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DreamWorks Studios’ The Light Between Oceans will begin filming in New Zealand and Australia next month.
Starring Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar winner Rachel Weisz, the film will be directed by Derek Cianfrance, who has also written the script based on the debut novel from M L Stedman. Heyday Films’ David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford are producing.
Production on the film will begin at the end of September and will include several weeks of filming in the Marlborough and Otago regions of New Zealand, as well as a week on the Australian island of Tasmania.
The Light Between Oceans, an international best-seller, takes place on a remote Australian island in the years following World War I, where a lighthouse keeper and his wife are faced with a moral dilemma when a boat washes ashore with a dead man and a two-month-old infant. When they decide to raise the child as their own, the consequences of their choice are devastating.
“Our thanks to Film New Zealand for their assistance in helping us bring The Light Between Oceans, to their country,” said Holly Bario, President of Production at DreamWorks Studios. “It was important to find the perfect locations to help fulfill our director’s vision for the film and we couldn’t be more excited to be filming in both New Zealand and Australia.”
Gisella Carr, Chief Executive of national film office Film New Zealand, says the country is delighted to welcome DreamWorks Studios back under the new New Zealand screen incentives, and to see the production working in various centres across the South Island.
“The production coming here is the result of successful collaboration between a range of agencies including Marlborough District Council, Film Otago Southland and Film New Zealand working together with the producers.”
The Light Between Oceans was published in the United States in July 2012 by Scribner and has appeared on the New York Times and USA Today’s bestseller lists, and others internationally, as well as being selected as Amazon’s Best Book of the Month in August 2012. It has been translated into nearly 30 languages.
About DreamWorks Studios
DreamWorks Studios is a motion picture company formed in 2009 and led by Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider in partnership with The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The company’s recent releases include Spielberg's Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones. The film has grossed over $180 million at the US box office and was nominated for twelve Academy Awards® with Daniel Day-Lewis winning for Best Actor. Other releases include The Hundred-Foot Journey, starring Helen Mirren, Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, based on Michael Morpurgo’s award-winning book and was nominated for six Academy Awards® including Best Picture, and The Help, which resonated with audiences around the country and earned over $200 million at the box office and received four Academy Award® nominations with Octavia Spencer winning for Best Supporting Actress.