Over the next five years the British Film Institute (BFI) has pledged to boost its Film Fund by nearly GBP10 million a year and reaffirm its commitment to the whole of the UK. The investment plan is entitled Film Forever and follows an 18-month industry consultation.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key will be promoting his country’s film industry when he travels to the US this week. Part of the Prime Minister’s trip will include meeting with Hollywood studio executives, with the release of Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit film only a couple of months away.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier will film partly on location in Ohio. Marvel previously recreated the streets of New York City in Cleveland for The Avengers. Ohio’s state filming incentive now has a richer film fund, making it more attractive for big-budget productions.
California has guaranteed its location filming incentives will remain in place until at least 2017. Last year the state only committed to a 12-month extension, so the local industry will be relieved to have the programme's annual USD100 million guaranteed for at least five years.
Pinewood Shepperton has confirmed a development deal with the Isle of Man that involves the studios managing the Isle of Man Media Development Fund, worth GBP25 million. In a separate development additional studio space has been approved for the Pinewood facility near London.
[slideshow id=311]Price Canyon Ranch is in Arizona near the New Mexico border and has been available as a filming location for a little over five years. The ranch lies amongst five separate canyons and is surrounded by half a million acres of land.
[slideshow id=309]Wind buffets us at the edge of civilisation. We’re exploring the remote heights of an Icelandic glacier and the elements are angry. Our car rocks from side to side but the glacier ignores us. Ilt Jones is braving a photo. He struggles to close the door behind him: “Wow! Just... wow! It’s nippy!”
French filmmaker Luc Besson has officially opened his new Cité du Cinéma studio complex on the outskirts of Paris. The EUR170 million facility is built on the site of a former power station in Seine-Saint-Denis, a working-class district of the French capital.