Lifelong Los Angeles resident and staunch supporter of the industry Ron Howard landed a world away from Hollywood for the creation of his last two live-action feature films. The 75-year-old filmmaker filmed his 2022 Thai cave rescue drama Thirteen lives in Queensland, Australia and returned just months later to produce his upcoming survival thriller Edenstarring Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeneyand Judas Law.
“We've now had two great experiences in a row – and I hope we can do it again,” says Howard of his time Down Under. The director adds that both projects were an easy fit for Queensland, thanks to the area's stunning natural landscapes, which doubled in modern-day rural Thailand. Thirteen Lives and the Galapagos Islands of the 1930s Eden.
“We shot almost all the outdoor scenes and the choices were strong across the board,” he explains. “Australia has always had a strong talent base, both in front of and behind the camera. If they continue to nurture that and build on that with the great support the agencies are providing, there are many blue skies ahead.”
Bill Connor, Howard's production partner and long-time first assistant director, added: “Australia seems to be firing on all cylinders at the moment. It is on the same level as the US, UK, Canada and other top production areas. It's an exciting time to be part of the industry there.”
Howard and Connor are far from the only ones heading to Australia to take advantage of the local industry's growing strength as a manufacturing hotspot. The number of recent and future tentpoles shooting Down Under represents an undeniable boom, according to local industry leaders.
“Collectively, films shot in Australia have already grossed almost $1 billion at the global box office this year, and we're far from done,” said a recent statement from Ausfilm, the country's leading production support agency.
Recent hits from Australia include Sony Pictures' Glen Powell and Sweeney rom-com Everyone but youWarner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment Godzilla x Kong: The New EmpireRyan Gosling and Emily Blunt action comedy from Universal Pictures The autumn man and Disneys Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
Two of the most talked-about genre titles premiere on the Cannes Film festival this year also included in Oz. Nicolas Cage's revenge thriller on the beach The Surferwhich was produced entirely on location in Western Australia, will premiere in the Midnight Screenings section of the festival, while Aussie icon George Miller's Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – which was filmed at both Disney Studios Australia in Sydney and some remote Australian locations where earlier installments of the franchise were set in the 1980s – is scheduled for an out-of-competition reveal.
Underscoring the momentum driving Australia's manufacturing boom, the list of upcoming projects is also long. Action thriller by Liam Neeson The Ice Road 2: Road to the sky is currently filming at Valhalla in Victoria, Australia, as Shane Black's big budget crime film is made Play dirty for Amazon MGM Studios, starring Mark Wahlberg and LaKeith Stanfield, is setting up shop in the country, as are AGBO Studios and Amazon MGM Studios' The bluffwith Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Bob Marley: One Love director Frank E. Flowers attached.
As usual in the International The film and television sector, a key driver of Australia's continued output growth, was driven by an improvement in incentive schemes. In July, the country's national government increased the location compensation program in its annual budget from 16.5 percent to 30 percent. These changes will allow films that spend at least $20 million in the country to reclaim 30 percent of all expenditure on goods and services upon project completion. Previously, it was often possible for particularly savvy producers to top up the 16.5 percent guaranteed compensation and bring total support to 30 percent by cobbling together previous subsidy schemes – but increases introduced last year gave global producers some much-needed relief of convenience and confidence. deposit.
Anticipating the business boom that would likely result from the changes, a group of industry veterans recently came together to co-launch Servo, a turnkey services company designed to handle all aspects of inbound manufacturing with to facilitate and accelerate a large budget focused on Australia. The company has hit the ground running, providing production services to Imagine Entertainment and AGC Studios' EdenCODE Entertainment The Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky, and Amazon MGM Studios' Play dirtyamong other projects in the works.
“We have had concerns about incentive consistency in the past, but the new location compensation appears to have addressed that issue, and we are excited to explore that as we move forward with our next productions,” said Andrew Golov, executive vp production at Miramax. “Personal connections in our business are also critical, and my relationship with the people at Servo provides confidence that their manufacturing experience, combined with local knowledge, will deliver successful production that maximizes spend with production value.”
Jon Kuyper, co-founder of Servo and former senior vp production at Warner Bros. in Sydney, notes that “Australia has been a big studio favorite for years, but it has suffered a bit from currency fluctuations and the discretionary subsidy schemes, which have resulted in something of a feast-or-famine situation with very busy periods and other, much quieter periods .”
Kuyper believes that this previous fluctuation in business flow has held Australia back to some extent, as it made it more difficult for companies and individuals to justify more aggressive investments in building out production facilities or fully committing their careers to the film business.
“As government location compensation is increased, this will attract a steady stream of films, providing certainty for growth in crew training and infrastructure building – which is of course essential to Australia taking a greater share of the global market ,” says Kuyper. say.
New production facilities in Australia are already coming online. In April, Screen Queensland Studios opened in Cairns, adding 11,517 square meters of soundstage space to the country's facilities, along with production offices, editing suites, sound studios, construction space and other support infrastructure. An even larger facility is in the works in Western Australia, called Home Fire, which the local government is funding with an investment of A$233.5 million. The project features four large, state-of-the-art stages and is expected to open for filming in 2026.
“With location compensation being introduced and a steady pipeline of international projects coming in, I expect we will see even more interest in infrastructure developments in the future,” says Kate Marks, CEO of Ausfilm.
Marks notes that a particular area's incentive offering is always “a crucial piece of the puzzle when film producers are assessing different locations” – but the ultimate decision on where to work “often comes down to the full package.”
“Having an incentive is key,” adds Marks, “but what people always say when they come back here is, first and foremost, they just love working in Australia – it's the Australian lifestyle and the Australian people.”
Adds producer Bart Rosenblatt, who recently wrapped Neeson's The IJsweg 2 in the southern part of the country: “Currently Australia is a very attractive place to photograph. When we look for locations with a large tax benefit, we often find that they do not have the infrastructure, crew, local actors or facilities necessary to support a large production. Australia has all four of these. The crew we worked with in Melbourne were very experienced and had a great attitude, which only makes us want to come back.”