Another two Hollywood productions shot in the Canary Islands

Ma Ma, by director Julio Medem and starring Penélope Cruz and Luis Tosar, is being filmed in Tenerife and Wild oats, with Shirley McLaine, Jessica Lange and Demi Moore is being shot in Gran Canaria.

Cinema has become one of the Canary Island's greatest cash cows in the last few years – in 2013 alone, the region earned over 15 million euros as a venue for producers.

Last year's Exodus, starring Christian Bale as Moses (pictured) and directed by Ridley Scott, and In the heart of the sea by Ron Howard, featuring Chris Hemsworth provided a welcome cash injection of 12 million euros for the islands of Fuerteventura, La Gomera and Lanzarote.

Álvaro Fernández Armero's Las ovejas no pierden el tren ('Sheep don't miss the train') with Inma Cuesta, Candela Peña and Irene Escolar, and the mini-series due for release next year by Fernando González Molina, Palmeras en la nieve ('Palm trees in the snow') based upon a Luz Gabás novel and starring Mario Casas, Adriana Ugarte and Macarena García were filmed on the islands, bringing in 3.2 million euros.

Others include the 2009 production Fury of the Titans, the sixth edition of The fast and the furious in 2012, and the 2007 film by cult director Pedro Almodóvar, Los abrazos rotos ('broken embraces') starring Penélope Cruz were all set in the region.

Aside from its exotic and varied scenery – ranging from verdant nature reserves to palm-fringed beaches through to volcanic, lunar landscape – and excellent year-round climate, the region is a favourite with film directors and producers because of its status as a tax haven.

Shooting in the Canary Islands means Spanish film companies can offset 38 per cent of their tax on profits, compared to 18 per cent on the mainland or in the Balearic Islands.

And expenses incurred in copies and publicity can now be offset against taxes up to a maximum of 40 per cent.

Filming of In the heart of the sea, an adaptation of the classic novel Moby Dick, started in November and the show is expected to be premièred before the end of the year.

Exodus, about the life of Moses, has been partly filmed in Almería and shooting continued from the end of November until early this year.

It created 1,000 temporary jobs in Fuerteventura and has left the island seven million euros better off.

Among the anecdotes that have come out of filming is the fact that the cast and crew had to have a day off on January 5, since many towns and villages on the island had no camels left for the Three Kings parade in which children receive their presents from the Wise Men of the East.

They were all being used in filming, but had to be 'borrowed back' by town councils for the processions on that day.