Neighbours star Dean Geyer joins Glee

Glee guy-er: Dean's big all-singing, all-dancing role.

Adam Bub, The Fix, reports

Former Neighbours heart-throb and Australian Idol finalist Dean Geyer has scored his big break in Hollywood with a role in season four of Glee.

The 26-year-old South African-born actor-singer will play Brody Weston, "a handsome upperclassman" who shows an interest in Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) at their New York drama school.

"WOW!! I feel absolutely speechless, and so honoured to be joining the undeniably talented team of @GLEEonFOX!! :)," he tweeted.

"I'm very excited for the journey, and I'm warming my voice up as we speak."

While you could say his Chace Crawford good looks got him the part, it's true that he has the acting and singing experience you'd expect of a Glee cast member. Plus, he is the first Aussie actor on Glee (that we know of).

It's a lucky break for the young star who last appeared in Steven Spielberg's dinosaur drama Terra Nova, which was recently cancelled after just one season.

While he was once engaged to The Veronicas' Lisa Origliasso in 2008, Dean met current girlfriend Jillian Murray on the set of the 2011 straight-to-DVD flick Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown.

The fourth season of Glee will follow both McKinley High students and graduates, keeping all of the key members of the show, like Rachel and Finn (Cory Monteith), while introducing new, younger cast members.

Blue Lagoon: The Awakening telemovie actor Jacob Artist joins the cast as Puck's (Mark Salling) half-brother, while Kate Hudson and Sarah Jessica Parker will guest star in multiple episodes.

Terra Nova props to go under the hammer

MONSTER SERIES: A time-travelling family battled dinosaurs in the Steven Spielberg-produced Terra Nova. Source: Supplied

The Daily Telegraph reports

Fans of the Steven Spielberg-produced TV show Terra Nova can now bring the science fiction drama into their homes with props and costumes set to be auctioned Saturday in eastern Australia.

The show, which first aired in the US in September 2011, was a look at an overpopulated world in the year 2149, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported.

In an attempt to save the world, people were recruited to travel back in time to join the Terra Nova colony in the prehistoric past where they co-existed with dinosaurs.

Filmed in southeast Queensland in Australia against a backdrop akin to a futuristic, high-tech version of the hit Jurassic Park movies - two of which were directed by Spielberg - Terra Nova's pricey pilot reportedly cost $20 million.

During the 11-episode first season, Terra Nova averaged 7.5 million viewers, among which 2.6 million were aged 18 to 49 - the age bracket coveted by advertisers, The Hollywood Reporter said.

However, the series failed to perform as well as network executives had hoped and was canceled in March this year - leaving enough costumes and props to fill 17,350 square feet (1,612 square meters) of floor space.

"I've done the same thing with props and costumes from other shows I have closed in the past and they seem to be very successful," co-producer Ellen Blum told the Bulletin.

"I've learned you never know what use some people have for things."

Items available for purchase include everyday furniture and homeware, outlandish costumes and polystyrene sculptures.

Terra Nova made headlines following its premiere, when eagle-eyed viewers noticed that the "sonic pistols" used by officers in the show were in fact modified Nerf guns.

Netflix rumoured to pick up Terra Nova

                                                                    

Shelly Conn and Jason O’Mara speak with television critics at the Summer TCA. Picture courtesy of Fox.

Colin Delaney, Encore Magazine, reports

An online streaming service may pick up Terra Nova following the announcement of US network Fox canning the series.

Netflix has voiced an interest in broadcasting the Steven Spielberg sci-fi series, the Hollywood Reporter claims.

After the axe fell on the show on Monday, studio 20th Television said it would shop the series around.

Should the streaming service pick the show up, the series may return to the Gold Coast’s Village Roadshow Studios and extensive Gold Coast hinterland set, where the first season employed 150-300 crew, most of which were Australian.

The show was the biggest budget series ever, with an estimated budget of $70m for the 13-part season 1, and $20m just for the first episode.

The series was plagued by issues from Queensland’s floods of early 2011 to a rising Australian dollar and key staff leaving.

It’s not the first time Netflix has got involved in original content.

In November Netflix announced it would stream exclusively the new series of Arrested Development.

The ups and downs of Terra Nova

Picture courtesy of Encore Magazine

Excerpt of a story by Colin Delaney, Encore Magazine (shortened version)


Filmed on the Gold Coast, Steven Spielberg’s latest TV offering, Terra Nova is the most expensive show ever made.

Between floods, inflation and fired staff, the production has had as many dramas off screen as on.

Confidence was suitably high for Fox when the bankable Spielberg wanted to tell a story that blended an apocalyptic future with time travel and dinosaurs. Spielberg was in his element.

It began strongly. Fox, rather than commissioning just a pilot, went ahead and commissioned an entire 13 episodes. Emmy-winning director/producer Jon Cassar (24), is one of a multitude of executive producers on Terra Nova. He says it was a smart thing to do on Fox’s behalf. “When you’re making a sci-fi show you don’t just find a set, you have to build it and if you’re going to the expense of building it you may as well commit to 13 episodes.”

The decision was made to film on the Gold Coast and in its Hinterland after a major scout of locations around the world.

Filming has injected a lot of money into the region. Cassar doesn’t have an exact figure but, “a good percentage of our total budget has been spent here, minus post and things we’re doing in the States. Obviously you’re biggest expenditure is production when you’re doing any TV series and because our production is 100 per cent in Australia, a lot of it is spent here.”

Rumours abound the Gold Coast nearly lost Terra Nova after Queensland’s heavy flooding that struck as the pilot was in full swing in December and January.

The rainfall caused damages and delays. “Luckily we were on higher ground with our sets,” says Cassar. “It blocked access to some of our sets but what did hurt was the rain that came with those floods. That was tough. When they were shooting the pilot it became very difficult dealing with that amount of rainfall.” The rainfall caused the shoot to stop temporarily but the rumours to totally abandon Queensland were false. Says Cassar, “the only reason we would have left is if the sets got destroyed, then that question would have come up but it didn’t happen so we were okay. We’ve had unbelievably great weather since we’ve been doing the series.”

Terra Nova premiered on Channel Ten on Sunday, 2 October.

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.