Production has officially started on a major new film in Sydney this week.
Netflix’s Apex – starring Australia’s own Eric Bana and Hollywood heavyweights Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton – kicked off filming on Monday which will be exclusively shot in Sydney and Western Sydney.
Apex follows a grieving woman who is seeking “solace in the wilderness, only to find herself ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a serial killer”.
According to Netflix, the film will create more than 460 local jobs and contribute an estimated $56.5 million in expenditure to the state’s economy.
Theron will produce the project along with Dawn Olmstead, Beth Kono and AJ Dix via their newly-launched media company, Secret Menu; as will Kormákur through his RVK productions; Ian Bryce through his Ian Bryce Productions; and Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and David Ready via Chernin Entertainment.
“For a film like Apex — where the elements and the terrain are characters that loom just as large as the movie stars battling in it — no other country in the world could have taken the place of Australia as our primary location,” director Baltasar Kormákur said.
“The unrivaled landscape, studio facilities, and talented crews in New South Wales have been a boon to this production. I want to thank the people of NSW, the NSW Government, and The Australian Government’s Location Offset for all the support we’ve received in making this journey possible.”
The production of the film in New South Wales was made possible by Screen NSW’s Made in NSW Fund which was “designed to support the advancement of NSW as a destination for international and local feature films and major television drama programs”.
Kyas Hepworth, Head of Screen NSW, said: “NSW is a premier filmmaking destination, and I am so pleased that Netflix is bringing Apex to our state. Supporting over 460 local jobs and injecting over $56 million into the state economy, we are ready for cameras to start rolling across Sydney and Western Sydney locations.”