Hollywood eyes Tasmania as perfect location for new movies

TASMANIA’S reputation as an emerging new hot spot for film and television production just got a whole lot hotter.

TASMANIA’S reputation as an emerging new hot spot for film and TV production just got a whole lot hotter.

The state has caught the eye of Hollywood studios which are now looking to the state as a site for major projects.

Dev Patel in the film Lion

A rash of films and TV series, including Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel’s Oscar-nominated Lion, Rosehaven, The Kettering Incident and Australian super producer Bruna Papandrea’s new period film The Nightingale, has defined Tasmania as a viable but untapped option for Hollywood and other filmmakers.

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“There are people absolutely looking at it [Tasmania] now,” Screen Australia chief executive Graeme Mason said.

“We have had more going on in Tasmania in the last two years than probably the last dozen added together.”

The period film Nightingale being filmed in the Midlands town of Oatlands.

The Queensland, NSW and Victorian governments have aggressively pursued Hollywood for major productions with blockbuster action franchises and other genres, including Aquaman, Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean and horror flick Winchester starring Helen Mirren, shot on the Australian mainland in recent years.

The Tasmanian government and its film-TV business unit, Screen Tasmania, have an advantage when courting directors and location managers scouting potential shoot locations.

“Tasmania provides a physical landscape which looks like nowhere else,” Mr Mason said.

The recent uptick in production in the state has also created film infrastructure to support bigger projects, with talented Tasmanian crew now able to remain home instead of flying north or overseas for work.

“There is crew there now and amazing landscapes very different to anything else you will get, so Tasmania is having a real moment,” Mr Mason said.

Tasmania and the other states had the spotlight shone on them over the last week in New York during the four-day inaugural Australian International Screen Forum.

AAP