Cast and crew walked the red carpet at the Gold Coast premiere of Dora and the Lost City of Gold.
The movie was the latest release of a string of blockbusters filmed in Queensland and saw Dora The Explorer transformed from the much-loved animated series to a real-life teenager on the big screen. Dora and the Lost City of Gold tells the story of Dora – now a teenage explorer – who accompanies her friends on an adventure to save her parents and solve the mystery behind a lost Incan civilization.
Across 15 weeks of pre-production and 15 weeks of filming at Village Roadshow Studios and on location, Dora and the Lost City of Gold employed more than 400 of Queensland’s talented and experienced cast and crew, engaged 200 small businesses and injected approximately $43 million into Queensland’s economy.
Dora was the first production to use Village Roadshow’s Sound Stage 9 following its transformation, undertaken for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. During filming, the stage was transformed into a South American jungle including an old Incan temple.
The studio was one of 16 locations across the South East used in the film including Tamborine Mountain, Tallebudgera Valley, the Old Museum in Brisbane and Palm Beach Currumbin State High School which was transformed into an all-American school campus.
Queensland and its diverse locations were a perfect stand-in for the required rainforests as well as the city setting.
At a red carpet event in the United States, the cast of Dora talked about how much they loved filming in Queensland and working with the local crew:
Eva Longoria (Elena): “Brilliant, they were so great, they had big project after big project, so they had Aquaman and us and Godzilla vs Kong. It was one of the most experienced crews I’ve ever seen just for the amount of work they’re continuously doing there.
Isabela Moner (Dora): “Amazing, I love Queensland and I want to go back. They were wonderful, Aussies are such good people. Specifically, I’ve never seen so many women crew members which is so cool, really, really, cool and it felt like such a great environment to be surrounded by.”
James Bobin (Director): “Goldy, I loved it, we had a really fun time. We were there for a long time, about seven months last year and I loved it.”
Eugenio Derbez (Alejandro): The people in Queensland are the best crew I’ve ever worked with, I swear. They’re the nicest people in the universe.”
Dora the Explorer is one of Nickelodeon Junior’s longest-running animated shows, translated into dozens of languages and adapted into video games, stage productions and now, a live-action feature film.
It was released in cinemas Australia-wide on 19 September 2019 and has grossed more than US$115million to date.
Production Attraction Strategy
Since its inception in 2015–16, the Palaszczuk Government through the Production Attraction Strategy has secured 23 high-end TV series, feature films and post, digital and VFX projects to Queensland creating more than 7,500 jobs and delivering a boost to the economy in excess of $679 million.
“They also drive tourists to our shores by showcasing our picturesque locations and the Production Attraction Strategy has made this possible by supporting back-to-back productions in Queensland”, said Jo Dillon, Executive Vice President, Content at Screen Queensland.
Ausfilm members that worked on or with Dora and the Lost City of Gold:
Screen Queensland, City of Gold Coast, Cutting Edge, Fox Lighting, Mill Film, Panavision, Showfilm, Soundfirm and Village Roadshow Studios.