Peter Jackson has said New Zealand needs to find a way to find a better balance between appealing to major international movies and encouraging local shoots. Jackson, director of the Hobbit trilogy, was speaking after the inaugural meeting of New Zealand’s Screen Advisory Board.
Hawaii location filming for Jurassic World had a big impact on the US state’s production industry. The dinosaur sequel was shot partly on the island of Kauai County north-west of Honolulu and producers spent around USD 3 million locally.
Screenwriter Alex Garland filmed his directorial debut Ex Machina on location in Norway and at Pinewood Studios in the UK. The film tells the story of a young coder given the task of interacting with an artificially-intelligent female robot in a remote mountain retreat.
Filming has started in Cardiff on the new series of Doctor Who. Peter Capaldi returns as the Doctor, with Jenna Coleman as his companion Clara Oswald. The new series will be screened in the autumn.
The BBC has commissioned a miniseries adaptation of espionage drama The Night Manager, starring Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston. Based on a novel by John le Carré, author of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the series will tell a story of modern crime in Washington and Whitehall.
Disney filmed its new musical fairytale Into The Woods on location in southern England and also built a specially-designed forest set at Shepperton Studios. The story blends several popular fairytales in an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s theatre musical.
The BBC is set to film TV drama The Dresser on location in London with Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen. Starz, the American network which recently screened the historical, Scottish-filmed drama Outlander, will co-produce the TV movie with the BBC.
South Africa is enjoying surging popularity as an international filming hotspot. Location Manager Robert Bentley talks about the Cape Town shoot for US spy drama Homeland and how the series has doubled the South African city for locations around the world.