Ausfilm Welcomes the Australian Government's Support of Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok and 20th Century Fox's Ridley Scott Alien Project to Locate to Australia

SYDNEY, Oct. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Ausfilm today welcomed the announcement by the Australian Government through the Minister for Communications and Minister for the Arts, Senator the Hon. Mitch Fifield and Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Julie Bishop, of its financial support to attract two major international film productions from two of Hollywood's biggest studios. The Australian Government is helping to secure both Marvel Studios' (owned by The Walt Disney Company) 'Thor: Ragnarok' and 20th Century Fox's untitled Ridley Scott Alien project.

"These two major US productions will inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the economy, employ thousands of people across Australia not just within our screen industry but will also utilise Australian goods and services. Productions of this size also contribute to generating skills and training of Australia's crews and represent a major development and investment opportunity for creative talent both in front of and behind the camera," said Debra Richards, CEO of Ausfilm.

After The Walt Disney Company's positive experience earlier this year working with Australia's film crews, accessing diverse locations and with the support of the Australian Government and Queensland state government through Screen Queensland on 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales', Marvel Studios is now looking to partner with Australia.

There is stiff competition globally for big budget productions and Ausfilm, and its screen business members and agencies, played a part in putting Australia front of mind with director Ridley Scott and his creative team. Ausfilm hosted the creative team on a location scout in May 2014 under Ausfilm's annual Australian Familiarisation program for international filmmakers. In addition to the 5th Pirates instalment in 2014/15, Australia hosted physical production for 'Truth' (starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford) and the NBCU-owned Universal Cable Productions mini-series 'Childhood's End' (premiering in the US on the Syfy channel December 14). Some of the international productions that completed visual effects and post-production in the past year in Australia include 'Avengers: Age of Ultron', 'Pan', 'Ant-Man', 'Tarzan', 'Our Brand is Crisis', 'The Age of Adaline' and 'The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water'.In 2013/14 international productions including 'Unbroken', 'San Andreas' and 'The Moon and the Sun' spent $197 million in Australia employing over 6,300 people in all states of Australia. 'Unbroken' alone, directed by Angelina Jolie, employed 3,141 local cast, crew and extras and utilised goods and services from 1,288 local vendors across Australia.

"Ausfilm continues to advocate for a permanent increase to the Location Offset to ensure Australia is internationally competitive. These two new projects will further enhance the international positioning of Australia as a world-class filming destination. The international film industry is highly competitive and without compelling state and federal screen incentives these films would not have considered Australia as a production destination," said Debra Richards, CEO, Ausfilm.

Media enquiries:

Caroline Raffan
Senior Marketing Executive, Ausfilm
T: +61-2-9383-4124
E: caroline.raffan@ausfilm.com.au

About Ausfilm:

Ausfilm promotes Australia's incentive schemes, locations and capabilities to assist international screen producers to make their productions in Australia. Ausfilm is an Australian industry-government partnership. It comprises Australia's Federal and state governments, the major studios and the leading post, sound, music and visual effects facilities and production service providers. Ausfilm has offices in Los Angeles and Sydney. For more information visit www.ausfilm.com.