France is planning to amend part of its filming incentive laws to ensure Luc Besson’s big-budget movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets shoots in Paris. Besson’s film had initially been denied filming incentive support as a French film because it will shoot in English.
Authorities in Liverpool in north-west England are to consider a plan to create an adapted studio facility. The city is a popular filming location particularly for British TV productions but has also hosted big-budget Hollywood shoots like Captain America: The First Avenger and Kenneth Branagh’s spy movie Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
New filming facility Belfast Harbour Studio is planned for construction to help increase production in Northern Ireland’s capital. The city is best known as the home of the fantasy series Game of Thrones but is also popular for shows like the BBC’s serial killer drama The Fall.
The advertising industry has joined forces with the APA (Advertising Producers Association) to organise a fundraising night in support of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders and their work with refugees. The event will be held in central London on 23 September.
Authorities in North Carolina plan to triple the state’s film fund to USD 30 million half a year after the formal filming incentive was controversially downgraded to a grant system. Drama Under the Dome claimed half of this year’s incentive fund, but will end after its third season.
A popular reality TV show watched by some 75 million people in China could help boost film tourism when it shoots in Western Australia (WA). The show Where Are We Going, Dad? features Chinese celebrity fathers taking their sons on adventures in exciting parts of the world.
Production spending from film and TV shoots in Scotland rose to an eight-year high of GBP 45.2 million in 2014, according to new government figures. Movies shot in Scotland over the past few years include Michael Fassbender’s Macbeth and Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin.
American firm Fox 21 Television Studios has finalised a deal for a long-term lease of Dragon International Film Studios in Wales. Fox is already filming TV show The Bastard Executioner at the facility. Historical feature Ironclad is the only feature to have ever shot there.