Cairns film industry rallies behind Curtis Pitt’s sound stage passion project

EDUCATION and film industry stalwarts have called action and begun drawing a road map towards establishing a multimillion-dollar movie sound stage in Cairns.

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EDUCATION and film industry stalwarts have called action and begun drawing a road map towards establishing a multimillion-dollar movie sound stage in Cairns.

Mulgrave MP Curtis Pitt led a roundtable meeting of about 20 people to decide what would be required to build and operate the high-end film production facility.

Representatives from Screen Queensland, Cairns company Think Virtual Reality, Arts Nexus, local film producers, schools, law firm Holding Redlich and CQUniversity all had their say.

Mr Pitt said the biggest challenge was to ensure the sound stage had multiple uses beyond just blockbuster film production.

“The next stage is to do a full business case and feasibility study,” he said.

“We need to prove the case not so much for the sound stage, but for all the activities that would go on in that multi-user facility.”

Schools and universities offering creative arts courses would be integral users of the facility, which could cost as much as $10 million.

Mr Pitt said universities would need to commit to flexible course delivery, so students could receive on-the-job training at the sound stage when big film productions were in town.

“We’ve just taken the first step,” he said.

Originally published as Cairns film industry rallies behind Curtis Pitt’s sound stage passion project