Wes Anderson’s quirky comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel has landed 11 nominations for the 2015 BAFTAs. Stephen Hawking romance The Theory of Everything and Alejandro G Iñárritu’s Birdman are among the other leading contenders, with ten nominations each.
Clint Eastwood and star/producer Bradley Cooper recreated Middle Eastern settings at California movie ranches and in Morocco for their true-life biopic American Sniper. The drama tells the story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who became the deadliest sniper in US history.
Clint Eastwood is recreating Afghanistan partly on location in California for his new movie American Sniper. Bradley Cooper stars in the true story of Chris Kyle, a US Navy SEAL sniper who accumulated 160 confirmed kills over a career that included four tours in Iraq.
Limited funding for Pennsylvania’s filming incentive programme means the pilot episode for a Pittsburgh-set Hatfields & McCoys TV series is scouting alternate East Coast locations. Pennsylvania’s programme is capped at USD60 million a year and cannot accept new applications until April 2013.
It’s been a good year for the established production hubs around the world, with regions like Buenos Aires, South Africa, Eastern Europe and New Zealand maintaining their appeal for commercial projects. Australia has seen a production resurgence, while in the US the spectre of budget deficits has put real pressure on state filming incentives.
It’s more good news for Australia with the announcement that supernatural feature I, Frankenstein will film on location in Melbourne, Victoria. The project is a co-production between Los Angeles-based Lakeshore Entertainment and Hopscotch Features of Sydney.
Australia wants more US co-productions coming its way and Ausfilm is having a week of events in Los Angeles to stoke up business. There are screenings, development lunches, and renewed focus on Australia’s filming incentive schemes that include a 40% Producer Offset.
Baz Luhrmann’s big-budget version of The Great Gatsby starts this week in Sydney with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. Filming will take place at Fox Studios Australia, with 17 weeks scheduled for shooting and then 30 weeks in post-production. The entire operation will be based in Sydney.