Screen Australia has announced its support for Australian/Chinese co-production The Nest 3D, a visual effects-driven story of an ancient Chinese mummified emperor brought back to life. Production will take place mainly in Queensland, which recently hosted Unbroken.
Robbers Dog built special period sets in an Auckland studio for a campaign for New Zealand beer brand Steinlager. Originals honours New Zealand’s 1905 Rugby World Cup team by recreating scenes showing the players warming up for an historic match against England.
Location filming has wrapped in Alabama for USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, which recounts the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in the dying days of the Second World War. Alabama offers a 25% filming incentive for productions spending at least half a million dollars.
American cable channel AMC has commissioned docudrama series The Making of the Mob: Chicago as a follow-up to The Making of the Mob: New York. The channel is also backing The West, a separate docudrama tracing the history of America’s Old West from 1865 to 1890.
The California Film Commission has discussed the advantages of allocating its filming incentive tax credits according to how many jobs a production will create. California boosted its filming incentive earlier this year and is now considering 254 feature applications.
Slavery drama Underground is among the latest TV series to film in Louisiana. The ten-part miniseries is one of several US productions tackling the issue of slavery in America before the Civil War of the 1860s. A remake of classic drama Roots will also be shot in Louisiana.
Matthew McConaughey will film scenes for prospecting feature Gold in New Mexico for a few weeks from mid-August. The movie is reportedly inspired by the true story of a notorious mid-1990s mining scandal that involved the apparent discovery of gold in the Indonesian jungle.
Netflix drama Bloodline has secured two Emmy nominations ahead of scheduled second season filming in the Florida Keys. The series tells a dark story of family secrets and has qualified for state support through Florida’s now defunct filming incentive.