Creating a minimum of 600 jobs for Queenslanders – and as high as 1,200 jobs in total, this is a huge win for our local screen industry and all of Queensland.

MEDIA RELEASE
Premier and Minister for the Arts
The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk

Queensland secures Aquaman and more than 600 jobs

[Thursday 15 December 2016] The Palaszczuk Government has secured Warner Bros. Pictures’ much-anticipated feature Aquaman to commence shooting at the Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast in the first half next year with more than direct 600 jobs to be created.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who has personally negotiated with the Warner Bros. representatives, said Aquaman will spend more than AU$100 million in Queensland on physical production and create a minimum of 600 jobs.

“Queensland was successful in winning a competitive bid to attract Aquaman contributing to our reputation as a leading film destination,” the Premier said.

“Last financial year was Queensland’s best year in terms of attracting production expenditure since 2002-03 – a record year – of $233 million.”

Aquaman follows on from back-to-back international and domestic productions, including Thor: Ragnarok and Pacific Rim 2, which will return to shoot on location in early 2017.

The Aquaman feature film will be shot at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast and on location in South East Queensland.

“Our Studios offer the biggest sound stage in the Southern Hemisphere and Australia’s largest purpose-built water tank.  And it is not only our physical assets that attracted the Aquaman production to Queensland as we believe that our crew and creatives are the best in the business,” the Premier said.

The Premier said the Government was delivering on its promise to attract more large-scale productions to Queensland, create new jobs, inject new money and increase economic activity to the State.

The Palaszczuk Government, through Screen Queensland, has invested an extra $30 million over four years to continue to attract large-scale film and high-end television productions to Queensland to increase jobs and expenditure into the State’s economy.

“This is another huge win for our local industry and testament to the international reputation of our people,” she said.

“My goal is to keep our industry working at full capacity and provide opportunities to gain major production credits and showcase their skills to an international audience.”

Aquaman is based on the DC comic book character and stars Jason Momoa in the title role.  The film will be directed by James Wan.

The film’s executive producer, Rob Cowan, has previously worked in Queensland on San Andreas, starring Dwayne Johnson, and was won over by our people, our beautiful locations, and our world-class facilities at the Village Roadshow Studios.

“Mr Cowan has gone on record stating that our crews are some of the best in the world, and that our facilities, equipment, locations and lifestyle surpassed his expectations.  He was recommended to film here by the producers of Unbroken who shared a similar experience,” the Premier said.

The film is scheduled for release worldwide in 2018.

The Premier said her Government’s efforts to attract international productions to Queensland were being hampered by the Turnbull Government’s failure to increase the Federal Location Tax Offset.

“Australia doesn’t have a competitive tax system. The one-off increases to the Federal Location Tax Offset from 16.5% to 30% must become permanent,” the Premier said.

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Media contact: Susan McGrady 0488 996 667 or Kirby Anderson 0417 263 791