Winterbottom uses station and museum for new film

Director Michael Winterbottom used London’s Canary Wharf station, Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel and Shanghai’s new science museum as futuristic settings for his new film, Code 436.

He and production designer Mark Tildesley, who previously worked on Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, had scoured the world looking for suitable ultramodern structures and locations.

“The idea was to combine elements of different landscapes to create a dreamlike world,” Winterbottom told Premiere magazine.

He also used shantytowns in India and Dubai’s deserts for the inhospitable badlands that surround the high-tech metropolises in the film, a love story starring Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton.

The city where Morton’s character lives is a composite of Dubai’s business district, which during the day was hot and empty, and the heaving streets of nighttime Shanghai, said Winterbottom.