Tom Hanks returns to quarantine on the Gold Coast with Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis movie set to resume
Six months after his Gold Coast coronavirus diagnosis sent shockwaves around the world, Tom Hanks has returned to quarantine in Queensland, with production on Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis movie set to resume. But he’s not staying in one of the mandated quarantine hotels.
Confidential
Don't miss out on the headlines from Confidential. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Tom Hanks is back on the Gold Coast as filming on Baz Luhrmann’s embattled Elvis biopic is set to finally get underway.
The American actor flew into Coolangatta airport on a private jet late Tuesday, six months after he and his wife Rita Wilson contracted COVID-19 while he was staying on the Gold Coast and shut down production days before filming was due to begin.
Hanks was among the first high-profile celebrities to contract the virus, sending shockwaves around the world.
Hanks’ $200 Gold Coast night out eating 50c wings
A spokesperson for the film said Hanks will now undertake the mandatory two-week quarantine on the Gold Coast before work on the production is due to begin at Village Roadshow Studios later this month.
He is quarantining in a hotel along with other members working on the production of the Elvis movie.
It’s understood the production company, operating under its own COVID-safe plan, has rented out several floors of a hotel not being used in the normal hotel quarantine arrangements.
Quarantined guests are being monitored and tested on required days by the Gold Coast public health unit and are not allowed to leave their rooms during the two-week quarantine.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was asked in Question Time whether Mr Hanks had been given special quarantine exemptions like other celebrities.
“The industry plan for COVID in relation to the screen industry is a plan that has been approved, just like it has for the resources industry, just like it has for the agricultural industry,” she said.
“Under that plan they have to stay in that place for two weeks, just like everyone else.
“And they will have random checks by police, just like everyone else.”
Ms Palaszczuk said the Elvis production was creating 900 jobs on the Gold Coast and it was a positive thing filming could restart soon.
She said the film would bring in $100 million to the local economy.
How a Queensland Health official averted Donald Trump Twitter disaster
Luhrmann’s Elvis movie was originally slated to begin filming in February before heavy rain on the Gold Coast caused flooding on the set and delayed production by two weeks.
Hanks’ illness and the COVID-19 pandemic then shut down the production for a further six months.
The filmmaker, who has remained in Queensland throughout lockdown posted a photo of himself wearing a facemask at the studio’s soundstage 9 to Instagram late Wednesday.
“Welcome back cast and crew. “Taking care of Business” in the wonderful State of Queensland,” he wrote.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in June that she had met with Luhrmann in a bid to resume the production “as soon as possible” and announced an industry safe plan was being developed by Screen Queensland and Queensland Health to ensure safety measures were in place.
Speaking in the US recently, Hanks explained that he was committed to returning to the Gold Coast for filming.
“There are dates on the calendar that say maybe we will be making this movie in October, but all of that stuff is a ‘maybe’ as questions about quarantine and temperatures and sterilising soundstages and all of that go on,” he said.
