behind the boom in overseas film and TV production

Damon had two high-profile referees in Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who called his visit “a big win, creating thousands of jobs for locals”, and NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, who said recent announcements by Marvel and other studios “represent a fantastic economic boom” for the state.

Loading

Both may have overstated the Hollywood star’s contribution to job creation – despite his undoubted talent and bankability – given director Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder was already down to star Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Chris Pratt, Tessa Thompson and Waititi himself when it begins shooting next week.

But Damon is just the latest arrival of many Hollywood actors and filmmakers in a new boom in overseas production that has been driven by the country’s success in managing the coronavirus pandemic.

Quarantine medical consultant Dr Zac Turner says there are “potentially a couple of hundred people from the US alone” looking at a similar privately funded approach to quarantine, including Australian actors returning home. He expected virtually one arrival a week this year.

The boom is starting to rival the one driven by the relatively low value of the Aussie dollar in the late 1990s to early 2000s that brought the Matrix trilogy, two Star Wars episodes, Mission: Impossible 2, Pitch Black, Queen of the Damned and the TV series Farscape.

Before the pandemic forced border closures and lockdowns in March 2020, a handful of major overseas-backed productions were under way around the country.

In Melbourne, the 10-part Paramount Television series Shantaram, starring Charlie Hunnam (The Gentleman) and Antonia Desplat (Victoria), was well into its shoot, and the Australian Netflix series Clickbait, starring Adrian Grenier, was less than three weeks from wrapping.

On the Gold Coast, Baz Luhrmann was about to start shooting his untitled Elvis Presley biopic when Tom Hanks famously became one of the first Hollywood stars to test positive to COVID-19, along with his wife, Rita Wilson. He was playing Colonel Tom Parker with Austin Butler (Once upon a Time in Hollywood) as Elvis.

And at Sydney’s Fox Studios, Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy) was directing Marvel’s first Asian superhero movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, starring Simu Liu (Kim’s Convenience) and Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians).

They were among 119 projects forced to shut down around the country.

During those eerily quiet lockdown months, one American horror film did finish a shoot on the outskirts of Sydney. Having planted a cornfield at Richmond, Kurt Wimmer’s Children of the Corn created a quarantine bubble and relied on then-new COVID-safe protocols.

When cities began reopening and these protocols were formalised, there was a sudden surge of production for both postponed Australian projects and new international projects whose makers were seeking refuge from the raging virus in the United States.

Back in July, AusFilm chief executive Kate Marks said the location marketing agency had received $1.2 billion worth of genuine inquiries from the makers of about 20 US-backed movies and TV series.

Now she believes international projects worth $460 million have tapped federal and state filming incentives to base themselves here this year.

“We’re certainly busy,” Marks said. “The level of inquiries has by no means dropped off, so I really think we’ll see continuous activity throughout this year and into the next.”

Some international-scale projects were already planned, including George Miller’s fantasy romance Three Thousand Years of Longing, starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton, which began shooting in Sydney before Christmas.

International stars also joined Australian films, notably Zac Efron in Anthony Hayes’ thriller Gold, which shot in South Australia, and Jane Seymour in Michael Budd’s drama Ruby’s Choice, which shot at Windsor, outside Sydney.

Most of the new overseas projects have been in Queensland and NSW so far, which has meant heavy demand for studios, top-line crew and production services.

With Luhrmann resuming production on his Elvis biopic at the Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast, Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) filmed the Netflix sci-fi thriller Escape from Spiderhead at the local convention centre and nearby locations. Starring Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller (Whiplash) and Jurnee Smollett (Birds of Prey), it wrapped this week.

The prolific Ron Howard is scheduled to take over from Luhrmann at the studios with the drama Thirteen Lives, about the famous Thai cave rescue of a boys’ soccer team in 2018, at the end of March. He is also directing the animated film The Shrinking of Treehorn, based on a children’s book about a young man who begins shrinking, with Sydney studio Animal Logic.

