Hong Kong ( CNN ) Taipei is fast becoming the go-to Asian city for some of Hollywood 's biggest hitters . Martin Scorsese is filming his latest opus `` Silence '' there , and French director Luc Besson chose Taipei over seven other Asian cities for his sci-fi thriller `` Lucy , '' starring Scarlett Johansson . And this May `` The Walking Dead '' star Andrew Lincoln will begin filming in the city for a movie project . Tasked with attracting international film makers , Jennifer Jao , head of the Taipei Film Commission , said that 92 foreign film crews shot in the city last year , up from 56 in 2013 . `` We hope the whole island can be like a big studio , '' she told CNN while in Hong Kong Thursday . It was n't always this way . For years , Taiwan , while home to acclaimed filmmakers like Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien , was overlooked in favor of its ritzier neighbors Hong Kong , Shanghai and Tokyo . And even when Hollywood came knocking , the city did n't always have its act together . The producers of `` Mission Impossible III , '' released in 2006 , had wanted to film at Taipei 101 , at that time the world 's tallest skyscraper . But faced with red tape and reluctance , they ended up choosing the 53-story Shanghai Bank of China Tower for Tom Cruise 's memorable bungee jump . `` We lost an opportunity for the world to get to know Taipei , '' says Jao . Jao 's commission was set up in 2008 to court international film makers but it was n't until director Ang Lee , who was born in Taiwan , filmed the Oscar-winning hit `` Life of Pi '' on the island that it began to earn a reputation as an accommodating and affordable place to shoot . Lee filmed the memorable and technically difficult scenes of a shipwrecked boy and a tiger at a purpose-built facility at abandoned airport in the Taiwanese city of Taichung . With its relatively unknown cityscape , Taiwan can also function as a generic Asian backdrop . The island , which was a Japanese colony , is already being used as a stand-in for Japan . Japanese director Takashi Miike used Taiwan 's high-speed rail system in a bullet-strewn action sequence for crime drama `` Shield of Straw , '' which competed at the Cannes International Film Festival . Japanese rail authorities turned him away . And Scorsese 's `` Silence , '' due to release in 2016 , is a historic drama about two Jesuit priests who travel to Japan . Taiwan is also a popular alternative to China , where there are many restrictions on filmmakers -- authorities can censor scripts considered politically sensitive or obscene . Hong Kong director John Woo used both Taiwan and China as locations in `` The Crossing . '' Dubbed China 's `` Titanic , '' it focuses on a ship that sank when the Nationalist government fled China for Taiwan in 1949 as the Communists took over -- a sensitive period in Chinese history . Taiwan and China are still governed separately . Chinese authorities asked Woo to tone down the heroics of a Nationalist soldier , according to the South China Morning Post -- not something that Taiwan would ever require , says Jao . The commission offers incentives for international film crews . Up to $ 2 million is available per movie -- half of that as a cash subsidy . But just as important is the island 's versatility as a location , says Jao . While many of the film crews are from neighboring Asian countries , the city has hosted crews from Latvia and Germany , while the BBC shot some of its newly released drama `` X+Y '' in the city . `` It 's a small island . Within half an hour , you can go from the streets to the mountains to the sea . ''
Taipei is attracting more international film crews . Martin Scorsese is shooting his latest movie in the city . Taiwan often acts as a stand in for China and Japan .