‘Star Trek Beyond’ wraps up Dubai shoot

The stars of Star Trek Beyond have set a course for home after filming in Dubai for just over two weeks, wrapping up with a night shoot at Meydan.

Filming on the third instalment in the franchise finished around 2am on Friday, sources told tabloid!, with most of the stars headed out of the UAE right afterwards.

That marks the end of principal photography on the film, which has a July 2016 release date.

Idris Elba, a newcomer to the franchise, is however, sticking around — he’s due to perform a DJ set at Zero Gravity’s DXBeach festival on October 23.

tabloid! spotted the tell-tale signs that filming was taking place at Meydan on Thursday — yellow signs marked “Euclid” – the apparent code for the Star Trek Beyond shoot. Similar signs were seen around the set in Dubai International Financial Centre.

Other signs on Thursday directed extras, tech and crew to the entrance of the Imax at Meydan. Meanwhile, outside the main entrance of the racecourse — home of the Dubai World Cup, the world’s richest horse race — dozens of white trucks were stationed, another classic sign of a film set.

Filming appeared to take place in the Imax area and in the Sky Bubble — a large glassed-in area that overlooks the racing track.

Around sunset on Thursday, three large cherry-pickers — each loaded with two massive spotlights — slowly extended up into the sky, eventually turning the lights to point at the multi-storey convex glass area just below the end of the Sky Bubble — at the point where Meydan Grandstand meets Meydan Hotel.

White fabric covered nearly the entire surface of the glass, flowing down over several storeys. While crew members could be spotted in the grandstand and by the track, no cast members were visible.

Those who have enjoyed spotting the actors around town — including Chris Pine, Simon Pegg and John Cho — need not despair.

Jackie Chan remains in Dubai, filming Kung Fu Yoga until the end of October. And Bollywood films are shooting in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi — Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor-starrer Ki & Ka taking place this week and Dishoom — with John Abraham — in the capital.

Brad Pitt and his family are reportedly flying into Abu Dhabi to shoot for War Machine this month, too.