prolific production base in Bristol.

(Image: Steffan Hill/BBC)