‘Hollywood Australia’ a $1.5bn movie blockbuster extravaganza

It’s lights, camera and more action than the local film industry has seen in decades as filmmakers flee virus-ridden countries.

Chris Hemsworth, left, in full Thor mode with co-star Chris Pratt in Sydney's Centennial Park. Picture: Media-Mode

It’s lights, camera and more action than the local film industry has seen in decades as Hollywood ­actors and filmmakers escape virus-ridden territories for the relatively safe haven of Australia.

Reality TV franchise Australian Survivor is the latest project to take advantage of the country’s low rate of COVID-19 infections, swapping Fiji for outback Queensland and joining an international production boom that has lured A-list celebrities such as Liam Neeson, Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton and Natalie Portman.

Arts Minister Paul Fletcher will on Thursday announce a $3.9m sweetener to bring Australian Survivor’s sixth season to Cloncurry in northwest Queensland. It’s part of a $400m location incentive that has already attracted a suite of big-budget productions expected to spend a total of $1.47bn in Australia and create 11,800 industry jobs.

-Ron Howard on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Picture: Backgrid

Oscar-winning director Ron Howard is on the Gold Coast to film MGM’s Thirteen Lives, a drama about the 2018 Thai cave rescue, supported by $13m in ­government funding.

Irish action star Neeson has been dodging bullets in Melbourne as a troubled FBI fixer in the film Blacklight. And the Marvel blockbuster Thor: Love and Thunder recently transformed Sydney’s Centennial Park into the fantasy realm of Asgard.

“The level of production at the moment is unprecedented,” said Kate Marks, chief executive of industry group Ausfilm, which has received $2.8bn worth of overseas inquiries since July.

“It’s a winning combination of a competitive funding incentive, the way Australia has managed the COVID pandemic successfully, and the terrific reputation of our industry.”

Netflix series Pieces of Her began filming this week at Sydney Olympic Park after coronavirus shut down a planned Vancouver, Canada, shoot. The drama, starring Toni Collette, is expected to deliver 400 local jobs and contribute an estimated $58m to the NSW economy.

“I don’t think I’ve asked anyone since COVID, ‘Would you like to come to Australia?’ and they’ve said no,” producer Bruna Papandrea told The Australian.

“And no one wants to leave.”

Another Papandrea project, the series Nine Perfect Strangers starring Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy, has just wrapped filming in northern NSW, injecting more than $100m into the state economy and creating hundreds of jobs.

Natalie Portman and her husband, Benjamin Millepied, in Sydney's eastern suburbs. Picture: Backgrid

Chris Hemsworth is one of the few marquee names to dodge a mandatory 14-day quarantine, having been based in Byron Bay since 2014. He finished the Netflix sci-fi film Escape from Spiderhead on the Gold Coast before joining cast mates Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Chris Pratt and Natalie Portman at Sydney’s Fox Studios for the fourth Thor movie.

Portman’s husband, Benjamin Millepied, is also in Sydney, shooting an adaptation of the opera ­Carmen, with Hemsworth’s wife actress Elsa Pataky and Normal People’s Paul Mescal in Maroubra.

Meanwhile, Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba are filming George Miller’s $60m fantasy drama Three Thousand Years of Longing in Sydney’s northern suburbs, with a number of reportedly “spectacular” sets standing in for Istanbul.

Zac Efron has been living out of a caravan in the South Australian outback shooting the thriller Gold, and Jamie Dornan headlines six-part thriller The Tourist, a co-­production for BBC1 and Stan, also filming in SA.

Such is the surge in demand that studios around the country are booked solid, with filmmakers having to use warehouses, convention centres and exhibition halls as sound stages.

A new studio has been planned for Perth, Melbourne’s Docklands Studios is adding a sixth sound stage, and there are rumours of a second studio for Sydney.

“This is a great moment for our industry,” said Zareh Nalbandian, chief executive of Sydney-based animation company Animal Logic, which is teaming with Ron Howard for his first animated feature, The Shrinking of Treehorn.

Matt Damon, wife Luciana Barroso and Elsa Pataky in Lennox Head on the NSW north coast. Picture: Media-Mode

“Over the past five to 10 years, we lost quite a significant amount of global market share because our legislation in terms of incentives was inconsistent. But recent announcements show federal and state governments are committed to growing our film industry.

“Coupled with the fact we are one of the only safe places in the world, it’s a fantastic opportunity for us to not only regain that global market share but increase it.”

Universal Studio Group has inked a deal to shoot three TV ­series at Screen Queensland Studios: Young Rock, with Dwayne Johnson, the Tiger King spin-off Joe Exotic and Irreverent.

“Young Rock just wrapped last week and goes out on television in the US next week,” Screen Queensland chief Kylie Munnich said. “They’ll see lots of Brisbane locations doubling for America.”

Filming on Australian Survivor will begin in the next few months and is expected to create 150 jobs and inject more than $29m into regional Australia, Mr Fletcher said. “(It) was one of the many world-renowned productions jeopardised by the pandemic, which is why we are pleased to (help) get the series back on our screens in 2021,” he added.