HAMMER TIME
Aussie star Hemsworth to film third Thor on Coast
THE third Thor movie starring Aussie actor Chris Hemsworth will be shot on the Gold Coast in another boost for the city’s film industry.
Marvel Studios will film the superhero blockbuster at Village Roadshow Studios in Oxenford.
Marvel is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, which recently spent six months filming the $300 million-plus Pirates of the Caribbean on the Gold Coast.
SUPERHEROES to the local film industry’s rescue!
The plunging Australian dollar has convinced mega US moviemakers Marvel Studios to film one – and potentially two – superhero blockbusters on the Gold Coast.
Aussie actor Chris Hemsworth’s third Thor movie will be shot at Village Roadshow Studios, Oxenford, and could be closely followed by Marvel’s first female anchored feature, Captain Marvel.
The deal would see Hemsworth’s epic God of Thunder adventure Thor: Ragnarok christen the new $15.5 million super sound stage being built at Village Roadshow Studios in time for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Marvel, the studio behind The Avengers franchise and mega movies including the Iron Man trilogy, is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, which recently spent six months filming the $300 million-plus Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales on the Gold Coast.
Currently in post-production in the US, Pirates 5 is due for release in cinemas in July 2017.
Hemsworth’s Thor: Ragnarok is also due for release in July 2017, setting the scene for a made-on-the-Gold Coast box office clash of the titans.
Senior production sources said Thor: Ragnarok would bump into the Oxenford studio complex early next year once Marvel finishes its first Phase Three movie, Captain America: Civil War.
“Village Roadshow is pushing to get the new super stage finished in time for Thor and Captain Marvel to use it before the Games,” he said.
Marvel is yet to announce who will direct either Thor: Ragnarok, which also stars Tom Hiddleston and Jaimie Alexander, or Captain Marvel, which is yet to be cast.
With the Australian dollar at a six-year low, Marvel is one of several US studios considering filming in Australia.
Village Roadshow Studios president Lynne Benzie hopes to fast-track construction of the 4000sq m Sound Stage 9, which will be double the size of the largest of eight stages.
“The plan is to complete it
Village Roadshow is pushing to get the new super stage finished in time for Thor and Captain Marvel to use it before the Games INDUSTRY SOURCE
by the middle of next year,” she told the Bulletin last week.
Queensland Premier and Arts Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk, who met with representatives from studios including Marvel during her recent trade mission to the US, said the new sound stage would boost the State’s appeal as a major film production destination.
The State Government will contribute $11 million of GC2018 infrastructure funds towards the cost of the stage, the first big-ticket addition to the studio lot since 2002.
If Marvel opts to film backto-back movies on the Coast, production on Captain Marvel will begin in early 2017 and wind up before the studios are handed over to GC2018 Commonwealth Games organisers for four months.
The final feature in the Marvel movie trilogy, Captain Marvel won’t hit cinema screens until November 2018.
Kong: Skull Island, starring Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L Jackson and Brie Larsson, bumps in for six to eight weeks of filming later this month while Arclight Films will film its $10 million schlock horror The Nest 3D at the studios and on location in southeast Queensland in October.
A Chinese-Australian coproduction, The Nest 3D is expected to employ 150 Queenslanders.
Sony’s Columbia Pictures will begin production on shark survival thriller The Shallows, expected to employ 130 crew, in October before cameras begin rolling in November.
The Shallows is tipped to star US actress Blake Lively.