Blockbusting The Rock

RIGHT at the moment, the biggest blockbuster movie in production on the planet is being filmed in Queensland.

That $100 million-plus 3D movie’s name is San Andreas and it stars Hollywood ‘go-to’ action star and former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) champion, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. 

It is an outstanding credit for the plucky Australian movie industry, at a time when its exchange rate, approaching parity with the US dollar, is not doing it any favours.

While the word around Australian movie production teams is that the rates of pay are no longer at the ‘very comfortable’ levels of their heyday, these professionals are very glad to be working on such a prestigious project and have a quiet confidence that it will lead to more regular jobs in movie production on behalf of Hollywood.

While much of the media discussion centred on economic incentives to bring film work to Australia – and it has worked, with actor and director Angelina Jolie completing Australian filming of her World War Two epic, Unbroken, the inspirational story of 1936 Olympic runner Louis Zamperini just a few months before San Andreas commenced – word in the industry is that the professionalism and efficiency of the Australian crews is the real clapper-board to the future.

San Andreas is being filmed primarily at Village Roadshow studios on the Gold Coast, and also utilising locations in Brisbane, Gatton, Ipswich and at Archerfield Airport, where rare 1930s-era hangars temporarily became the Los Angeles Fire Department special air operations headquarters and the RACQ Careflight helicopter maintenance crews provided equipment and advice.

San Andreas is said to have been attracted through Warner Bros. by Screen Queensland’s production incentive scheme and the state’s payroll tax rebate. According to Variety magazine, only 18 days of filming for San Andreas has been made in Los Angeles itself, primarily because of poor LA financial incentives.

Officially, San Andreas is expected to create 2700 jobs and generate $40 million into the Australian economy, but it may be that the real long-term value is the tidal rise it brings to the local screen production industry and its tourism onflow.

 

More coverage in the print edition of Business Acumen, #77.

 

www.unbrokenfilm.com

www.screenqueensland.com.au

www.screenaustralia.gov.au

 

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ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 2014.

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