It”s a super-busy summer for UK crew as 2016 turns out to be another bumper year for feature film and high-end TV drama production.

From major Hollywood action thrillers to domestic returning favourites, crew, studio and service providers have been fully booked.

With the help of our online subscription service Production Intelligence we take a look at some of the projects which have recently wrapped, or are about to, freeing up more valuable crew for the next tranche of filming this autumn.

This week we start with film…

The Hitman”s Bodyguard
An A-list Hollywood cast is set to show off its acting chops in The Hitman”s Bodyguard, the latest offering from director Patrick Hughes, best known recently for The Expendables 3 in 2014. The action comedy stars Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L Jackson, Gary Oldman, Elodie Yung and Salma Hayek. Written by Tom O”Connor, the screenplay centres on a protection agent whose new client is his old adversary.

The feature was filmed in the UK, the Netherlands and Bulgaria, and has Matthew O”Toole (London Has Fallen, Criminal) among its producers. The film shot from early April this year; it was first listed on Production Intelligence back in November 2015.

The Death of Stalin
Armando Iannucci”s much-anticipated adaption of Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin”s graphic novel The Death of Stalin has just finished filming. The production was based at Ealing Studios, and also shot on location in Ukraine.

The feature follows the dictator”s last days and the chaos that followed his death in 1953. A heavyweight cast, led by Adrian McLoughlin as Stalin, includes Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine and Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs and Paul Whitehouse.

We first detailed The Death of Stalin on PI in early March, and updates soon after with crucial hires including the production designer and line producer. Filming got underway on 20 June and ran for six weeks.

Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan”s latest feature offering, Dunkirk, is just finishing off the European part of shooting – the team is moving on to the US for another four weeks of shooting before the whole production wraps.

The re-telling of the famous events of 1940 has been using UK locations including Weymouth and Swanage.

It also took in locations in France (including Dunkirk) and the Netherlands and is due to wrap filming in the US.
Nolan has called in some big names for the period drama, including Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh and Cillian Murphy.

On PI you can find the names of the line producer, production designer and UPM.

Dark River
Writer/director Clio Barnard”s third feature film, Dark River, recently finished a five-week shoot in Yorkshire.

Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley and Sean Bean star in the film, which centres on Alice (Wilson), a young woman who, after the death of her father, returns to her home village after a 15-year absence to claim the tenancy to the family farm she believes is rightfully hers.

Dark River is backed by Screen Yorkshire, Film4, the BFI Film Fund and the Wellcome Trust. Clio Barnard”s long-term producing partner Tracy O”Riordan produces alongside Left Bank PIctures‘ executive producers Lila Rawlings, Andy Harries and Suzanne Mackie.

PI subscribers can log in for the casting director, production designer and line producer.

The Time of Their Lives
Joan Collins is back on the big screen in The Time of Their Lives, joined by Pauline Collins and Franco Nero. The Dynasty star plays a former Hollywood siren who decides to sneak out of her retirement home in London to head to France and gatecrash the funeral of her former husband.

The film”s UK locations included Dorset, Hampshire and London; France was also used.

From producer Sarah Sulick of Bright Pictures and director Roger Goldby, the film has been in development for some time – we first detailed it on PI in December 2013. Tim Rice is in charge of overseeing the soundtrack, he is also among the executive producers.

Blue Iguana
Offbeat black comedy Blue Iguana has been filming in London locations including Holborn since mid-July. The feature stars Sam Rockwell, Phoebe Fox and Ben Schwartz and is described by the writer/director Hadi Hajaig as “a film with a playful naive spirit, harkening back to films such as Demme’s classic film Something Wild, which had an amazing colourful indie vibe and a free-flowing plot with strong characters at the heart of it.”

We first listed the project on PI in April and by the time principal photography got underway we had confirmed names including the production co-ordinator, production manager, casting director and line producer.

Next week: TV drama.

This is just a taster of the many features we have covered extensively on Production Intelligence over the last few months. If you don’t already subscribe, click here for a demo.

Gary Oldman photo via Getty Images/WireImage/Steve Granitz.

Armando Iannucci photo via Getty Images/WireImage/C Flanigan.

Ruth Wilson photo via Getty Images/FilmMagic/Taylor Hill.

Christopher Nolan photo: Melissa Moseley