Written by new-contact on Oct 9, 2013. Posted in On Location

Park City Film Studios breaks ground in Utah

Construction has begun on Park City Film Studios near Salt Lake City in Utah with a ground-breaking ceremony. Over the course of a staged development, the studio will eventually offer a main 45,000-square-foot sound stage and a smaller divisible 15,000-square-foot stage among its facilities.

“The site was always envisioned to be versatile and unique,” the Park Record reports Raleigh Enterprises’ Britt Penrod as saying, “so whenever the Utah Film Commission gets the opportunity to have television shows, this site and the stages will handle the productions that come its way, and the sound stages will also be large enough to handle most of the film production opportunities that will come down the pipeline.”

Park City is long-established as a film centre as it hosts the annual Sundance Film Festival, an event which recently agreed a new deal to remain in the city until at least 2026.

Utah offers a filming incentive of up to 20% for productions that spend at least USD200,000 locally, and this can increase to 25% for shoots spending a million dollars or more. Incentive payments are uncapped.

Productions filmed on location in Utah in recent years have included Danny Boyle’s true-life drama 127 Hours (above) and Will Smith’s sci-fi epic After Earth, while Disney’s fantasy epic John Carter doubled the state extensively for the landscapes of Mars. Utah’s expansive salt plains are particularly popular for car commercials.

Whenever the Utah Film Commission gets the opportunity to have television shows, this site and the stages will handle the productions that come its way.

Britt Penrod, Raleigh Enterprises

Having a purpose-built studio facility available locally could boost Utah’s production industry. However, the state faces stiff competition from neighbouring New Mexico, which already has a firmly established studio infrastructure and has lots of experience hosting major productions including Marvel’s The Avengers.

Utah will need to fully commit to the long-term development of its production industry in order to effectively raise its filmmaking profile on a national level.