Hit drama series House of Cards will return for a third season and will continue filming on location in Maryland. The high-end political drama doubles Baltimore for Washington, DC, and made history in 2013 for becoming the first series to be made available exclusively online via Netflix.
Pirate drama Black Sails filmed on location at Cape Town Film Studios in South Africa, doubling the region for the Bahamas. Set in 1720, the series is pitched as a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate novel Treasure Island and follows the adventures of Captain Flint.
Russell Crowe’s new feature, family drama Fathers and Daughters, has secured a filming incentive payment to shoot in Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. The film will jump between the 1980s and the present day to tell the story of a troubled author and his strained relationship with his daughter.
Shoots for international shows like Elementary accounted for most of the TV spending in the UK in 2013 as a result of the new TV tax credit, according to the British Film Institute. Just over GBP230 million was spent by TV productions and nearly 65% of this came from international shoots.
Two new studios will be built in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast in Northern Ireland in a GBP14 million development project. Titanic Studios currently includes the city’s Paint Hall studio and is home to HBO’s fantasy drama Game of Thrones.
The Elstree Studios exterior set for BBC soap EastEnders is to be expanded. Filming has been based at the north-west London studio for almost 30 years and a temporary set will allow shooting to continue while the new facility is upgraded and modernised to be ready for 2018.
Sonny London took a prosthetic ogre to the Greek island of Crete to film a new spot for Thomson holidays. Simon the Ogre features a family man whose office existence has turned him into a literal ogre, but the fun of a Thomson holiday helps him relax and rediscover himself.
Developers in Manchester in northern England are preparing to launch a new filming facility aimed at drama productions. The Space Project is scheduled to open in May 2014 and will offer five purpose-built studio spaces, as well as workshop, dressing and make-up facilities.
Canadian production company Sons and Daughters filmed on location in downtown Toronto for a new wintry spot for Nissan. Winter Warrior depicts a frozen business district where a Nissan driver bravely rescues a stranded family from an army of evil snowmen.
Peter Welter Soler is a producer with production service company Fresco Film, which covers Spain and Portugal. Locations and permitting flexibility are major factors drawing productions to Spain and Portugal, while the weather in places like Malaga are also an attractive prospect.