The BBC has commissioned a miniseries adaptation of espionage drama The Night Manager, starring Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston. Based on a novel by John le Carré, author of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the series will tell a story of modern crime in Washington and Whitehall.
The BBC will film a new miniseries of War and Peace on location in Russia, Lithuania and Latvia. Tom Harper will direct the six-part drama telling Leo Tolstoy’s story of Russian aristocrats against the backdrop of the French invasion of Russia in the early 19th century.
Global exports of UK television productions to China rose by a staggering 40% in 2013/14, but the US remains the single biggest international market for UK shows. The figures, published by the independent producers’ trade association Pact, show that overall TV exports rose by 5% in 2013/14.
Oscar-winner Adrien Brody has started filming the historical feature Emperor on location near Prague. The Czech Republic is currently a popular place for period dramas, with the BBC also working in the region for a new series of The Musketeers.
Crime drama Crossing Lines has used Prague as a production base, doubling the Czech city for locations across Europe. The story follows a fictional crime unit within the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague in the Netherlands, which specialises in solving cross-border cases.
MOB Film played with the conventions of Hollywood action movies filming a series of new commercials for Volkswagen on location in South Africa. The spots show high-speed movie dramas being unintentionally sabotaged by VW’s safe distance technology.
The Czech Republic has increased the fund for its filming incentive in a move that could help attract more productions on the scale of the BBC’s The Musketeers. Prague launched the 20% filming incentive in 2010 and the fund has been increased to the equivalent of USD40 million for this year.
Filming has started on location in Prague for the second season of the BBC’s adventure series The Musketeers. As with the first series, the drama is doubling the Czech Republic for 17th Century Paris in a story inspired by Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel.