Film producers surveying region

Producers of the film The Dry are yet to officially confirm Minyip as a filming location despite months of speculation they will use the town’s Club Hotel.

In December, The Weekly Advertiser reported a production crew had been in discussions with the hotel’s owner about the possibility of filming in the town.

The hotel gained national prominence as a setting for the 1980s-90s television series The Flying Doctors.

Minyip’s Emma’s Café owner Dale Maggs said a production crew had visited the town on multiple occasions and was keen to use the hotel in the film.

The film, based on a novel of the same name by Jane Harper, will star Australian icon Eric Bana.

Bana is also an executive producer for the project. He visited Minyip and other locations in the Wimmera and Mallee in early December.

A member of the production team said filming locations had yet to be finalised.

“We’re still locking in locations at the minute,” she said.

“We are driving around doing that. I think we’re getting close to finalising it.”

The Dry’s media manager Fiona Nix said she did not have a list of planned filming locations and that filming dates had also not been finalised.

She said producers were unlikely to publicise filming times or locations to avoid compromising the film.

“With a project like The Dry, it is imperative that we shoot in regional Victoria.

“If we’re shooting exterior locations and people know that we’re shooting there, it will be a really difficult environment for us to shoot in.

“We have to protect it so we can have those big, wide shots without other people being in them.”

Film Victoria estimated the production would inject $1.2-million into regional Victoria and create 162 jobs for Victorian crewmembers.