George Clooney and Julia Roberts woo Federal and State governments to fund their new romantic comedy film

The Federal and Queensland government have been wooed by two of the biggest names in Hollywood, George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

George Clooney and Julia Roberts’ new romantic comedy Ticket To Paradise has scored $6.4 million in Federal government funding to bring it to Australia.

The Oscar winners have added their big names to the local boom in international productions coming down under, with filming around Queensland’s Whitsundays to start later this year,

Clooney and Roberts are set to play a divorced couple who team up and travel to Bali to stop their daughter from making the same mistake they think they made 25 years ago.

Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, said the production is expected to inject $47 million in expenditure into the Australian economy and create more than 270 jobs for local cast and crew.

“I’m so pleased to support Ticket to Paradise with a $6.4 million grant as part of our highly successful Location Incentive Program,” Minister Fletcher said.

George Clooney and Julia Roberts will head to Australia to make a new film.

“To date, we have distributed more than $216 million under the Location Incentive to attract 22 productions to Australia, providing more than 12,700 employment opportunities for local cast and crew, and generating work for over 13,500 businesses that support these big productions.”

Secured by the Queensland Government via Screen Queensland’s Production Attraction Strategy, the blockbuster will be “huge news” for her state and its global reputation for TV and film production, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

The Labor State leader added: “because of our strong health response and through the efforts of all Queenslanders in dealing with the global pandemic, we’ve emerged as one of the safest places in the world to film.

Screen Queensland CEO Kylie Munnich said Queensland is punching above its weight

as an Ausfilm study found six out of 10 international productions coming to Australia since July 2020 will film in Queensland.

“Initially it was about finding a COVID-safe place to film, but now the discussions with

producers and directors are about the diversity of locations, first-rate sound stages, depth of

crew, and just how fantastic it is to work here,” Ms Munnich.

“Producers who hadn’t filmed here before are saying to us, ‘we can’t wait to come back and

produce more projects in Queensland — you’ve got everything here and it’s just so easy.’ The

word is well and truly out!”

Hollywood bible Deadline reports the Universal movie is expected to have a cinema release, a rare win for movie theatres which are losing out A-list content to cashed-up streaming platforms.

Meanwhile, the Pretty Woman star is expected to jet into Australia this month to start work on another movie, Gaslit, a political thriller about the Watergate scandal, co-starring Sean Penn and Aussie actor Joel Edgerton, and directed by his brother, Nash.

Originally published as George Clooney and Julia Roberts woo Federal and State governments to fund their new romantic comedy film