Star Trek 2016 To Shoot Primarily In Vancouver – Enterprise Sets To Be Rebuilt

vancouver

TrekMovie has an exclusive follow-up on yesterday’s news about the Star Trek movie shooting in Seoul. The Korea shoot will be just for a portion of the film, TrekMovie has learned that the studio is planning on shooting principally in Vancouver. More details below.

Orci To Shoot Star Trek 2016 In Vancouver – Enterprise Sets To Be Rebuilt

TrekMovie has learned that the current plan for the next Star Trek film is to primarily shoot it in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. According to sources all the main sets will be set up in a studio in Vancouver and the British Columbia area will also be used for some location shooting as well. In fact, director Roberto Orci has been in Vancouver this week scouting locations. The plan is still to start shooting in mid February, targeting a Summer 2016 release for the film.

The primary driver to shoot in Vancouver is said to be due to the very generous tax incentives being offered, saving the film potentially tens of millions of dollars. Shooting in Canada has become more and more prevalent in recent years for both feature films and television. Vancouver is now the third largest production center in North America, which has garnered it the nickname "Hollywood North." Bad Robot (the production company for the 2016 Star Trek movie) has used Vancouver for feature films (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) and TV (including Fringe and Almost Human). However, this will be the first time that a Star Trek film was principally shot outside of the Los Angeles area. In fact, Star Trek: Into Darkness was the first Trek film to be shot on stages outside of the Paramount lot in Hollywood. JJ Abrams used the Sony lot in Culver City (primary for the Enterprise sets) and Raleigh Studios in Playa Del Rey.

According to sources the plan is to actually rebuild the Enterprise sets from scratch in Vancouver. This is also being done to save money as rebuilding turns out to be cheaper than shipping and redressing. Many of the sets were redressed to stand in for the USS Vengeance and so returning to the Enterprise look would take a lot of work. 

ussvengeancebridge
USS Enterprise bridge set redressed as USS Vengeance bridge

As always, stay tuned to TrekMovie.com for all your Star Trek movie news.

 

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boborci if you are around, one question: you mentioned some time ago that you were trying to decide if the film would be about exploration or feature the crew defeating another villain. Are you now in a position to tell us which it will be about?

Hey, Red Dead Ryan lives in Victoria (a ferry ride away). How about giving him a cameo in the background?

Shooting in Vancouver to save money doesn’t make a lot of sense. All of the previous films were filmed in LA without tax credits and made money just fine; and CA has just passed a generous film and TV tax break specifically to make filming in LA competitive with BC. If the story was that exteriors that could only be done in BC have been scheduled and interiors are being shoot in Vancouver to make things easier on the cast and crew; it would make sense. The fabled Canadian production tax credit seems like a strange motivation all of a sudden.

Whoo! Star Trek in Canada! I’ll take it!

hey, Bob Orci, seeing as how you’re rebuilding the sets, here’s a familiar, yet cheap, suggestion. Sure would be great to have Spock’s sensor viewer…complete with blue light washing over Quinto’s face as he gazes into it…perched in its usual location at Spock’s science station. Think of the great shots you could frame up with that!

This is to help pay for Shatner and Nimoy, that 10 million bucks can pay their salary! Maybe because Shatner is a Canadian, he negotiated a break, or maybe he is planning to be on a vacation up there? Who knows!

#5

I second that emotion, logic be damned.

#3

Every dollar saved is about $3 less needed in box-office receipts.

I recall reading on this site that STiD would have cost $20m less had it not been filmed in Southern California.

Bob, when you shoot a movie in Canada, I believe you have to cast a certain amount of Canadian talent (to get those tax breaks).

I think it would be great to have RDR and myself in a background scene, don’t you?

welcome to canada :)

boborci are you going to make the enterprise and the bridge in your vision?

refit model and make bridge more like the kelvin, would be cool to see something new instead of the same bright apple bridge, make it more samsung hehe

best wishes and kick ass as usual

dont forget about me harry lol

@3 (Douglass Abramson): It makes sense if you also factor out the unions involvement in the industry. And even if CA provides tax incentives, they may not be enough to lower overall costs to where Paramount wants them to be.

