CANBERRA -- A super hero god and more xenomorphs than you can poke a very long stick at are on their way to Australia thanks to two new major movie deals.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced that the Marvel Studios film 'Thor: Ragnarok', starring Aussie heartthrob Chris Hemsworth, and an as yet untitled Alien film, directed by Sir Ridley Scott, will be filmed in Australia.
Both films are due to start production in 2016.
The film deals are a product of recent trips Bishop made to Los Angeles and New York with producers and directors.
“They all expressed a very keen desire to invest in significant film production projects right here in Australia," Bishop told reporters in Canberra.
She said the makers of Thor and new Alien prequel were swayed by a low dollar, locations and a highly qualified local workforce.
“Attracting major films made here will be a significant boost for our economy, for our industrial base, and for linking Australia in innumerable ways to our ever-globalising world,” she said.
The exact locations within Australia have not been announced but are likely to Sydney's Fox Studios and the Gold Coast, where the recent 'Pirates of the Caribbean' film was shot.
The Government has given the producers of the two films $47.25 million in grants to ensure the local production over competing nations such as Canada and Hungary.
“Effectively what we are doing through a grant for these two productions is in effect increasing the 16.5 percent location offset to 30 percent,” Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said
“The various provincial jurisdictions (of Canada) will provide offsets of 20-to-56 percent. The Canadian Federal Government will also provide an additional 15 percent offset of the co-production. So this is a very competitive environment.”
Bishop said Australia was disappointed to lose the production of the current box office hit, 'The Martian', to Hungary.
The Government expects the two films will to bring more than $300 million in offshore investment to Australia’s economy and provide over 3,000 jobs.