Gaumont International Television has announced a miniseries based on the life of infamous Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. Filming for Narcos will take place on location in Colombia and will reunite key talent from the hit Rio-set Elite Squad movies.
Location filming will take place in London and Hong Kong for the BBC’s new two-part TV drama One Child. Co-produced by the BBC and Sundance TV, the production will tell the story of a Chinese-born woman adopted by Anglo-American parents as a result of China’s ‘One Child’ policy.
Northern Ireland Screen has received a funding increase from the government of more than 50% to help boost the region’s production industry over the next four years. Funding of nearly GBP43 million will help Northern Ireland build on the international success of Game of Thrones.
New Zealand’s improved Screen Production Grant comes into effect today. First announced in December, the country now offers a base 20% grant figure for international shoots, while major big-budget productions like James Cameron’s Avatar sequels will get a 25% grant.
Nicole Kidman has started filming new Australian-Irish co-production Strangerland on location in and around Sydney. Kidman and Joseph Fiennes star as a couple whose teenage children go missing in the Australian desert and Hugo Weaving is the detective who leads the search.
New TV drama From Dusk Til Dawn: The Series, based on the 1996 road-movie horror, has been given a second series and will continue filming on location in Austin, Texas. Filmmaker and movie mogul Robert Rodriguez directed the feature and is also behind the series.
Actor and producer Kevin Spacey has met with lawmakers in Maryland in a bid to extend the state’s filming incentive programme. Spacey stars in the Netflix political drama House of Cards, which is asking for greater financial support to film a third season in Baltimore.
Northern Film and Media in England is lobbying local authorities to set up a film fund to help boost production in the region and build on the success of dramas series like Vera. Currently, the organisation can offer no more than GBP3,000 for projects looking for funding in the north-east of England.