@11

Oh, great, somethoughts, by the time we’re finished, it’ll look like the scene in ST:TMP when Kirk assembles the crew to tell them about the mission!

Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

#13

lol

Gosh, I thought it’d be cheaper to repaint and ship the Enterprise sets. Un-flippin’-believable! What about the central section that “opened up” the corridors [featured in the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” scene]?

Bummer. Hope that doesn’t mean the Enterprise will be reduced to a bridge set, a turbolift, and a transporter room.

…Oh, yeah, not to mention a brewery :-p

#9

I think Shatner counts as the Canadian talent! :)

We can all live in hope.

Please no more iPod Enterprise! We are not in a sterile hospital in space. make it more warm and comfortable!
I don’t care if it is inconsistent with the other movies. It could also be explained in the movie in one sentence:
Bones and Kirk walk through the corridors of the Enterprise and enter a turbolift.
Kirk: “I like the new interior design of our ships. It feels much more warm and comfortable.”
Bones (sarcastic): “Reall? I miss the sterile hospital look. Made feel as if I was at work all the time…”
The exit the turbolift and enter a cool looking bridge.

@9. Harry Ballz,
“Bob, when you shoot a movie in Canada, I believe you have to cast a certain amount of Canadian talent (to get those tax breaks).”

Not only that, but ALL of the extras will be Canadian. So you guys have as a much a chance as anybody. Indeed the only US Citizens will be a select few actors that have prominent speaking roles. All the supporting actors will be Canadian as well.

It’s kind of sad for the local Southern CA actors who have been a part of Trek since the reboot.

Leonard Nimoy doesn’t travel much these days. I hope if the rumor that he’ll be in the third reboot movie is correct, you’ll still be able to film him in LA.

@18

I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille!

I don’t know if this is a popular thought, but is there any chance that a *redesign* of the bridge is on the cards, not just a rebuild? The computer interface all seems fine, but the set itself never rang true for me. Since we already had a nice refresh of the Engineering set for STID, maybe now it’s the bridge’s turn?

And this is why I got out of Visual Effects. I got sick of chasing film subsidies around the world.

dswynne: Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the move per se. It might inject a different vibe to the film. I even think that when CBS decides to do a new series it should be done in New Zealand or the UK, just to shake things up. I was just shocked that after ignoring the Canadian tax breaks for (What?) a couple of decades or more, Paramount decides to take advantage of them after CA enacts production tax breaks and LA city and county governments are looking into what they can do to actively keep production local. While your guess about union costs wasn’t bad, the unions are on board with the state tax breaks; and even with union rates, CA based production is supposed to be competitive with BC prices. I’m wondering if there’s a production reason instead of a budgetary one for the move.

1. Yes!!

Re: the comments about a re-design of the ship interior

Given that we saw them leave on the five year mission in the previous bridge design, I don’t know how they would explain it being different. (Then again, much of the interior of the enterprise seemed to change from movie to movie in the original films without explanation)

@24 boborci – lol

Please, please, please may it be a film about exploration and get rid of allof those militarised elements. You did a great job criticising militarisation with Into Darkness. Let’s haveTrek return to peaceful exploring and an optimistic view of the future. Leave all the space battles and supervillain junk for the Star Wars sequels and that way you can distinguish this franchise from that one rather than trying to compete head to head. Cheers.

24. boborci – October 1, 2014
1. Yes!!

Then do !!

26. dlee – October 2, 2014

No competition. The Star Trek prequels are light years ahead of the star wars prequels.

“Given that we saw them leave on the five year mission in the previous bridge design, I don’t know how they would explain it being different.”

