George Clooney Julia Roberts
CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 12: George Clooney and Julia Roberts attend the ‘Money Monster’ photocall during the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals on May 12, 2016 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Mike Marsland/Mike Marsland/WireImage)

Australians are not usually accustomed to so much celebrity foot traffic but when the pandemic hit in early 2020, Hollywood relocated to the country’s sunny shores thanks to low COVID-19 case numbers and fewer restrictions (mostly). George Clooney and Julia Roberts touched down in Australia late last month to begin production on the forthcoming film, Ticket To Paradise. 

According to  Daily Mail, the pair were forced to complete a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Roberts was residing in AUD $56.9 million, Heritage-listed, waterfront mansion in Vaucluse – an upperclass Sydney suburb. The A-listers are expected to begin filming in mid-November, primarily in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. They were spotted boarding a jet to Hamilton Island at the weekend (see the images here).

Clooney and Roberts have appeared in a number of films together including Oceans Eleven and Money Monster. 

Ticket To Paradise is directed by Ol Parker (known for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) and follows a couple who travels to Bali (in this case, Queensland) to stop their daughter from getting married.

Julia Roberts George Clooney
CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 12: Julia Roberts and George Clooney attend the ‘Money Monster’ premiere during the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals on May 12, 2016 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage)

Variety reports the original screenplay was written by Parker and Daniel Pipski and will be produced by Clooney and creative partner Grant Heslov for Smokehouse Pictures. The film is expected to release from October 21, 2022.

If you need further convincing that Australia is the new Los Angeles: Australian director Baz Luhrmann reportedly wrapped up filming on his upcoming Elvis Presley biopic which will star Tom Hanks, Austin Butler and Richard Roxburgh. It was shot at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast. Taika Waititi’s upcoming Marvel film, Thor: Love and Thunder was also filmed in Australia earlier this year (where he subsequently met new girlfriend, Rita Ora). Amazon original drama series, Nine Perfect Strangers, which was released in June was filmed in Byron Bay which posed as the Californian countryside.

Later this month Ron Howard will also start production on a film surrounding the 2018 Thai soccer team cave rescue, Thirteen Lives, in the Gold Cost.

“It’s one of the few places I feel OK about not having my mask on right now,” Howard said in an interview with the Federal Arts Minister Paul Fletcher.

Stay tuned. Good content is coming.