A proposed boost to California’s filming incentive programme has cleared the latest political hurdle on the way to becoming law. The increased tax credit was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee with an annual fund of around USD 400 million.
Irish actor Michael Fassbender will join Rachel Weisz to film drama The Light Between Oceans on location in New Zealand and Australia. Set on a remote Australian island in the years following World War I, the story follows a couple who discover an infant on a boat washed ashore.
Titanic Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has secured planning permission for two new film stages. Hit fantasy TV drama Game of Thrones is based at the existing facility and the additional studios will be developed at a cost of GBP14 million.
A reboot of action franchise Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has helped boost New York’s production industry with direct spending of more than USD55 million. The new film shot for over 70 days in New York City and spent USD30 million on local crew wages.
Dwayne Johnson’s upcoming TV sports drama Ballers has secured filming incentive support to shoot on location in Florida from November this year. Johnson previously filmed on location in the state for his Miami-based bodybuilding crime drama Pain & Gain.
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.
Partizan filmed in Cape Town for a stunt spot promoting the BMW M235i coupe. The commercial features a group of identical BMWs demonstrating the vehicle's technical prowess in a tightly choreographed ‘Driftmob’ of skids and spins circling a Cape Town roundabout.
Studio Babelsberg has started work on a new back lot set as part of its existing filming facility in Potsdam, near Berlin. The Neue Berliner Straße – or New Berlin Road – is described as a “modular hybrid set” and is an investment of over EUR12 million that will span some 12,000 square metres.