Ron Howard and Brian Glazer call for crew members to work on Gold Coast movie Thirteen Lives
Hollywood director Ron Howard has sent out an open casting call for Queensland workers on his big-budget movie Thirteen Lives.
QLD News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Hollywood heavyweights Ron Howard and Brian Grazer have sent out an open casting call for Queensland crew members to work on their upcoming movie on the Gold Coast.
After completing hotel quarantine in Queensland, Howard is in pre-production for his latest directing project, Thirteen Lives, about the 2018 Thai cave rescue, which will shoot on the Gold Coast from mid-March to June.
On Monday, Screen Queensland announced they had partnered with talent development company Impact Creative Systems, which Howard runs with Grazer, to employ four Queensland-based screen professionals, who will be paid $1,410 for fifty hours of work each week for the three month project – meaning the four successful Queenslanders stand to earn close to $17,000.
The jobs, designed to grow their careers and experience, have been aligned with on-set skill shortages, created by the increasing demand to film projects in Queensland, in the areas of costume design, set design, accounting, and assistant directing.
Howard and Grazer founded production company Imagine Entertainment in 1985 and have produced Academy Award-winning films such as A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13 and 8 Mile.
“We’re excited about the potential for Impact to transform careers in areas where the screen industry, in Queensland but also globally, is experiencing particular skill shortages,” Grazer and Howard said in a joint statement.
“It’s also a deep part of our philosophy and approach to give back to the locations where we are filming and this program is a great way of providing emerging screen professionals of promise the opportunity to work on a major feature film in their own backyard.”
The four successful Queenslanders will have their experience on the film documented through video diaries and social media updates as part of a digital campaign.
Thirteen Lives is estimated to employ an additional 275 cast and crew and inject around $45 million into the Queensland economy.
It is one of a number of productions secured for Queensland as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shut down filming globally.
The increase in big-budget productions filming in the region as well as expensive international quarantine rules has left projects jostling over available crew workers.
Howard took to Instagram on Saturday to share a photo of his wife Cheryl walking along a Gold Coast beach, writing “this place is a reminder that adherence to restrictions and co-operation can lead us back to normalcy”.
Screen Queensland chief executive Kylie Munnich said: “As demand for Queensland as a production location continues to escalate, these kinds of initiatives are vital to creating a viable industry to rival other major screen hubs globally.”
For more information and to apply visit impact-australia.com/crews
Applications close 14 February 2021.
More Coverage
Peace deal struck after residents blow up over controversial trail route
A group of senior citizens who have spent years warring with the State Government and Logan City Council over a $13m portion of rail trail they say will be a magnet for criminals is “celebrating a small win”.
New ‘Nook’ offers space to work and create while kids cared for
A local family with two businesses of their own is launching the Sunshine Coast’s first ever co-working space designed specifically for parents – fully equipped with a shared working space, a staffed kids room, a podcast recording room, and more.