Village Roadshow Studios | |
Location: | Gold Coast, Australia |
Address: | Entertainment Road |
Coordinates: | -27.911°N 153.3112°W |
Inauguration Date: | 1991; 32 years ago |
Owner: | Village Roadshow |
Building Type: | Film and television studios |
Village Roadshow Studios are a set of film studios located in Oxenford, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The studios are owned by Village Roadshow and consist of nine sound stages as well as a range of other production facilities. The studio commenced in June 1991 and is one of three film studios in Australia, the others being Disney Studios Australia in Sydney and Docklands Studios Melbourne.
The studios have been home to many feature films, telemovies, TV series and miniseries. Some feature film productions include Aquaman, San Andreas, , Scooby-Doo, House of Wax, Ghost Ship, and . TV productions have included H2O: Just Add Water,Terra Nova, BeastMaster and the Lost World series.
Village Roadshow Studios opened in 1986 and was commissioned by Dino De Laurentiis for De Laurentiis Entertainment Limited (DEL). Village Roadshow purchased DEL and took over the facility in 1988. The Studios were built before WB Movie World in 1991 and they are adjacent to the Warner Bros. Movie World theme park. Despite their physical proximity and operational links, the studios and theme park are separate entities.
The theme park, and the studios' management have no involvement with productions and, as such, do not recommend cast, crew or extras. This is done independently by the production. However, experienced Warner Bros. Movie World staff are often involved in productions filmed at the studios. The studios are not open to the general public and as the productions are independently owned, permission to go on-set can only be obtained from the production itself.
In June 2004, a fire in Sound Stage 8, during the production of House of Wax, destroyed the sound stage.[1]
The facility consists of nine sound stages,[2] three water tanks (two outdoor and one indoor; one of which is the largest purpose built film water tank in Australia),[3] 10 production areas,[4] five construction workshops,[5] onsite support facilities,[6] two wardrobe and laundry facilities,[7] accounting services,[8] lock ups,[9] screening and editing,[10] preview theatrette, visual effects studio, film processing, post production, travel and freight services, and much more.
In addition to producing a variety of television shows and films, the studios have also been used by the adjacent Warner Bros. Movie World theme park. When the two facilities opened in 1991, a Studio Tour was run from Warner Bros. Movie World throughout the production areas of the Village Roadshow Studios before returning to the Movie Magic Special Effects Show.[11] In 2011, both Sound Stage 1 and 2 were utilised for the theme park's annual halloween event, Fright Nights. The Saw and Zombie Apocalypse mazes were housed in these studios throughout October.[12]
In 2018, some sound stages were used for the 2018 Commonwealth Games and played host to sports such as boxing and table tennis. Temporary spectator seating was installed for a total of 6,200 people for the two sports.[13]
See also: List of films shot on the Gold Coast.