Justice League Receives Mortal Blow

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The long road that is the Justice League Mortal movie has once again hit a bump. Primed and ready to film in Australia, with preproduction already underway, it looks as if relocation might be on the cards.

Most of you will be aware of the battle that Australian born director George Miller has been waging to have the film filmed in Australia. Under an Australian director the film should have been eligible for a 40% refundable tax offset. However a lot of opposition was raised due to the fact it was essentially an American branded movie.

The director of the equity section of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Simon Whipp, has fought hard against Justice League Mortal being filmed in Australia. "For the public, both in Australia and outside of Australia, it will be seen as an American film," he said. "I have tremendous respect for George and his work, which has been some of the most successful films that we have ever produced. But the studio I think in this instance is seeking to push the limits of the envelope."

And, as of yesterday, the Australian Federal Government has refused to offer the new film the production rebate. As a result, the $US200 million movie has a 90% chance of being relocated overseas; probably to Canada.

"A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Australian film industry is being frittered away because of very lazy thinking," said George Miller, the Oscar winning director of Happy Feet and the Mad Max films. "If that's going to be the final decision, they're throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars of investment that the rest of the world is competing for and, much more significantly, highly skilled creative jobs."

This is not a good sign for the Australian film industry, which had only recently managed to put itself on the international scene after movies such as the Matrix trilogy, the Star Wars prequels and Happy Feet. "New Zealand built up their franchises through Hercules and Xena into Lord of the Rings," Miller continued. "Now they're doing three Tintin films, two more Hobbit films and Halo. They've got work for 15 years in that country."

Lazy and selfish thinking is what has brought us to this point, and while Miller sees a 10% chance the movie could stay, surely that number is much, much lower.

Joshua S. Hill
3/19/2008
Source: SMH

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