Baz in love with our shores
Many blockbusters have been made on the Gold Coast, but only a select few have had their premiere here
IT was the lobster roll that did it. Or at least, it certainly helped – along with the Gold Coast’s open skies, perfect waves and golden sands.
As his spectacular biopic Elvis – spanning 20 years of Elvis Presley’s rollercoaster life – has its Australian premiere on the Gold Coast tonight, director Baz Luhrmann tells GC Weekend how the “Goldie” and Queensland won his heart.
“We consider the Goldie our new home,” Luhrmann says in an exclusive interview.
“We still have a house there, half my team has houses there now, we’ve all fallen in love with it.”
The film, starring Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker and Austin Butler as Elvis Presley, was shot entirely at the Gold Coast’s Village Roadshow studios and surrounds, with Luhrmann adding that tonight’s Australian premiere was never going to be “anywhere else but the Goldie”.
Scouring the world for locations to shoot his film, Luhrmann settled on Queensland after an invitation from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in London in 2019 brought him to the Gold Coast – and to Burleigh’s famous Rick Shores restaurant.
“I met with Annastacia and her team in London, and I thought ‘this is a real go-getter of a person’, she’s out there selling Queensland to the world,’’ he said.
“Everyone was telling me how great it was, so I went for a quick investigative trip, and we went to Rick Shores for lunch, and I said to the friend I was with ‘Let’s just take our shoes off and go down to the water’ … and it’s so beautiful, and we have the lobster roll and it was … well, I think it was the Rick Shores lobster roll that basically sealed the deal.’’
Luhrmann also tells how Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr John Gerrard – then the director of infectious diseases at the Gold Coast Hospital – helped when Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson contracted Covid not long after production had begun.
“We absolutely love Dr Gerrard,’’ Luhrmann says, adding that his advice, along with the support the production received from the local and state governments and the Gold Coast community, allowed the film to keep shooting during the pandemic.
“We were just so fortunate and grateful that our show could go on.’’
THE Gold Coast has been known as Australia’s answer to Hollywood for more than 30 years.
This weekend is the Australian premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, a blockbuster in the making for more than three years.
Luhrmann and stars Tom Hanks and Austin Butler will walk the red carpet at Pacific Fair.
It’s a special moment for Gold Coasters who worked on the film over its infamously long production, which was disrupted in March 2020 by Covid-19’s arrival and Hanks’ testing positive just before the nation went into lockdown.
The launch is the latest in a long line of film premieres the Gold Coast has hosted.
In 1995, Warner Bros Movie World hosted the premiere of Batman Forever, and welcomed some of the biggest stars to visit in the city since the theme park’s opening four years earlier.
Tommy Lee Jones, fresh off winning an Academy Award, flew in to promote his role as villain Two-face, along with Robin actor Chris O’donnell and director Joel Schumacher.
Neither Batman actor Val Kilmer or Nicole Kidman were available.
More than 450 people, including business mogul James Packer and his then-partner Kate Fischer, attended the premiere, which was then the largest in Australia’s history.
The event also celebrated it beating Jurassic Park’s thenrecord opening weekend income.
Fast-forward two years and the city did it all over again.
It was 25 years ago this month that the city enjoyed a blast of star power as the leads from another Batman film made their grand appearance.
It was June 1997 – the UK was just weeks away from handing over Hong Kong to China, Super League’s lone season was in full play and Wayne Goss announced plans to run for federal Parliament.
Cinemas, including the new theatre at Pacific Fair, were packed for hits such as Liar Liar, Volcano, The Beautician and the Beast and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.
But these were all predicted to be small fry compared to that year’s superhero blockbuster, Batman and Robin.
While critics now universally regard it to be among the worst films ever made, Gold Coasters were looking forward to it.
And even more exciting was the arrival of the film’s stars, George Clooney, Alicia Silverstone and Elle Macpherson, and a returning Schumacher.
All flew into Coolangatta on the same plane but took separate limos to the Sheraton Mirage at Main Beach.
It was Clooney’s first visit to the city.
The Bulletin’s editorial of the day declared that the launch of the film in the city was indicative of the “respect for the role played by the Coast industry and what it is achieving”.
Clooney walked the red carpet at the Australasian premiere with then-girlfriend Celine Balitran.
During his time on the Coast, Clooney was photographed playing basketball at the Mirage and relaxing.
There were later reports that Clooney was looking to buy property here.
Speculation started after he and Balitran were spotted cruising the city in a limousine, allegedly looking at real estate.
The report claimed the pair had risen early to inspect potential properties.
Clooney responded to the reports with laughter. “Everyone’s been telling me that. I just found out,” he joked to the Bulletin.
“You’ve got a good deal? I’m buying a house on the Gold Coast, congratulate me. Sure it’s beachfront, in fact I’ve only been here two days, now that’s fast.
“You know what I did? I flew over and pointed at a house and then moved down. You know I’ve got to have that house.”
Clooney wrapped up his visit to the Gold Coast by cutting the ribbon at the opening of the new Warner Bros store at Pacific Fair, which had recently finished a major expansion.
While he never bought property on the Coast, he did return in late-2021 to film the romantic comedy Two Tickets to Paradise with Julia Roberts.
After Batman and Robin, it was another 20 years before the Gold Coast put on another giant film premiere of superhero productions.
This time it was the locally produced 2017 Marvel film Thor: Ragnarok, which had been shot at Movie World a year earlier.
That year’s premiere featured lead actor Chris Hemsworth and was held at Robina Town Centre, where hundreds of fans gathered to see the Byron Bay-based actor.
We got to do it all over again in late 2018 when Jason Momoa flew into the city to launch Aquaman, which was also shot locally.