Alquimia, Volcano Films and Newport Media Films promote the largest film set in Europe in the Canary Islands

Dreamland Studios will have several sets, one of them with 6,000 m², a Water Tank for underwater filming, a theme park based on immersive virtual reality, an auditorium, an R&D laboratory and a training academy.

The alliance formed by the venture capital firm Alchemy, Volcano Films y Newport Media Films, with the intention of diversifying the economy of the Canary Islands so strongly linked to tourism, will launch a unique audiovisual and technological hub in Europe.

The complex called Dreamland Studios will have a great 6,000 m² set diaphanous with a free height of 16 meters, equipped with the latest audiovisual production technologies. This hub will also have offices, attached dressing rooms, other smaller studios, a Water Tank for underwater filming, a theme park based on immersive virtual reality, an auditorium, an R&D laboratory and a training academy specialized in audiovisuals, computer graphics and application programming.

The planned investment exceeds 120 million euros to which we must add lines of European funds for recovery. The objective is to start works before the end of this year 2021 and have the first operational spaces at the beginning of 2023.

The promoters foresee a creation of 400 direct jobs and more than 1,200 indirect in the first phase of the project, they are also processing a line of European aid linked to the much-needed change in the economic model and digitalization. The objective is to train new talent in the Canary Islands and mix it with talent attracted to the project from all over Europe.

The promoter group has acquired a tland of 160,000 m² in the north of the island Fuerteventura and the Island Council has left the project “on the table” in the plenary session last Friday. Other islands such as Lanzarote, Tenerife and Gran Canaria have shown interest in attracting the project and the promoters do not rule out any implementation option.

Entertainment demand

The demand for entertainment increases exponentially year after year, series, movies and video games have become essential products during the pandemic and the catalogs of the large platforms need to continue growing. This situation, combined with the attractive fiscal framework of the Canary Islands that stimulates both audiovisual production and the creation of video games, means that projects like Dreamland Studios are already being born with a very tight agenda.

Sebastian Alvarez, CEO of Volcano Films and one of the promoters of Dreamland, points out that “the COVID pandemic has generated a huge bottleneck in the audiovisual production sector in 2020 and when both actors and production teams can move around safely and freely again, the projects pending filming will be so many that there will not be enough space to accommodate them all.”

The project integrates film production and technological development spaces with an innovative leisure concept, a theme park based on total immersion experiences in virtual reality.

"Through the latest immersive technology, using robotic arms, glasses, gloves and with the help of ultra-realistic environments created by computer, our visitors will be able to experience in a single day a free fall by parachute, a walk on the surface of another planet or swimming among sharks. Our catalog will be made up of more than 15 different experiences for all audiences," he says. Carlos Albero, CEO of Alquimia and promoter of the project.

Landscape integration and sustainability

José Antonio Newport, CEO of Newport Media Films and vice president of the Canarian Confederation of Entrepreneurs, emphasizes that “with the hiring of IDOM our message is clear, the integration of the project into the environment and respect for the environment is a priority.”

I AM is a leading multinational professional and independent multidisciplinary engineering, consulting and architecture services with more than 4,000 employees distributed in 45 offices with a presence in 125 countries. IDOM has an area dedicated exclusively to the Environment with a solvent multidisciplinary work team, giving its projects a global and sustainable vision, winner of numerous awards for design, landscaping and sustainability, among which the new San Mames stadium, the expansion of Universities in Senegal (WAN Awards in sustainable buildings), Master Plan for a Science Park in Peru (American Architectural Prize in Landscaping) or the IDOM corporate buildings in Madrid and Bilbao certified with Platinum Leed.

"Having landscape integration as a priority, IDOM has created a space that mixes iconic architecture with the color of the environment. Buildings that look like volcanoes, sinuous shapes and native vegetation of the Canary Islands are the elements used to create the city of cinema. A completely self-sustaining city thanks to the implementation of renewable energy production technologies and the reuse of all the water resources consumed," he states. Pablo Benlloch, director of IDOM and manager of the Dreamland project.