A live action version of Dora the Explorer might bypass Australia due to lack of tax breaks, the head of Screen Queensland says.
Tracey Vierra says they have been working to get Paramount's new Dora the Explorer live-action movie, based on Nickelodeon's beloved animated preschool series, to film in Queensland, but it may not go there because there is not enough of an incentive to film in Australia compared to other countries, including New Zealand.
Australia has a 16.5% tax offset for international film productions, compared to 25% in New Zealand and 30% in the US state of Georgia.
“This isn’t about being the cheapest, we don’t want to be the cheapest, we want to be able to compete with those jurisdictions,” Vierra told ABC radio.
The Australian federal government has agreed to one-off arrangements for recent productions such as Aquaman, but is yet to make a decision on the Dora film, with a decision due by the end of the week.
Vierra said Queensland missed out on the new Tomb Raider film and a spinoff to the popular Fast and the Furious franchise because a similar one-off arrangement could not be worked out in time.
“When I went and met with one of the big studios recently they said to me, ‘We have this production, but we didn’t know if we could get to the politicians in time to actually consider Australia and we took it off the table’, and that’s our issue,” she said.
Treasurer Scott Morrison is reportedly considering extending a one-off tax credit to the Dora production, but prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Wednesday it was up to the state government to do more to attract film projects.
“We already have a very substantial tax break to encourage people to make movies in Australia and many do,” he said
“On a case by case basis we can increase that, but it’s always open to the state government to do more.”
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk urged the prime minister to meet her halfway to ensure the local industry built on recent high-profile projects such as Aquaman and the Pirates of the Caribbean.
“If we do not secure this next blockbuster, the people on the Gold Coast will go to other parts of the world, and the jobs will be lost,” Palaszczuk said.
“Around 80% of the people employed on Aquaman at the moment do not have jobs. If we secure this next project, those jobs remain on the Gold Coast.”
In the works since 2015. Dora the Explorer is being developed through the studio’s Paramount Players division, and will center on Dora as a teenager moving to the city and living with her cousin.
James Bobin, who directed The Muppets, Muppets Most Wanted, and Alice Through the Looking Glass, will be directing the film with a script from Storks and Neighbors director Nick Stoller. Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes label and his partners Andrew Form and Brad Fuller are producing the flick.
Dora the Explorer will receive a wide release in North America on Friday, August 2, 2019.
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Original source: The Guardian; Additional source: Wikipedia.
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