State Investment Attraction Scheme unaffected by loss of Proyas’ Paradise Lost

Colin Delaney, Encore Magazine, reports

The NSW Government has not lost any investment from the cancellation of Alex Proya’s Paradise Lost.

The big budget, Legendary Pictures film has been scrapped after a dispute over budget, according to US industry website Deadline.com..

As Deadline reports, Legendary Pictures made the decision to halt production after struggling to bring the picture down to $120m.

While the investment for the project by the NSW government has never been divulged, a spokesperson for the deputy premier told Encore: “Given production milestones have not been met, there has been no NSW Government expenditure on the production. The funds will return to the State Investment Attraction Scheme.”

In a statement today, Stoner said: “This is a blow to the NSW film industry and will be very disappointing to the filmmakers and the crew and cast who were expecting to work on the film. We will continue to take a proactive approach to marketing the State’s talent and facilities, especially in light of the high Australian dollar. We remain in negotiations with movie studios about other upcoming projects.”

The film was originally to have started shooting in Sydney in January with the Australian director of Dark City and I’Robot at the helm but was later rescheduled for June.

In July of last year the Paradise Lost announced it was coming to Sydney after acting NSW premier Andrew Stoner went to LA to speak to Legendary and Warner Bros Pictures.

At the time Stoner said: “When in Los Angeles recently, I met the team at Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, and encouraged them to produce Paradise Lost in Sydney. The NSW Government was determined to secure the production of Paradise Lost for the NSW film industry. To filmmakers and producers around the world I say, NSW is open for business once more – we are determined to make NSW Number One Again.

As Deadline points out – it does not mean the end for the film. Films such as Moneyball and American Gangster were resurrected after being scrapped.

The film was expected to provide an estimated 1,300 jobs to NSW, including 200 jobs in the VFX area. Digital Domain, the California production company set up a Sydney arm for the production.

The State Investment Attraction Scheme was also fundamental in bringing the new, animated LEGO film, announced in November, to Sydney. Animal Logic won the tender.

Bradley Cooper heads Down Under

 Bound for Sydney: Bradley Cooper.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports

The "Sexiest Man Alive" is reportedly set to hit Australian shores in June.

Bradley Cooper will take up Sydney residency for three months, according to News Limited papers.

The 37-year-old star, who has starred in films such as The Hangover and Limitless, will move to the Harbour City to shoot Paradise Lost at Fox Studios.

Cooper is set to play Lucifer in what film website IMDB describes as an "action-heavy take on the epic poem centered on the war in heaven between archangels Michael and Lucifer".

Cooper was named 'The Sexiest Man Alive' by People Magazine last year.

Also listed among the cast are young Aussie actor Callan McAuliffe, Dominic Purcell, Rufus Sewell and Casey Affleck.

McAuliffe, 17, who will play Uriel in Paradise Lost, recently filmed with Baz Luhrmann on The Great Gatsby. He played the young Jay Gatsby.

IMDB states Paradise Lost as being in pre-production. The film will be directed by Alex Proyas.

AAP

Screen Australia announces feature production expenditure dropped in 2010-11

From the Encore Magazine website

Australia saw a 33 per cent drop in drama production expenditure in 2010-11 from the previous financial year.

A report by Screen Australia that makes the announcement, and looks at both film and TV.

Australian feature production sat at 18 per cent ($89m) with 17 features made in 2010-11. This was a drop from around $300m the previous year.

However, with Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby and Alex Proya’s Paradise Lost starting production in the second half of 2011, the current financial year is already looking more promising.

Screen Australia estimates around $350m for 2011-12, with the agency contributing around $100m of that for films Drift, Mental, The Sapphires and the Kath & Kim Filum.

With a total drama slate of $495m, the agency placed foreign activity at 17 per cent ($85m). This was down from $180m last year when two high-budget films were made here, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

In better news, TV drama made up 65 per cent ($322m), a 12 per cent increase from last year. 2010-11 also had the highest level of expenditure for adult programming in over a decade. Expenditure also rose for children’s drama however it has not completely returned to the strong results of 2007-2009.

Overall, 82 per cent of Australian films and 85 per cent of TV drama accessed the producer offset.

Callan McAuliffe joins Paradise Lost cast

Report by Michael Bodey, The Australian

YOUNG Australian Callan McAuliffe has backed up his performances in Cloudstreet and I Am Number Four with a role in Alex Proyas's new film Paradise Lost.

The big-budget adaptation of John Milton's 17th-century poem will be filmed in Sydney, and Ben Walker, Casey Affleck and Djimon Hounsou have been confirmed as joining The Hangover's Bradley Cooper in the cast.

Cooper plays Lucifer, who rebels against God. Seven archangels lead heaven's army in what is expected to be a major aerial battle that may be shot in 3-D.

McAuliffe is already in Sydney playing the young Jay Gatsby to Leonardo DiCaprio's title character in Baz Luhrmann's 3-D adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

On location and finally acting the part

Shining ... from left, Chris O'Dowd, Deborah Mailman, Shari Sebbens, Jessica Mauboy and Miranda Tapsell on the Sydney set of The Sapphires.

