Ireland’s Prime Minister, known as the Taoiseach, has met with Steven Spielberg in Los Angeles to discuss Irish location filming opportunities. Enda Kenny confirmed that Ireland’s filming incentive programme will remain flexible.
Ministers from Northern Ireland joined cable channel HBO in the US to celebrate the new series of Game of Thrones, which is based in Belfast’s Titanic Studios facility. First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness also pitched for more productions.
A new location filming incentive programme put forward for Arizona faces stiff opposition locally. The state’s previous incentive expired in 2010 and wasn’t renewed so a Tucson senator is proposing a new 20% rebate with a USD70 million annual fund to attract projects like The Lone Ranger.
World War I feature The Wipers Times has started filming in Northern Ireland, doubling the region for Belgium and London. Set in 1916, it tells the true story of a satirical newspaper that was published for troops on the Western Front when soldiers found an old printing press in Ypres.
A politician in New Hampshire in the north-east US is pushing for location filming tax credits to help attract more film productions. The state is one of the country’s few regions that doesn’t offer filming incentives of any kind and neighbouring Massachusetts is often used as a double.
Maryland may triple the value of its location filming incentive, but only on a short-term basis. The state is in the spotlight having played host to high-profile political drama House of Cards, which is the first series to be distributed exclusively online via Netflix.
Czech Republic’s location filming fund has been boosted despite an earlier presidential veto. President Vaclav Klaus vetoed plans to expand the filming incentive as he disagreed with the notion of the film industry getting state funding, but the Czech Parliament overruled him.
[slideshow id=330]Esperanza Crespí Pibernat was born in Palma de Mallorca. She works in career guidance and development, heads City Council of Palma and for the past year has been President of PalmaActiva, the local development agency and headquarters of Palma Film Office.