George Miller is a guy with some varied interests. I mean, he brought the world both Mad Max and Happy Feet-- could you ask anyone to branch out any more? Now he’s got a bunch of projects on his plate that don’t have much in common except one location: Australia. Chatting with the Australian Film Commissioner Tracey Vieira at ShoWest, IESB.net got some scoops on all of Miller’s upcoming projects, and maybe some insight into that darn Justice League project.
It seems that one of the reasons Warner Bros. pulled the plug on the Justice League movie was that they weren’t actually eligible for tax breaks offered by the Australian government. Films that shoot in Australia and are deemed “significantly Australian” are eligible for a massive 40% tax break from the Australian government, as opposed to the 15% tax credit for foreign productions. Directed by Australian Miller, Justice League was apparently trying to cash in on that 40% tax break, but the government wasn’t buying it.
”There's a lot of Australian elements to it but what the government needs to figure out is the significant Australian content and where on the scales is it really falling?” Vieira said to IESB about the Justice League project. “What they don't want to do is take rebranded American films with a change of names and a few attachments and give away such a huge amount of money that would just disappear for us.”
The “change of names” she’s referring to might be the rumors that the movie would be called Justice League instead of Justice League of America, therefore making a better argument for that whole “significantly Australian” thing. Personally, that sounds like nonsense to me. If you’re making a movie based on something called Justice League of America and are simply taking the “America” out, that doesn’t all of a sudden make you a kangaroo-hunting Aussie.
Vieira also suggested that Miller is still going to the mat for the Justice League tax breaks, and will only consider shooting his planned Happy Feet 2 in the country if Justice League makes it in as well. “He's certainly putting them together and saying, "Well if we can't do this one, we can't do this one." I've heard that in the media but I've never heard it from him.” She also suggests, rightly, that Miller would be a little crazy to take Happy Feet 2 out of the country, since it would certainly qualify for the 40% break.
And finally, she even has a little info about Miller’s planned Mad Max follow-up. “I know that that's George's pet project. My understanding is that it's still a little ways down the road.”
So is George Miller running the risk of pissing off the Australian government and further endangering the fate of Justice League? And what’s this about a Happy Feet 2? And with all this arguing, is Miller ever going to get a movie made again?
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/George-Miller-Taking-Over-Australian-Film-Production-8139.html
