Filmmaker Michael Bay faced plentiful challenges filming Transformers: Age of Extinction on location in Hong Kong. The production generated headlines when a handful of locals tried to extort the crew and the director himself was attacked on set.
Two Los Angeles politicians have pledged to push for better California filming incentives with a new bill in 2014. Assemblyman Mike Gatto and Senator Kevin de León, both Democrats, say they will introduce a bill that will aim to curb California’s runaway production problem.
British actor Simon Pegg – star of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and more recently Edgar Wright’s The World’s End – is filming in Western Australia (WA) for feature Kill Me Three Times. The shoot is supported by Perth-based regional development agency ScreenWest.
Michael Bay’s Transformers 4 has started filming in Michigan, building a Hong Kong set in Detroit as a double for the Chinese city. Filming will continue through to mid-August and the production has been awarded a substantial incentive payment on expenditure of about USD65 million.
A new period TV movie exploring the life of Lizzie Borden has filmed on location in Nova Scotia, doubling the Canadian province for the US state of Connecticut. Borden was acquitted of the axe-murder of her parents in 1892 in a case that was never solved and caused a media storm.
The Malta Film Commission is aiming to boost local film crew numbers by inviting learning institutions to submit training services bids under a tender process. Training will be carried out as part of the European Social Fund Project ‘Re-skilling of workers for the Local Film Industry’.
Legendary East, producer of films including the Dark Knight trilogy, has made a co-production deal with China Film Co, the country’s largest producer and distributor. Signed in Beijing, the agreement means the two companies will co-produce films for both Chinese and international release.
California lost most of this summer’s biggest movies to locations with better filming incentives. While Iron Man 3 filmed mostly in North Carolina and White House Down shot in Montreal, Star Trek Into Darkness was the only major summer feature to shoot extensively in California.