Location filming in Georgia surpassed the billion-dollar mark in the 2013/14 fiscal year as the state attracted movies like Insurgent and the Hunger Games sequels. Nearly 160 productions filmed locally, spending USD1.4 billion, but the overall economic impact is estimated at five times that figure.
North Carolina has seen an increase in production spending for the first half of 2014, compared to the same period last year. Television dramas like Sleepy Hollow and Under the Dome have helped drive a filming boost, but the future of the state’s filming incentive remains uncertain.
An executive at Marvel Studios has warned of the issue of crew shortages for location shoots in Georgia. David Grant is Vice President of Physical Production for Marvel and is overseeing work in Atlanta on Ant-Man. The state is also home to long-running zombie drama The Walking Dead.
Georgia is building on its national production appeal by hosting the young adult sci-fi sequel Insurgent and the 1960s-set civil rights drama Selma, which has Oprah Winfrey as a producer. The state is already the long-term host of hugely successful zombie drama The Walking Dead.
Lionsgate has started filming its sci-fi sequel Insurgent on location in Atlanta. Set in a dystopian Chicago, the film will follow on from the events of Divergent, an adaptation of a popular Young Adult series of novels from author Veronica Roth.
Proposed changes for North Carolina’s filming incentive programme could undermine the state’s filmmaking appeal, production professionals have warned. Governor Pat McCrory has set out plans that could hinder the state’s ability to attract features on the scale of Iron Man 3.
Production professionals in North Carolina will rally this weekend in support of the state’s filming incentive. The 25% filming incentive is set to expire at the end of this year and the production industry is concerned shoots like Stephen King’s Under the Dome will film elsewhere.
The sequel to sci-fi drama Divergent will shift from Chicago to film mainly on location in Atlanta, as the production team looks to Georgia’s more generous filming incentive programme. Similar to The Hunger Games, Divergent tells a Young Adult drama set in a dystopian city.