Location: London - a paean to the capital
Here at The Knowledge we have long championed London as a dynamic, eclectic, exciting location for filmmakers, and now Hollywood A-lister and multi-hyphenate Tom Cruise has endorsed the capital and all it offers.
The actor/producer has been talking about his affection for the city, specifically in reference to the lengthy Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation shoot, which he describes as a "love letter to London".
Cruise said of the shoot: Â "It's a city that I love and we get to create a bit of a love letter to London in this chase: you get the cobblestone streets, the fog, the Tower of London...
"...It was a lot of fun figuring out the logistics, scouting it all, finding just the right streets and then letting the story unfold through the action."
The film's location manager, Chris Moore, stressed the importance of working with specialist agencies and offices when organising the often complex logistics of moving large units around and setting up intricate or high-action sequences in the city, remarking: "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation presented some unique challenges while filming in London and the boroughs have turned it around on every occasion. I do believe that Film London and the local film offices have helped the boroughs understand why filming is so important to this city."
These appreciative anecdotal remarks are illustrated by some very positive statistics. In 2014, production spend of feature films shot in London passed £1.1bn, a figure which reads even more impressively when compared with 2013, during which the same amount was spent in the whole of the UK.
Combined with the amount of high-end TV dramas shooting here, both domestic and foreign, the economic benefits are clear, with the long-term effect being enhanced by the now big business of screen tourism.
Chief executive of Film London and the British Film Commission Adrian Wootton summed it up neatly: "The city is obviously a star attraction in itself, but without world-class facilities and a talented, tireless industry working to make these movies happen such missions might otherwise be impossible."
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