Revealed: Gold Coast to star as itself in new shark horror film by homegrown director and writer Maria Lewis
Fifteen years ago when she left the Gold Coast to pursue a career as a writer, Maria Lewis couldn’t have imagined it would become the best place in the world to fulfil those dreams.
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It’s the flash of shadow underwater, the glint of a fin above water, the anxiety when feet no longer touch sand.
Every Gold Coaster knows the feeling – the fear of a shark attack.
A new movie is taking that terror and turning it into a spotlight for the city itself, showcasing the Coast’s thriving film industry, its homegrown talent … and its complicated relationship with our underwater residents.
While a feature film described as Jaws meets The Blair Witch Project might not seem a likely story for a happy ending, that’s exactly what it represents for Untitled Shark Movie director, co-writer and co-producer Maria Lewis.
Fifteen years ago when she left the Gold Coast to pursue her career, Lewis couldn’t have imagined it would become the best place in the world to fulfil those dreams.
Years of investment from Screen Queensland and the City of Gold Coast are bringing some of our greatest homegrown talents back home, including Lewis, an award-winning screenwriter and best-selling author.
She will bring her shark project to life in partnership with co-writer and lead actor Kimie Tsukakoshi, one of Australia’s top rising screen and stage stars, and Lucy Markovich, the head of Burleigh-based female-owned and operated production company Elysium.
Lewis said the production of Untitled Shark Movie proved the depth of the local film industry, with the local investment and belief of A-list directors like Baz Luhrmann paving the way for a new generation of Gold Coast auteurs.
She said Untitled Shark Movie was intended as a vehicle not only for homegrown talent, but an opportunity for the city to star as itself.
“The city is so often used as a location but built to appear as somewhere else – whether that’s LA or Bali or Memphis – but why not make a movie about the Gold Coast as a film location, where it is actually the Gold Coast?
“This concept all started when Kimie was working on an actual shark film and just started wondering what would happen if while she was filming there was an actual shark attack? “There is so much fake gore and as an actor you really have to sell the attack and the terror so how would anyone know?
“Kimie and I worked together on my first short film and we were talking about this and thought that could make an amazing concept for a horror film.
“We’ve both been in the business for a long time working on other people’s projects, me as a writer and her as an actor, but this could be something that we could build for ourselves, we could invest in each other.
“We know that creature features and found footage films are always popular subgenres, so why not combine them in a narrative that’s a movie within a movie, about a director making a shark film who goes off the deep end and decides to shoot with real sharks … and chaos ensues.
“We decided to call it Untitled Shark Movie because every shark movie that gets made is always called that initially.”
Lewis said the script had attracted international attention after going to market and received funding from Screen Queensland, with locations and logistics now being locked in to shoot later this year.
She said she was hoping to produce the film for under $1m in order to retain creative control before agreeing to a distribution deal.
“We have had a number of offers already, but film deals are a little like buying a house – you can either buy off the plan or you can buy a spec home. We’re building a spec home because we believe in our vision.
“The script got a lot of attention from the industry and the market and we’ve received development funding from Screen Queensland, who are really investing in local creators and IP holders, as well as support from the City of Gold Coast who have invested in Elysium, so now we’re locking in our schedule and finalising the cast, as well as the creatures and special effects.”
Having grown up on the Gold Coast, graduating from Marymount College and beginning her writing career as a journalist at the Gold Coast Bulletin, Lewis said she was adamant she would never return to Queensland when she left in 2010, but now believed coming home was the best professional and personal decision she had ever made.
She said telling stories had always been the “most important thing” in her life, and she found a niche for herself on the Gold Coast writing about its then-infant film industry, building lasting relationships with local professionals like John Cox, the Oscar-winning creature designer for Babe, whose office was next door to the old Bulletin office in Molendinar.
She then moved to Sydney to write for The Daily Telegraph before signing a book deal for her debut novel Who’s Afraid?, which was published globally in 2015.
Now the author of 11 books, including writing for Marvel, DC Comics and Assassins Creed, she shifted from print to working at SBS’s The Feed before becoming a full-time freelancer working on documentaries and podcasts, while still writing articles and opinion pieces.
She has worked on projects for Netflix UK, AMC, Ubisoft, Stan, Netflix ANZ, Nickelodeon, ABC and in 2023 made her directorial debut with The House That Hungers, based on her award-winning short story of the same name, which played at Adelaide International Film Festival, Monster Fest and Final Girls Berlin.
After being in Melbourne until last year, she said she decided to make the move back north one year ago after her horror/comedy feature screenplay The Black Talons received support from Screen Queensland.
“I never would have left the Gold Coast 15 years ago if it was then what it is now,” she said.
“I moved away because I didn’t think there was any way to follow my dreams here, but now there is no better place.
“There aren’t many other places where you can make a shark movie for under $1m that can go global.
“All of the funding and investment and planning by Screen Queensland and the City of Gold Coast has paid off … and those bodies deserve credit because these were long-term initiatives that take time to bear fruit.
“But this has always been an ambitious city, and I think that’s something that filmmakers like Baz Luhrmann have recognised, and by bringing people like that here, they then have continued to invest and that’s built an ecosystem here that would not have existed without them.
“You don’t have to leave anymore for post-production and visual effects, all that talent is here … and there are so many initiatives to get people to stay.
“Our crews are bigger and better, skills are upgraded and there is money to invest back into local companies and creators to make our own stories as well as hosting Hollywood productions.
“To be able to be the beneficiary of these changes is super exciting.”
Lewis said another benefit of being back on the Coast was access to its amazing beaches and waves – but she said that also meant more close encounters with sharks.
“Sharks are such a Gold Coast story for me. I covered fatalities as a reporter and have had my own close calls as a surfer and lifesaving clubbie,” she said.
“I think anyone who has spent some time in the water has a story.
“But I’ve never let it put me off. Being able to surf frequently and often is spiritually and culturally important to me.
“I just have to try to forget that I know too much and accept that I’m going into their world and there is risk that comes with that.”
However, Lewis said sharks in the film industry could be far more dangerous than their marine counterparts.
She said that was part of the metaphor of Untitled Shark Movie.
“This is a film being made by women in the industry and there’s a reason it’s a shark movie,” she said.
“There are so many things we have seen – sexism, racism, people wanting to exploit your trauma and your diversity.
“I remember the very first writers room I was in, a man was telling me I didn’t deserve to be there … the project was literally based on the book I wrote.
“So we’re taking a not-so-subtle look at the ways that the industry can go really wrong. “Obviously a shark creature feature and horror movie has its own conventions, but we’re also trying to distinctly say something about women in the film industry.
“That’s part of the beauty in helping create this new chapter for the film industry on the Gold Coast.
“It’s an opportunity to build it better and build it safer so that it’s a place where women won’t get caught.”
Originally published as Revealed: Gold Coast to star as itself in new shark horror film by homegrown director and writer Maria Lewis
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