The Watchmen was promising loads, and it was looking like everything was going well, but then Paramount have a big change of heads and they’re looking at cutting back the budget. We talked about that before, and it’s a sad state of affairs, but then it looked like Paul Greengrass might still be able to hold on to what Watchmen is.
So I guess there’s good and bad news in the past few days echoed by my fellow Brits at Empire. The production location is currently being looked at and they might move outside the UK.
On one hand this is great news, because of the high costs of filming in the UK it might just drop the budget enough that they could give Watchmen the crack it deserves in another country. On the other hand though it’s another nail in the coffin of the UK Film Industry.
Thanks to the current Government who are squeezing the benefits out of the tax rebates for UK filming, studios are looking to anywhere but the UK to film their movies. V for Vendetta is located in London, and they are filming almost all if it in Berlin. Dog Soldiers was located in the Highlands of Scotland, and they filmed in Luxembourg with only the odd second unit sweeping shot taken of the hills. Even Braveheart was predominantly filmed in Ireland. Rob Roy was the last movie I can remember that filmed entirely in Scotland.
Bad news for us, and another sign that our greedy Government is pushing the industry over the edge of the coast and towards neighbouring countries.
Good news for the Watchmen. I think the move outside the UK could save the production a whole load of cash, and that might just appease the big heads before they are attracted to cutting from the movie production itself.
