Superhero movie Aquaman to film in Queensland

The new Aquaman film has secured filming incentive support worth AU$22m to shoot in Australia and is scheduled to spend AU$100m in Queensland. Filming will create up to 1,200 jobs in the local area.

“Our studios offer the biggest sound stage in the southern hemisphere and Australia’s largest purpose-built water tank,” said Annastacia Palaszczuk, premier and minister for the arts in Queensland.

“It is not only our physical assets that attracted the Aquaman production to Queensland as we believe that our crew and creatives are the best in the business.”

Both Palaszczuk and Debra Richards, head of Ausfilm, used the Aquaman announcement to renew calls for a permanent increase to Australia’s Location Offset. The incentive is currently worth 16.5% of eligible production spending, but the federal government is under pressure to raise the figure closer to 30% to help make the country more internationally competitive.

For the past few years the Location Offset has been boosted by issuing one-off payments to high-spending Hollywood productions.

Aquaman will be the second superhero movie in a year to film in Queensland following Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok, which wrapped a few months ago. The eastern state is currently hosting scenes for the fantasy action sequel Pacific Rim: Maelstrom.

Image: Warner Bros.