Shooting for the Stars
In a screen industry that largely shuns big-budget genre films, Luke Sparke’s science fiction sequel is a rarity: an Australian production that attempts to follow the path of the Hollywood action blockbusters that dominate the box office. As David Michael Brown contends, the film’s special effects and set pieces are nothing to sneeze at, but eliciting enthusiasm from local audiences remains a significant challenge.
No-one could have predicted that the tumultuous year that was 2020 would lead to Australia becoming a major hub of Hollywood production. With the US in turmoil due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the major studios have looked further afield to safer pastures. The result? Australia’s film studios have never been busier. Tom Hanks is headlining Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic on the Gold Coast;1 Ron Howard is in Queensland filming Thirteen Lives about the 2018 Thai cave rescue;2 Liam Neeson has been shooting up the streets of Melbourne in Mark Williams’ Blacklight;3 and our very own Chris Hemsworth has been flexing his considerable muscle, together with Natalie Portman, at Sydney’s Fox Studios for Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love And Thunder.4 Australia has become the new home of the blockbuster – or has it?
While this headlining Hollywood talent may appear to be keeping the local film industry afloat, Australian-made blockbusters – or even attempts to encroach on that space – remain thin on the ground. An exception is alien-invasion action film Occupation:
