NSW FTO: hangs out 'Green Lantern'
by: Rachael Turk

Screen Hub
Friday 17 April, 2009

After a tough four years that saw the state’s production levels flag, it’s all systems go for New South Wales film industry after yesterday’s announcement that big-budget Hollywood film Green Lantern will be shot in the state, creating around 500 jobs and providing a major boost for the state's film industry.

The successful bid for Green Lantern – which will be produced by DC Comics and Warner Bros. with director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale(), producer Donald Deline (Guardians of Ga’Hoole, The Italian Job) and executive producer Herb Gains (Watchmen) – has been largely credited to strong payroll tax incentives.

However the Chief Executive of the New South Wales Film & Television Office (FTO), Tania Chambers says that securing the project for New South Wales was a highly strategic exercise involving more than either this or “having a great harbour”.

“It wasn’t just based around payroll tax,” she told Screen Hub. “We provided a very, very competitive proposal. We had to work hard across Government to bring together the knowledge of locations people and incentives people and treat Warners and key decision makers as captains of industry, just as if they were bringing industry to the state in any other area. That can be more important than the incentives themselves.”

The fact that the project will be heavily studio based would come as a relief for Fox Studios Australia. After a boom in 2000-2003, it has experienced a paucity of large-scale projects since 2006, blamed on the rise in reality television and several large film productions opting to shoot elsewhere.

With a budget estimated as “somewhere between Australia and Wolverine”, Green Lantern will also be welcome news for the state’s Post-production and Digital Visual Effects sector, which has been hit hard by the downturn in TVC work.

Following Warner Bros’ precedent in utlising NSW’s capability for 300, Happy Feet and Guardians of Ga’Hoole, Chambers says the package “looks at all levels of post-production as well as shoot crew”, and we can expect the visual effects work to be divided across a number of local visual effects houses.

Whilst no decision has been made as yet as to which VFX companies this might include, Fuel worked on the recent DC comic adaptation The Spirit and Animal Logic is working with Green Lantern producer Deline on Guardians of Ga’Hoole. Chambers cites Charlotte’s Web as an example of a U.S. production that utilized multiple Australian VFX houses – in that instance Rising Sun, Fuel and Digital Pictures Iloura, with film scanning at Animal Logic.

Pre-production on Green Lantern is set to begin in July with filming scheduled to start in November. Warners plan to release the film in December next year.

Meanwhile, the FTO is banking on the fact that it won’t be the last.

“Government took the creative industry seriously in a way hat made me optimistic for the future,” Chambers says. “This is a sign of the acceptance of the creative industries as a driver of the economy. Our industry shows that it is a high, immediate employer and an unmet demand. With the Offset and the increasingly ambitious projects it will allow, this will continue.”

The opportunity in adapting comic books and graphic novels certainly seems limitless – Green Lantern will be the 22nd DC comic property to have been produced as a live action movie.

Film Victoria said that "nothing was confirmed" for the southern state.

Rachael Turk
Rachael Turk is a Sydney based writer and the former editor of Inside Film Magazine. She has written for The Sydney Morning Herald, British Cinematographer and Online Asia and has three film projects in development.

http://www.rachaelturk.com

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