Written by new-contact on Oct 7, 2013. Posted in On Location

New York hosts location filming for international sitcom Brooklyn Taxi

New international sitcom Brooklyn Taxi has started filming on location in New York. Based on a French-language movie called Taxi that filmed in Marseille in the late 90s, the new show is the first foreign production to qualify for New York’s generous filming incentive programme.

A team of French producers is working on the show but it is actually filming in English with US actress Chyler Leigh co-starring. The series will be dubbed into multiple languages for broadcast in Europe.

Brooklyn Taxi focuses on a detective with a terrible driving record who’s forced to become a taxi passenger as she chases criminals around New York. While the producers have based the shoot at Silvercup Studios in Queens, location filming has made use of a taxi specially adapted to be controlled by a driver seated on a rig on the vehicle’s roof, rather than using a more cumbersome trailer. Cameras mounted on the bonnet capture the actors’ performances, while a real driver actually controls the vehicle out of shot.

“New York is used to filming [and] used to Brad Pitt on a corner,” producer Moe Bardach told the New York Times: “They’re not used to a car being driven from the roof by a helmeted, professional driver.”

Reaching out to the international production industry seems the next logical step for an iconic American city.

New York’s filming incentive programme is among the most competitive in the US and offers more than four times the annual funding of what’s on offer in California. This commitment to the production industry is paying off, with feature film The Amazing Spider-Man 2 this year becoming the biggest movie to ever film in New York. Television production is also thriving and iconic programme The Tonight Show will relocate to the city in 2014.

Reaching out to the international production industry seems the next logical step for an iconic American city.