Award-winning Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann will guide the creation of a new creative industries precinct on the Gold Coast.
Mayor Tom Tate said the City’s Miami Depot site would be repurposed to accommodate a mix of creative industries including tech, visual effects, gaming and screen industries, innovation, retail and residential uses.
Mayor Tate said Baz Luhrmann’s production company Bazmark would provide the City with strategic advice in the creation of the Miami Arts Depot (MAD).
“With one of Australia’s greatest filmmakers and his Bazmark production company located on the Gold Coast advising the City, this is a great opportunity to attract further investment in the creative industries sector and continue to create more jobs within the industry,” he said.
“We recognise there are constraints with a lack of production infrastructure on the Gold Coast.
“Further growth to expand studio space and supporting infrastructure and capability for the screen industry is crucial.”
Mayor Tate said the precinct would be a boost for the screen industry which generated more than $571 million a year for the local economy.
He said Bazmark relocated their global head office to the Gold Coast and have a pipeline of major productions planned which would generate hundreds of millions of dollars to the local economy.
Baz Luhrmann said: “The Bazmark team and I are excited to be on the ground floor to lend our expertise to the development and construction of the Miami Arts Depot.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the Gold Coast is the perfect environment to further develop a filmmaking culture that stimulates local business and involves the whole community in the process.“
