By Karl Quinn
Its submarine epic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea may have sunk without trace, but Hollywood leviathan Walt Disney Studios is reportedly attempting to salvage the federal funding promised to its film for another nautical adventure – Pirates of the Caribbean 5.
Industry site if.com.au reported on Monday that Disney was attempting to revive the 20,000 Leagues project, which first surfaced in early 2013 with Brad Pitt slated to star as Captain Nemo and David Fincher aboard as director.
At least he won't have far to travel: Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa, right, with Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.
That report was soon pulled down, though, and replaced with another that claimed Disney was seeking to have the funding transferred to a different project, the fifth film in a franchise that has thus far taken more than $US3.7 billion at cinemas worldwide.
The federal government declined to confirm or deny the approach from Disney, saying in a statement to Fairfax that “any discussions with Walt Disney Studios in regard to potential productions that may film in Australia are commercial-in-confidence”.
In April 2013, then Arts minister Tony Burke announced a special one-off grant to Disney of $21.6 million to bring 20,000 Leagues to Australia. That amount was in addition to the standard location offset under which the government rebates 16.5 per cent of a foreign production’s local expenditure.
In all, the government contribution appeared to be around $40 million, with an expected spend locally of between $130 and $160 million. It could reasonably have expected to claw back a significant proportion of that in tax on salaries associated with the production.
The office of Arts Minister George Brandis confirmed to Fairfax on Monday that the money allocated by the previous government remains available.
“The Australian government has committed $21.6 million in 2016-17 for Walt Disney Studios to film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in Australia,” his office said.
The union representing film crews, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, wrote to Senator Brandis last Friday on the matter of an anticipated application from Disney for a 30 per cent rebate for a film to shoot later this year. It did not name the production, but noted it was “mooted to be the biggest international feature film to be made in this country”.
The union backs a permanent increase to a 30 per cent offset, which would bring Australia into line with many other territories worldwide.
Matthew Deaner, chief of Screen Producers Australia, which represents local producers, is broadly supportive of such support for foreign productions because they “help to keep the ecosystem of production functioning” and “to keep our crews consistently in work”.
However, he adds that the government also needs to do more to support local productions, whose worth is “roughly 15-20 times” that of foreign productions.
“The government must ensure that incentives for businesses to tell Australian stories are not inferior to those provided to offshore productions and are truly competitive with those provided around the world, which is currently not the case,” he says.
The government’s position on the matter is unclear.
In May, the independent Commission of Audit recommended drastic cuts to subsidies for the screen industry, including a 50 per cent cut in funding to Screen Australia and the abolition of support for foreign productions under the location offset scheme.
To date, the only response from government has been in the May budget, where Screen Australia suffered a $38 million cut over four years, roughly 10 per cent of its budget.
Twitter: @karlkwin