Ridley Scott’s new film, The Dog Stars, is to begin shooting in Italy. Produced by 20th Century Fox, the film has an estimated budget of $100 million.
Principal photography is scheduled to begin on April 29 on the shores of lake Bordano in Friuli; this is just kilometres from the border with Veneto where the director and crew will head next, to shoot at the Cansiglio plateau in the Belluno Prealps, from May 12 to 16. Locations include: Polcenigo, the Cansiglio forest, Vallorch, the Cimbrian villages, Le Rotte and La Genzianella.
The production will then move to the Abruzzo mountains; the Sirente Velino Park, around Secinaro and Ovindoli, Airport Parchi dell'Aquila, and the Preturo area. The final stage is in Rome, at Cinecittà Studios.
The locations, natural landscapes for the most part, were chosen by the director after multiple recces in recent weeks.
The production schedule has a total of 9 weeks of filming (see "On set" section), which will employ 400+ Italian and 100+ foreign professionals.
The film is inspired by the 2012 post-apocalyptic novel by Peter Heller (published in Italy as Le stelle del cane) which was set in Colorado. The main character is played by Australian actor Jacob Elordi, seen in Euphoria and as Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola's Priscilla. Here he plays Hig, a widower and pilot, one of the few survivors of a global pandemic, who lives in a hangar with a dog and a grumpy sniper. His quiet solitude is interrupted when he intercepts a mysterious radio signal and sets out to understand where it comes from. The cast also includes Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Josh Brolin.