Dubai Film and TV Commission has launched a new online location permitting system. Producers can now submit, track and pay for their filming permits through the commission’s website, while scripts can be submitted for approval in the same way.
New Mexico is now hosting filming for Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul, plus a collection of new feature productions. Breaking Bad helped put Albuquerque on the production map over the course of its five-season run and New Mexico offers a base filming incentive of 25-30%.
Fantasy drama The Games Maker filmed on location in Buenos Aires as an co-production between Argentina, Canada and Italy. Based on a novel by Argentine writer Pablo de Santis, the film tells the story of a boy whose love of board games pits him against an evil inventor in a fantastical city.
Pinewood Studios has been given a long-awaited green light to expand its filming facilities in London. The Pinewood Studios Development Framework is a GBP200 million plan to build a dozen new sound stages, production offices and workshop space.
Georgia is building on its national production appeal by hosting the young adult sci-fi sequel Insurgent and the 1960s-set civil rights drama Selma, which has Oprah Winfrey as a producer. The state is already the long-term host of hugely successful zombie drama The Walking Dead.
New US fairy tale series Galavant will film at The Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol in the west of England this August. The series comes as Angelina Jolie's UK-filmed Maleficent has become a hit in cinemas, while a raft of upcoming UK-shot productions are also inspired by fairy tales.
The Louisiana-set spinoff to the long-running US crime drama NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) will film on location in New Orleans. A two-part pilot filmed scenes in the city earlier this year, but studio work was shot in Los Angeles.
A new film studio is being planned for construction in Shanghai through a deal between Beijing Enlight Media and Seven Stars Media. Hengdian World Studios is already established five hours’ drive from Shanghai, offering expansive sets and a replica of the Forbidden City in Beijing.