Not words I ever thought I’d type! 

But yes, it is actually true; legendary movie director Steven Spielberg is currently filming in Birmingham. Most notably the Digbeth and Jewellery Quarter areas.

Films and TV shows are shot in and around Birmingham quite often; usually unbeknownst within the production themselves – it’s used often for location filming, designed to mimic other large cityscapes such as London etc. (Just like Chicago is often used as a location to replicate the streets of New York, because it’s cheaper to film in Chicago!).

But to have a director as huge as Mr Spielberg, it’s a major boon to have him filming here; giving the entire region a boost in crew jobs (as usually there are rules about using as many local/location based crew as possible rather than bringing in fleets of US crew), local hotels putting up the cast and crew, as well as Mr Spielberg himself, not to mention the possible tourism it will encourage once the film is released.

The film in question is called ‘Ready Player One’ based on the science fiction & dystopian novel of the same name, by author Ernest Cline; . (Wiki Link)

Starring Simon Pegg and Mark Rylance, it’s due in cinemas around March 2018. IMDB Link.

If you’re out and about in Brum around the Digbeth and JQ areas, you may well see them filming – they’ll be in the area for the next few weeks.

-Rich