Three Universal group television series are also shooting in the Sunshine State this year: Young Rock, about Dwayne Johnson as a boy, is well under way at Screen Queensland Studios in Brisbane; Joe Exotic, with Kate McKinnon as big cat enthusiast Carole Baskin, will follow; and Irreverent, about a New York criminal hiding out as a reverend, will shoot in Far North Queensland later in the year.

Screen Queensland says that with production at an all-time high and more international projects expected, there are plans for a new studio in Cairns and a so-called reality TV hub on the Gold Coast.

NSW has become just as busy, meaning filmmakers are having to convert industrial, commercial and exhibition buildings into soundstages.

With Thor: Love and Thunder continuing the run of Marvel superhero movies at Fox Studios, Three Thousand Years of Longing is shooting in a disused building in north-western Sydney.

Director Benjamin Millepied, the Black Swan choreographer and dancer who is married to Natalie Portman, is largely shooting a modern-day take on the classic opera Carmen in another improvised soundstage in western Sydney. It stars Melissa Barrera (In the Heights), Paul Mescal (Normal People) and Elsa Pataky (Tidelands).

And the eight-part Netflix series Pieces of Her, starring Toni Collette and Bella Heathcote in a drama about random acts of violence in a sleepy Georgia town, is about to start shooting at Sydney Olympic Park.

Late last year, the miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers shot around Byron Bay, with a cast headed by Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Luke Evans and Bobby Cannavale. Interest in shooting in the area has fuelled a push to expand studio facilities there.

There has also been a state government proposal for a new studio in Perth and rumours of a second one being planned in Sydney.

Screen NSW chief executive Grainne Brunsdon expects more international productions to be announced in coming weeks that will shoot in western Sydney and regional NSW.

New facilities being opened for production include the International Convention Centre at Darling Harbour and Sydney Showground at Homebush. “There are other big spaces in the city that are being used for shooting as well,” she says.

While its extended lockdown meant that Melbourne was slower to resume production, Mark Williams (Ozark) directed Liam Neeson in the action thriller Blacklight, with shooting wrapping after a chase scene in Canberra.

Film Victoria chief executive Caroline Pitcher says the Netflix series Clickbait finished its interrupted shoot before Christmas and the Paramount TV series Shantaram is expected to resume mid-year at Docklands Studios, which is building a sixth soundstage this year.

“We’ve experienced, just prior to Christmas, a 79 per cent increase in inquiries and we’re starting to close on a number of international productions looking to film in Victoria, utilising both Docklands Studios and other facilities,” she says. “We’re talking with Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, we’re talking with the Melbourne Showgrounds and we’re also looking at alternate warehouse space.”

In South Australia, the six-part television series The Tourist, from Fleabag producer Two Brothers Pictures, will start shooting in the Flinders Ranges and Adelaide in autumn for the BBC and Stan.

Later in the year, Hong Kong-based Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle is heading back to direct Immunodeficiency, about a bee professor who is kidnapped, starring Tilda Swinton and Japan’s Joe Odagiri.

All these projects are bringing dollars into the economy and creating jobs.

But they also raise questions for the production industry: are Australian film-makers being squeezed out by bigger-budget projects? What happens when vaccines reduce virus numbers around the world and overseas projects start heading elsewhere? Will studios go dark and crews struggle for work as happened when Superman Returns left town in late 2005?

For the chief executive of Screen Producers Australia, Matthew Deaner, it’s a delicate balance.

While some Australian producers are working on overseas projects, others do not appreciate the extra competition from big-budget productions that receive handsome government incentives and, in a tight employment market, can attract top-end crew with higher wages.

Deaner believes continued support for Australian production is crucial and there needs to be encouragement for international producers to partner with locals to boost skills and help them generate future work.

One reassurance that the boom will be more sustained this time is the exploding demand for content around the world, particularly on streaming services.

“When other places come back online, production will start to spread across the globe again,” AusFilm’s Kate Marks says. “However, while we have these financial incentives in place, and as long as they continue, Australia is well positioned to really keep that pipeline going.”