Fog City has started rolling across Melbourne this week, transforming the city's heritage facades into Depression-era San Francisco.
Written and directed by Dan Pritzker, whose features include Bolden and Louis, Fog City unfolds against the building of the Golden Gate Bridge. The shoot is backed by the Victorian government through VicScreen.
Recreating 1930s San Francisco is no small ask, so the production is leaning on a roll-call of Melbourne’s most recognisable heritage sites alongside the stages and converted backlot at Docklands Studios.
Fog City locations
- Labassa Mansion
- