New TV drama Stanistan will film on location in New Mexico and will use the south-western US state as a stand-in for the fictional Middle Eastern country. Mark Wahlberg previously doubled the mountains of New Mexico for Afghanistan in the true-life war drama Lone Survivor.
Atomic Fiction has become the latest visual effects company to open an office in Montreal, Quebec. The company’s recent projects include the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Need for Speed.
Welsh crime drama Hinterland is filming its second series on location in the Aberystwyth region of western Wales. The show’s dark tone is inspired by popular Scandinavian dramas like The Killing and it is filmed in both English and Welsh.
Michigan’s Studio Center filming facility in Detroit is to be refurbished and rebranded to boost its profile from 2015. In recent years the facility has hosted scenes for George Clooney’s political drama The Ides of March, while Michigan is currently host to the new Batman movie.
Matthew McConaughey and filmmaker Gus Van Sant based their new movie The Sea of Trees in Worcester, Massachusetts, doubling the area for Japan. The state has recently hosted Robert Downey Jr’s drama The Judge and Denzel Washington’s vigilante movie The Equaliser.
A reboot of the Vacation comedy movies of the 80s is set to film on location at Atlanta Film Studios (AFS) Paulding County, in Georgia. Atlanta is among the most popular production cities in the US, partly because of its base 20% filming incentive.
California has signed into law a boosted filming incentive that will take effect from 2015. Formalising a deal agreed in August, the move increases the state’s annual film fund to USD 330 million for the next five years.
A Chinese reality TV show filming on location in New Zealand could deliver a big tourism boost for the country. Dad, where are we going? features five celebrity Chinese fathers taking their young children on a series of challenges and the finale will involve North Island locations.