Article by Garry Maddox, the Sydney Morning Herald

After a slow time for the film industry, Sydney is enjoying star billing, writes Garry Maddox.

When Sydney was named a UNESCO City of Film last year, it was hard to know what to make of it. The only other city with the honour was - no, not Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, London or Mumbai - but 'oomble Bradford in northern England.

Almost a year later, Sydney seems to be living up to the title. Consider these developments:

In the biggest movie to shoot in the city in three years, Baz Luhrmann is filming The Great Gatsby in 3D with Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan. Instead of the tumbleweeds that have blown through Fox Studios since Australia and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, there are hundreds of crew, cast and extras, with word from the set suggesting the movie will look spectacular and show the creative potential of 3D.

The Sapphires, the film version of Tony Briggs's successful stage musical about the Aboriginal equivalent of The Supremes in the 1960s, has just finished the Sydney leg of its shoot. The director, Wayne Blair, is in Vietnam with his cast, led by Jessica Mauboy and Deborah Mailman, to shoot scenes set during the war. After the success of Bran Nue Dae, there will be high hopes for the film next year.

George Miller is down to the last few weeks of work on Happy Feet Two, having turned an old railway shed at CarriageWorks into a thriving animation studio with more than 600 crew. The sequel to the Oscar-winning penguin tale will be released in the US next month and here on Boxing Day.

While the falling dollar will need to hit US85¢ to regularly attract Hollywood production again, two other big movies are also in the early stages: Alex Proyas's Paradise Lost, based on Milton's epic poem and reportedly due to star Casey Affleck as the angel Gabriel and Bradley Cooper as Lucifer; and Walking With Dinosaurs 3D, adapted from the famous BBC documentary series.

These films come amid a promising time for Australian cinema.

When Red Dog was released, the feel-good drama about a dog that united the Pilbara mining community in the 1970s looked likely to take $5 million. It has cracked $19 million, which makes it the eighth-highest grossing Australian film in domestic box office history, and has sold strongly around the world.

On limited release, The Eye of the Storm has taken $1 million in three weeks. While the director Fred Schepisi's lavish adaptation of a Patrick White novel won't be a money spinner in cinemas, the blue-chip cast headed by Geoffrey Rush, Judy Davis and Charlotte Rampling will give it a long life on DVD, video-on-demand and television.

After selling widely at the Toronto International Film Festival, The Hunter opened in cinemas this week, with Willem Dafoe playing a mercenary tracking down the last Tasmanian tiger. Next week comes The Cup, which tells the story of jockey Damien Oliver's stirring win in the 2002 Melbourne Cup shortly after his brother's death in a race fall.

Outside Australian film, the final Harry Potter movie took $52 million and showed that when a film is good, audiences seem prepared to pay for 3D.

The city is also back on the radar for film events, with the state government underpinning the Sydney Film Festival's viability for the next three years and the Australian Film Institute bringing the new Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards to the Opera House in January. The City of Sydney council is also financing a feasibility study for a new film centre for screenings, exhibitions and courses.

The only blip in all this encouraging activity is the state government's scrapping of the $5 million Production Investment Fund that lured film and television projects to NSW. ''The impact is more likely to be in television than in film but there will be an impact in film,'' the executive director of the Screen Producers Association, Geoff Brown, says.

''It doesn't impact at the top level with Happy Feet and Gatsby-type productions, but the smaller-budget Australian films will be looking elsewhere.''

Paradise Lost to film in Sydney with Bradley Cooper and Alex Proyas

Story by Nick Goundry

A big-budget version of Paradise Lost is coming to Fox Studios in Sydney and could rejuvenate Australia’s global appeal. Major international projects have been scarce in the country recently, with local producers largely blaming the Aussie dollar, so this is terrific news for the national industry.

Paradise Lost is expected to feed nearly AUD90 million into the local economy and create 1,300 jobs in New South Wales (NSW). There’s also the additional benefit of the involvement of rising Hollywood superstar Bradley Cooper and high-profile director Alex Proyas.

Andrew Stoner, acting NSW Premier and Minister for Trade and Investment, said: “To filmmakers and producers around the world, I say NSW is open for business once more – we are determined to make NSW number one again. Paradise Lost will see the next generation of post-Avatar motion capture work undertaken right here in Sydney.”

Proyas commented: “I’m delighted to have found such overwhelming support here in NSW for such a unique film offering unparalleled exposure for NSW cast and crew to the cutting-edge technology that will be used in the making of Paradise Lost.”

The film’s schedule includes 72 weeks of post-production, which will use Australia's generous 30% post incentive scheme. Details haven’t been released of exactly what benefits the film will receive, although part of the deal involves having effects company Digital Domain setting up a base in Sydney.

Terra Nova, which has Steven Spielberg onboard as a producer, committed to a season-long shoot in Queensland, but it’s the only other major international production that has been filmed in Australia recently.