Nickelodeon
Paramount’s live-action Dora The Explorer movie will shoot in Australia after a last-minute tax break concession from local authorities.
The movie’s presence in Australia was cast in doubt on Friday when Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison rejected Paramount’s request for a one-off increase from the standard 16.5 percent tax break to 30 percent. However, Australia’s second largest state Queensland agreed this morning to top up the the Australian government’s tax break for the film. One local media report pegs the revised deal to lure Dora to Queensland at around $8m.
The James Bobin (Alice Through The Looking Glass)-directed live-action feature is an update of the hit Nickelodeon cartoon and is due to follow a teenage Dora as she navigates the world with her cousin Diego. Storks director Nick Stoller is writing the script, and Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes label and his partners Andrew Form and Brad Fuller are producing. Cast has not been set. The movie is slated for an August 2019 release.
“We could not be more thrilled to be bringing Dora to Queensland and to be able to deliver Queensland for our film,” said Lee Rosenthal, President of Physical Production for Paramount Pictures. “In Queensland, we are able to get outstanding crew, stages and a variety of jungle topography and city backdrops in essentially one place.” The film will shoot on the Gold Coast’s $15.5 million Sound Stage 9 at Village Roadshow Studios with production expected to begin late spring/early summer.
“Over the past three years my government has committed $30 million attracting movie makers to Queensland through our Production Attraction Fund, gaining more than $350 million of direct expenditure in our State,” said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. “We will keep on pushing for screen jobs for our local crews and creatives and for productions that inject hundreds of millions of dollars into our economy and take our creative talent and our stunning Queensland locations, to screens around the world.”
Sizeable recent productions to shoot in Queensland include DC’s Aquaman, which is estimated to have spent more than $100m in Queensland creating more than 2000 jobs, Thor: Ragnarok and Chinese production At Last, which followed other Australian-Chinese productions such Guardians Of The Tomb (previously known as The Nest 3D) and Bait 3D.
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