“Passengers” to film at Babelsberg Studios

THR is reporting that “Passengers” will be filmed at the Studio Babelsberg and will be part of the Berlin Film Festival market for the international buyers in February. It has been reported before that the movie will start filming in April.

Keanu Reeves’ much-hyped upcoming sci-fi feature Passengers has landed at Germany’s Studio Babelsberg.

The big-budget space romance – which features Reeves and Rachel McAdams as a futuristic “Adam and Eve” – is deep into pre-production. It is scheduled to begin shooting at Babelsberg, just outside Berlin, this spring.

The plot has Reeves as space colonist Jim Preston, on board a colony ship carrying 5,000 sleeping passengers to a new world, who accidentally awakens. Lonely, he wakes up Aurora (McAdams), and they fall in love. They eventually realize it is up to them to save the entire ship.

Developed by Reeves and Stephen Hamel at their Company Films, the script was written by Jon Spaihts (Prometheus). The film will be the feature directing debut of Irish TV director Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire). Passengers has already received $1.35 million (€1 million) in financing from German state subsidy agency Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

The Weinstein Company has picked up Passengers for a U.S. release. Exclusive Media is handling international sales. Exclusive first presented the project to buyers in Cannes last year and will be pushing sales at Berlin’s European Film Market, which kicks off Thursday.

The Weinstein Company has set the US release date for April 3, 2015.