Disney's live-action Tangled wraps a ten-month shoot in Spain
Disney's live-action Tangled filmed for ten months at Studio Ciudad de la Luz in Alicante, Spain, and the shoot left a direct economic impact of more than 40 million euros, The Hollywood Reporter reported on 11 November 2026. The production ran from February to October 2026 and mobilised more than 1,000 professionals.
The film also generated 2,500 local contracts, according to the same report. Michael Gracey directs, and Kristin Burr produces. Teagan Croft, Milo Manheim and Kathryn Hahn star. Disney has set a 2028 theatrical release.
The original 2010 animated Tangled earned nearly $600 million at the global box office, The Hollywood Reporter noted.
The studio grew out of a 2005 idea from the filmmaker Luis García Berlanga, who wanted to rebuild Spain's film and television industry. Its first seven-year phase produced 63 projects, including J.A. Bayona's The Impossible and Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro. It reopened in 2023.
The site has six climate-controlled stages, linked in pairs. Two indoor pits can be flooded, and both are more than three metres deep. Outside, a water tank measuring 100 by 80 metres has wave machines, water cannons, slides and seawater pumps. The 14.8-hectare backlot, the outdoor area where sets are built, sits alongside more than 4,000 square metres of workshops and 7,000 square metres of storage.
The Hollywood Reporter describes the site as currently the only facility in Europe that allows indoor, outdoor and water filming on one location. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon shot in the tank.
Venom: The Last Dance, starring Tom Hardy, shot at the studio and generated 35 million euros and 570 contracts. French Netflix series Nero and Under Paris filmed there between 2023 and 2025. Alejandro Amenábar's El Cautivo had an estimated economic impact of eight million euros.
The Hollywood Reporter says the studio reported 90 percent occupancy in 2026.
The studio's own website lists more than 300 days of sun a year for outdoor filming. It says Madrid is under two hours away by high-speed AVE train and has international airport links. It also advertises a national tax deduction of up to 30 percent and regional subsidies of 25 percent.
Executive producer Andreas Wentz said the set and the local climate were key reasons Venom came to Spain. Director Alberto Rodríguez said his crew used the indoor stages and the outdoor tank to recreate sea and swamp settings, including waves for underwater scenes. Bayona has called Ciudad de la Luz the best studios he has visited anywhere in the world.
The site began a programme in 2024 to cut emissions towards net zero, in line with the European Green Deal, the European Union's plan for climate goals.
For Alicante, the next visible sign will be the 2028 release, when audiences see what the shoot put on screen.
