Written by new-contact on Nov 10, 2014. Posted in On Location

Producers highlight need for Abu Dhabi studios alongside filming incentive

International producers on a familiarisation trip to Abu Dhabi have highlighted the need for studio facilities alongside the city’s 30% filming incentive. The city’s main production company, twofour54 intaj, offers 11 sound stages, the largest of which are around 7,000 sq ft.

“They need soundstages here,” said Kevin Trehy, a Warner Bros production executive, in comments to the National: “That would be a very big help in attracting movies, because the locations are great but you need to have that option to build your own as well.”

Further east, Dubai has much larger sound stages as part of the filming facilities on offer in Dubai Studio City but it lacks Abu Dhabi’s formal filming incentive programme.

The executives on the Abu Dhabi familiarisation trip agreed that the city’s filming incentive is vital to its ongoing international appeal and they praised the rate of local infrastructure development. Given that both action sequel Furious 7 (formerly Fast & Furious 7) and the new Star Wars movie – now called Star Wars: The Force Awakens – have recently filmed in Abu Dhabi, the city is rapidly building on its international credibility as a filming location.

They need soundstages here. That would be a very big help in attracting movies, because the locations are great but you need to have that option to build your own as well.

Kevin Trehy, Warner Bros

“The fact that someone has already made it work leaves its own residue,” Trehy added: “You’re going to have people here that actually have some film experience – that’s a major tick. It gets Abu Dhabi on people’s radars.”

Abu Dhabi is already a popular Bollywood filming location and recently hosted scenes for Akshay Kumar’s upcoming feature film Baby. The production praised Abu Dhabi’s film-friendly attitude and in fact doubled parts of the city for Istanbul.