THE HOME OF THE BRAVE
COAST TOUTED AS SUPERHERO CENTRAL
THE shooting of Thor: Ragnarok on the Gold Coast last year could be the start of an influx of superhero movies shooting in Australia.
Rival DC franchise movie Aquaman is currently filming at the same Village Roadshow Studios and powerhouse superhero stable Marvel, the makers of Thor, say they’d shoot another movie Down Under “in a heartbeat”.
While leading man Chris Hemsworth filmed a gladiatorial battle scene on the Thor: Ragnarok set last October, Marvel’s on-ground producer Brad Winderbaum said the country had been “amazing”.
“When we first were thinking about how to shoot the project, Australia was the exciting idea. The question was,
is the incentive (government rebate) going to work out for the corporate guys?” he said.
“But from a creative point of view it was by far the most exciting option. We were looking at the natural beauty of the place – there’s so much great natural wonder very close by that we could put on screen for the first time.
“I would shoot another movie out here in a heartbeat. It’s a great place to work, it’s a great place to live for months and months. I would recommend shooting here to anyone.”
Thor: Ragnarok – the third headline movie for Hemsworth’s Nordic god – took over the entirety of Village Roadshow Studios from July through the end of October 2016, with Hemsworth shuttling between the Gold Coast and his home in Byron Bay.
“I do a few days down there in Byron and a few days up here and vice versa with my wife and the kids,” Hemsworth said.
“It’s just been so nice to sleep in my own bed and do all those things that I’ve missed for the last 10 years ’cos I’ve been elsewhere.”
For four days last August, the production also ventured to Brisbane, shutting down a CBD street and laneway as the Queensland capital doubled for New York.
Photographs of Hemsworth and co-star Tom Hiddleston greeting fans between takes were seen around the world. Hemsworth described the experience of filming on the streets of Brisbane as one that “doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world”.
“We’ve shot in Central Park in New York and people are pretty jaded by film crews