Liverpool gets production spending boost
Production spending on shoots in Liverpool including BBC drama The War of the Worlds (pictured) reached £16.1m in 2018, marking a £5m increase on 2017 figures, according to the Liverpool Film Office.
Nearly 370 film and TV projects shot in the city over the course of 2018, the largest number in the film office’s 30-year history.
Other high-profile productions included Sky’s crime drama Bulletproof and Jimmy McGovern’s Care. Features from Germany, Austria and China also shot in the city, contributing to an overall 1,387 filming days for the year.
“Thanks to platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, there is a ferocious appetite for content, but with this comes increased competition from other areas of the UK and Europe who are all keen to attract as many projects as possible,” said Lynn Saunders, manager of Liverpool Film Office.
“Liverpool is more than holding its own, and more often than not, people from the film and production industry who contact us for the first time, are doing so as the city has been recommended to them by other industry colleagues – and we can’t ask for much more than that.
In June plans were announced to turn Liverpool’s former Littlewoods Pools building into a world-class studio facility as part of a £50m redevelopment programme.
The building was damaged in a fire in September, though the areas set to be turned into studio spaces were reportedly unaffected.
Image: Mammoth Screen/BBC
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