Well, do you remember the very brief glimpse of the Enterprise-A at the end of Star Trek IV TVH? It was completely different from the version one seen in the follow-up movie…So it wouldn’t be the first time to redecorate afterwards…

I wouldn’t mind a more TOS-style bridge with some orange and black elements…

I’d some much love to see a movie about exploring strange new planets. But on the other hand, such elements can be part of a military action plot. There is no contradiction. Just look at AVATAR! Two thirds of the movie showed us strange new lifeforms, planetary features, landscapes etc. And then there is the final act which is all action and destruction…

So it doesn’t have to be either / or… it can be both… However, it MUST be set in deep space to have something to explore along the way… No more savong Earth from alien agression… Leave that for 007, the Avengers and the Justice League folks…

Re: comments about ship interiors

There’s a certain precedent in place already for changing the ship interior. In particular, the fact that the Enterprise bridge had a varying amount of change in every single one of the TOS films, and even the bridge of the Bounty changed completely between STIII and STIV, despite only a couple of in-universe months. Did the Vulcans decide to give it a refit while it was hiding out at Mt Seleya?

So, boborci, it certainly can be done with few to no questions asked.

I vote exploration as well. And I would love to see a precredits sequence (as in STID) that would be the ending of a previous mission… but using a mission of a classic episode! I’d love that.
Speaking of set design, I’d love to see more of the original colour of the Enterprise in the decks and bridge, some red, please, instead of the boring ass apple store white. And while we are at it, I’d love to see other sets of the ship, like the Recreation Deck (loved that set in STTMP), the Arboretum, some crew quarters, the Mess Hall, etc… Also, I wouldn’t mind if Engineering looked more like a classic Star Trek engineering. I mean, I’m not against changes, but the engineering sets on the previous movies have been pretty awful.

In fact, I would use Probert original designs for the Enterprise, his sets were pretty amazing.

Any chance you could also re-design the Enterprise itself? Seriously that ship looks ugly!

@ 1-dlee – October 1, 2014

boborci if you are around, one question: you mentioned some time ago that you were trying to decide if the film would be about exploration or feature the crew defeating another villain. Are you now in a position to tell us which it will be about?

I think boborci is saying, “YES” to answer your query. He is planning to do BOTH of the options that you have outlined. That will be real news trekmovie!! Exciting times indeed.

Will Vancouver get to play itself on-camera here?

I actually like hearing that Stare Trek on location will not look like Southern California for once. I thought the JJ Movies didn’t have that issue as much as the rest of Trek did, but it’s a welcome change, aesthetically.

As for rebuilding from scratch.. did they not rebuild the bridge from scratch in STID anyway? The behind the scenes feature on STID looked like they did.. I’m sure some of the specific pieces were reused (desks, chairs, screens, etc) but it looked like a substantial rebuild to me.

I suggested this last time, so sorry for suggesting it again, but why not simply call the movie ‘STARSHIP ENTERPRISE’?

Everyone knows what that means; nothing says Star Trek more than that; it sounds more bad-ass than just ‘Enterprise,’ and let’s face it; the Enterprise is the star of Trek.

Someone mock up a teaser poster!

Location scouting in Canada:

So we will get a tree planet? ;)

Canada has a lot of ice and wilderness.

40. rogerachong:

I hope the filmmakers use it. I just thougt of the stargate series which I didn’t like and didn’t watch but every time I zapped in I saw them on a tree planet. Later I heard they shot in Canada. ;)

40. rogerachong:

But you are right of course: A friend of mine was in Canada for vacation last year and he brought back some really beautiful pictures.. :)

#24 “Yes!!”

lol You crack me up.

Interesting, moving the production to Canada. Certainly makes sense. And now, seeing as how you’ll have 1 extra bridge set laying about, just doing nothing… sure could be a sweet money saver if Trek, produced by Bad Robot, were to roll back onto television. Just sayin’

Bob Orci:
Make it so, eh!

Starship sets built in tv production area. Looks like Cbs might be filming something for fall 2016.

Hey Bob Orci. How about some kind of contest here on Trekmovie for a walk on role for the new movie. I’m sure you and Anthony can come up with something. This would be the ultimate Geek out for us on Trekmovie. What do you and Anthony Think.

46. Emperor Mike of the Terran Empire

I second that idea!

24. boborci – October 1, 2014
1. Yes!!

Smartypants!

How about saving some money on the light bill and using fewer lens flares.

The first Trek filmed 100% outside the USA?

So much for California’s new tax breaks.