Jason Statham’s latest action thriller, Killer Elite, is set in places like the UK, Oman, Dubai and Paris, but filmed mostly in the Australian state of Victoria. More extensive shooting was considered in places like the UK, but keeping prices down and getting the most from Victoria won the day.
Deodorant brand Axe has put a modern slant on a biblical classic and built an ark in Buenos Aires. The spot shows a local preparing for a storm by building an ark with a gym, a dance floor and some sleek living quarters. A spray of deoderant attracts a troupe of supermodels to help fill the space.
Marcus Nispel’s remake of Schwarzenegger fantasy classic Conan the Barbarian has filmed across Bulgaria. Namibia and Croatia were both considered as filming locations for a few scenes, but practicality meant that Bulgaria ended up hosting the full shoot.
The long-term success of Massachusetts’ screen industry could get a boost from plans to develop a state-of-the-art studio facility in the north-east part of the state. MJM Development, based in Andover, plans to build over an area of nearly 30 acres, with a phased development period of ten years.
The Sunset Strip of the 1980s has been recreated in Miami for the filming of Tom Cruise’s Rock of Ages. It’s another snubbing for Los Angeles, with the city apparently unable to match Miami’s incentive scheme or flexibility when it came to street closures and set dressings.
Period cars and decor came to Manchester and Liverpool for the filming of Marvel’s comic book adaptation Captain America: The First Avenger. Much of the film was shot in the UK, with Stanley Dock in Liverpool and Dale Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter doubling for 1940s New York City.
It’s frequently said that not much doubles for South East Asia, apart from the Asian South East. One very cheap and cheerful emerging option for all your Vietnamese, Philippine, Thai, Lao, Indonesian and Malaysian needs is Cambodia, as Transformers and Two Brothers have established.
Location filming figures in Los Angeles levelled off in the second quarter of 2011 against the same period last year. Commercial production fell by nearly 8%, while only five feature films shooting in the city took advantage of the state tax credit, compared to 16 in the same period in 2010.
Tortilla chip brand Doritos has embraced the image of the Western gunslinger and filmed its new commercial on location in Mexico. Dip Desperado charts the fictional life of Esteban Ortega, a Mexican peasant who finds fame and glory flicking Doritos rather than ‘slinging’ a gun.
A survey for the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) shows a spending rise in 2010, as well as the highest number of location shoot days in three years. Also, the appetite among US production companies for filming abroad has fallen significantly over the last few years.