Written by new-contact on Mar 10, 2015. Posted in Incentive News

TV drama Under the Dome likely to use half of annual North Carolina film fund

A new series of TV drama Under the Dome starts filming in North Carolina this week, and it's set to claim up to half of the state’s film fund for the year. Based on a story by Stephen King, the show is set in a small town that becomes cut off from the world within a mysterious giant dome.

In January, North Carolina controversially downgraded its 25% filming incentive to a grant system with total funds of just USD 10 million a year.

Under the Dome is the only high-profile production that has chosen to continue using the state as a filming location and will claim up to USD 5 million in incentive support from this year’s fund.

“To have Under the Dome back here again is a great thing,” said Johnny Griffin, head of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission, in comments to local outlet the Triangle Business Journal: “It’s a good seven-month run, which is nice to have in this industry.”

The filming incentive downgrade to a grant system has been largely accepted by North Carolina’s production industry, but there have been repeated calls in recent weeks for the annual film fund to be increased.

North Carolina hosted Marvel’s Iron Man 3 and also got a big boost as the filming location for the first Hunger Games movie. Georgia’s filming incentive programme has since stolen North Carolina’s thunder, with both Marvel and the Hunger Games franchise having relocated to Atlanta.

Authorities in North Carolina have little chance of attracting high-profile shoots with such little money to work with.