Uli Latukefu joins Jai Courtney and Jason Clarke in action movie Black Site on the Gold Coast

Young Rock star Uli Latukefu and Lincoln Lewis have joined Jai Courtney and Jason Clarke in an action thriller currently filming on the Gold Coast

An action thriller starring Australia’s Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke and Uli Latukefu is the latest blockbuster to begin filming in Queensland.

Cameras rolled on Black Site, an American and Australian co-production, on the Gold Coast this week, funded through Screen Queensland’s Production Attraction incentive.

It features a predominantly Australian cast including Courtney, Clarke and Latukefu, who recently played Dwayne Johnson in NBC’s Young Rock, as well as Phoenix Raei and Queensland’s Lincoln Lewis.

Actor Jai Courtney at the Sydney premiere of the movie 'Storm Boy' at the St.George Open air Cinema on Sydney Harbour, Thursday, January 10, 2019. Picture: AAP Image/Jeremy Piper

Jason Clarke for First Man At the Venice Film Festival in 2018

American actor Michelle Monaghan, known for her role in the Mission Impossible franchise, also stars in the film, which follows a group of officers based in a top-secret Five Eyes black site fighting for their lives in a cat-and-mouse game against a brilliant high-value detainee (Clarke).

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the film would inject $9 million into the state’s economy and create around 200 jobs, recruiting predominantly Queensland cast and crew.

The co-production follows a slate of international studios that turned to Queensland when the global pandemic stalled filming in the US, with American productions Escape From Spiderhead, Young Rock and Thirteen Lives among those that shifted to Queensland, while reality series Australian Survivor will also film in Cloncurry, in the Queensland outback, this year.

Full list of Young Rock filming locations in Queensland

“Because of our strong health response during a global pandemic we are the location of choice for a lot of productions not just here in Australia but around the world,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

Uli Latukefu as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in Young Rock. Picture: Instagram

“We’re not only able to attract international productions, but we’re able to stimulate co-production that supports the growth of local production businesses in Queensland while growing employment opportunities for local practitioners.

“It’s an exciting time to be in the movie-making business in Queensland.”

Black Site brings together Todd Fellman’s Brisbane-based Story Bridge Films (Jungle) and Asbury Park Pictures, the production company behind films John Wick and Sicario, while Australia’s Sophia Banks has returned from the US to direct the project.

Ms Banks said the experienced crew available on the Gold Coast presented the perfect opportunity for her to direct her first feature film in her home country.

“As an Australian living in the US, it was particularly exciting that I could return to my home country to shoot my first feature film,” she said.

Actor Michelle Monaghan attends The IMDB Studio featuring the Filmmaker Discovery Lounge during The 2017 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Picture: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for IMDB

Queensland actor Lincoln Lewis is among the local cast in Black Site. Picture Glenn Hampson

“With incredible films being shot on the Gold Coast, we found a highly talented crew that had the same shared vision for the film.”

She was mentored by legendary director Phillip Noyce and his CIA researcher and spent time with people who have served their country to research the Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“These organisations are highly secretive and for good reason,” Ms Banks said.

“I love the fact that we are the first to shoot a film about a Five Eyes facility. To me, filmmaking is about pushing the boundaries and this script offers the room to do just that.”

Filming will continue on the Gold Coast until mid March.

Screen Queensland is also offering four attachment opportunities for emerging screen workers in the areas of production, direction, camera and lighting.