15 December 2016, Sydney – Ausfilm welcomed the announcement earlier today by the Treasurer, the Hon. Scott Morrison and the Minister for the Arts, Senator the Hon. Mitch Fifield of the Australian Government’s financial support to attract and secure the Warner Bros. Pictures’ DC superhero feature film Aquaman to Australia.
“Attracting another major film to Australia will create consistency of work for our globally award-winning crews, talent and creatives and will inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the Australian economy.” said Debra Richards, CEO of Ausfilm.
In the 2015/16 year, Australia continued to demonstrate that it is the production destination of choice for international filmmakers with foreign location spending in Australia recorded at $273 million and foreign Post, Digital and Visual effects (PDV) spend in Australia at a record-high of $105 million.
“Such major productions provide investment into Australia’s screen production facilities and services, bring increased opportunities for skills and training, drive tourism visitation through filming of our unique locations and utilise Australian goods and services” said Richards.
Australian director James Wan, who co-wrote and directed Saw and the latest instalment in the successful car heist franchise Furious 7, will return home to direct. Rob Cowan, producer of San Andreas, which shot in Queensland in 2015 will return to the Gold Coast to produce Aquaman.
The Queensland Government has also announced that Aquaman will shoot in Queensland, utilising the Gold Coast’s Village Roadshow Studios in the first half of 2017.
In 2016 alone Australia hosted physical production on a number of international productions including Kong: Skull Island, Thor: Ragnarok, Alien:Covenant, television series The Leftovers, Bleeding Steel, Australia-China co-productions Dogfight and Nest; and Pacific Rim: Maelstrom is currently filming in New South Wales.
International productions that completed or are completing visual effects and post-production in Australia include The LEGO® Batman Movie, LEGO® Ninjago, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, Dr Strange, X-Men: Apocalypse, Deadpool, Game of Thrones (2 episodes from season 6), Ghostbusters, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.
“Ausfilm continues to advocate for a permanent increase to the Location Offset to ensure Australia remains internationally competitive. The international film industry is highly competitive and without compelling federal and state screen incentives these films would not have considered Australia as a production destination.” said Richards.
Media enquiries:
Rachelle Gibson – Head of Marketing & Business Development, Ausfilm
T: + 61 2 9383 4191 E: [email protected]