Written by on Jul 31, 2014. Posted in On Location

Ben Stiller sequel Night at the Museum Secret of the Tomb films London

Ben Stiller’s family comedy sequel Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb has promoted its London filming locations ahead of the movie’s December opening. The film follows Stiller’s night security guard and his adventures with museum exhibits that magically come to life after dark.

“We have brought museums to life, but we have never really explored the idea of taking the magic into the world,” director Shawn Levy told USA Today: “This movie really goes beyond the museum walls. We are out in London, on a double-decker bus, in Trafalgar Square. It's a juicy idea we haven't explored.”

Secret of the Tomb is the third in the Night at the Museum franchise. The movies have been set at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Shooting has taken place at each museum, but the movies have also filmed studio work in Vancouver.

London’s most iconic central landmarks are increasingly popular as filming locations for big-budget movies, with access becoming more forthcoming from city authorities. Whitehall and the London Underground were made available for Bond movie Skyfall and Tom Cruise’s sci-fi movie Edge of Tomorrow negotiated the brief closure of Trafalgar Square to allow a scene involving a military helicopter landing.

Studio facilities in the English capital are also expanding. Pinewood finally got government authorisation in June to develop more studio space west of London and Leavesden Studios – owned by Warner Bros since 2010 – will build three more sound stages this year.

(Images: Kerry Brown/Twentieth Century Fox)