Authorities in Jordan are working towards offering stronger filming incentives to help the country compete with its international rivals. Ridley Scott’s upcoming sci-fi movie The Martian used Jordan as a stand-in for Mars and features Matt Damon as a stranded cosmonaut.
Award-winning political satire Veep is one of several top-rated TV shows awarded incentive support to relocate its new season to California. The series has spent four years doubling Baltimore for Washington, DC, using Maryland’s 27% TV filming incentive.
Filming for the sixth season of Game of Thrones will take place partly on location in the city of Girona in Catalonia, north-eastern Spain. The series filmed in Spain for the first time last year and helped boost film tourism in Seville and Osuna.
Film France appointed Valérie Lépine-Karnik as its new Chief Executive Officer a year ago and the organisation is now preparing to boost France’s Tax Rebate for International Productions (TRIP). An expanded database of location photos is also being planned.
Buffalo in western New York State is assessing the economic benefits of hosting action sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 for the past two weeks. The film is estimated to have spent USD 7 million in the city and will also film elsewhere in New York.
Washington, DC, has launched a small film fund for the first time in half a decade. The success of TV shows like Veep and House of Cards have sustained Washington as a hugely popular setting, but the city is not regarded as film-friendly and supports very few production days.
A new trilogy of Western movies based on the Winnetou novels by bestselling 19th century German author Karl May is to film in Croatia. May’s stories of fictional Native American character Winnetou were first adapted for the screen in the 60s and were also shot in Croatia.
A week-long familiarisation (fam) trip organised by the British Film Commission has taken a North American delegation across the whole of the UK for the first time. The trip was designed to showcase the UK’s TV filming potential after recent enhancements to the TV tax credit.