Australian incentive limit loses Tomb Raider filming

Producers on the new feature were considering basing the production in Queensland in Australia, but wanted the country’s formal 16.5% Location Offset to be effectively doubled as part of the deal, according to the Gold Coast Bulletin.

“They requested an uplift to the federal government’s Location Offset from 16.5% to 30% but were unable to secure a decision in time and had to make the shoot elsewhere,” Screen Queensland told the news outlet.

“Screen Queensland was advised the lack of uplift to the Location Offset incentive was the key factor.”

The Australian government has been under persistent pressure to increase the Location Offset to help the country’s production industry compete with other global filming hubs like the UK and Canada.

Repeated calls for change have come both from within Australia’s production industry and from international names such as producer Mark Huffam, who recently worked in Sydney with Ridley Scott on his sci-fi movie Alien: Covenant.

Australia has had significant success attracting big-budget Hollywood productions in the last few years, partly because of a formal system of substantial one-off payments made available in addition to the country’s regular incentive programme.

Last year Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales became the biggest production ever to film in Australia and Marvel’s superhero movie Thor: Ragnarok is currently shooting at Village Roadshow Studios.

Ausfilm reported to Gold Coast Bulletin that Tomb Raider is now likely to film in South Africa.

For more on filming in Australia see our production guide.

Image: Paramount Pictures