Mark Wahlberg is set to produce and possibly star in new movie Patriots’ Day, the story of the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013. Wahlberg is a Boston native and has previously worked in the city on movies including The Fighter and The Departed.
A sequel to last year’s live-action reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise will return to film in New York City and will also shoot in the upstate city of Buffalo. Last year’s movie used motion-capture technology to create the turtle characters.
Five studios in the US state of Georgia have come together to focus on training the regional film crew pool. The Georgia Studio & Infrastructure Alliance will also act as an advocacy group for local production. Georgia’s recent productions have included Selma and Ant-Man.
Matt Damon and Andy Lau will lead the cast of new historical epic The Great Wall, which is being billed as the largest-ever movie to film in China for international distribution. Set in the 15th century, the feature will follow soldiers defending humanity from the secrets of the wall.
The major new Chinese filming facility Wanda Studios Qingdao has made its debut at the AFCI Locations Show. Scheduled to open in mid-2017 in the Shandong Province of eastern China, the studios will be a subsidiary of Dalian Wanda Group and are set to span nearly 500 acres.
The UK and China have ratified a film co-production deal at the Great Festival of Creativity in Hong Kong. Official co-productions will get access to the UK’s filming incentives, while the deal also means that the UK industry will get better access to the lucrative Chinese market.
Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 5 has helped drive a six-fold rise in foreign production spending in Morocco. Nearly 40 international shoots filmed in the North African country in 2014, spending USD 120 million – more than the last five years combined.
Alberta in western Canada is aiming to boost its production industry with a new film studio. Work started last November on the Calgary Film Centre, a build that could help the city attract more shoots like the TV version of Fargo, which recently started filming its second series.