Earlier this week, President of the Dominican Republic Danilo Medina officially opened a new 60,500-square-foot water tank at Pinewood Indomina Studios. The eight-acre exterior water tank offers natural ocean horizons as well as bluescreen capabilities.
Felipe Vicini, chairman of Indomina’s board of directors, accompanied by Hugo Swire, Minister of State of the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Nick Smith, Pinewood’s commercial director welcomed the Dominican President and conducted a tour of the facilities.
During the tour they attended the making of a scene recreating a tropical storm on the studios’ new water tank and visited the sound stages, workshops, production offices and media park facilities. The water tank is fully operational, and the rest of the facilities will be open by the end of the 2013.
“The competitiveness of the Dominican Republic as a preferred film and TV production destination is a result of an array of the fiscal measures offered in the country,” said Vicini. “A key component is the powerful set of film incentives, introduced in the Cinema Law which allows film and TV content producers to partially finance their projects by obtaining a transferable tax credit worth 25 percent of the total eligible expenditures incurred by the Dominican registered production entity.”
Pinewood announced plans to build the studio in February 2011 as part of a joint venture with the Indomina Group. When completed, the facility will offer 74,000 square feet of sound stage space, 50,000 square feet of associated production support facilities, as well as access to surrounding tropical filming locations.
The Dominican Republic has been the setting of many feature films, such as The Godfather: Part II, The Good Shepherd, Miami Vice, Jurassic Park and Lost City, but the country only launched its first official film commission in August 2011, and passed the Cinema Law, which provides tax credits of up to 25 percent for feature films and TV series shot in the country.
