[slideshow id=409]The filming incentive landscape continues to shift in the US. While the majority of states still have filming incentive programmes in place, only a few offer support generous enough to attract high-profile TV series or big-budget feature films.
Jackie Chan starts filming in Dubai this week for his new movie Kung Fu Yoga. The production is scheduled to last around four weeks and is the first to be made under India and China’s recently signed co-production agreement. Servicing is being provided by AlKatraz Productions.
The next Star Wars film is set to return to shoot scenes on Skellig Michael off the west coast of Ireland. A production team for Star Wars: The Force Awakens shot there last year and it seems the location is planned to appear again in the next movie in the franchise.
Authorities in Limerick in Mid-West Ireland have signed an agreement to adapt a former factory into a film studio. Production in Ireland is based in the Dublin area, where shows like Vikings and Penny Dreadful are filmed.
Twenty-one international films dominated UK production spending in the first half of this year, according to a report from the British Film Institute (BFI). Between them the 21 movies spent just under GBP 520 million of a total figure of GBP 594 million.
The current commissioner of the Irish Film Board (IFB) is to join Pinewood Productions Ireland Limited as the company’s Head of Production. Naoise Barry has headed the Irish Film Board for the past 14 years, but will leave the organisation in mid-August.
Star Trek Beyond, the third in the rebooted Star Trek franchise, will film scenes on location in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this year. The production is likely to be the biggest Hollywood shoot to have filmed in Dubai since Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
Pinewood Studios has reported a GBP 10 million revenue boost for the year ending 31 March 2015. The facility made GBP 75 million, compared to just over GBP 64 million the previous year. Operating profit increased by more than a million pounds to GBP 5.8 million.