A day before shooting begins on the Tom Cruise World War II drama Valkyrie, local press reports have revealed that Babelsberg Studios is set to host its third Hollywood production this year with the shooting of Tom Tykwer's action thriller The International, starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, from September.

According to Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten, the Columbia Pictures production has rented the historically protected circular locomotive shed, the so-called 'Lok-Zirkus', in the Gewerbe im Park (GiP) trading estate situated across the road from the Babelsberg Studios lot.

GiP managing director Achim Richter told the Potsdam newspaper that the building - which is 5,000 square metres in area and has been standing empty for several years - had been rented for five to six months by Studio Babelsberg for the production.

This building is only a stone's throw away from Babelsberg's newly revamped stages Neue Film 1 and 2 in a former factory where parts of Stefan Ruzowitzky's family entertainment film Lilly The Witch and Andy and Larry Wachowski's action film Speed Racer are currently being shot.

The International would be the third big-scale US production to come to Babelsberg this year after Speed Racer and Valkyrie. The studio's production services division Studio Babelsberg Motion Pictures (SBMP) also handled the Berlin shoot for Paul Greengrass' The Bourne Ultimatum at the beginning of the year. This third installment in the Bourne franchise will have its European premiere on the Piazza Grande in Locarno next month.

Other films which have shot at the Babelsberg studios so far this year have included Vanessa Jopp's bitter-sweet Christmas comedy Meine Schoene Bescherung, starring Martina Gedeck and Heino Ferch, and Ole Christian Madsen's gangster drama Flame & Citron, with Mads Mikkelsen, Christian Berkel and Hanns Zischler.

Topics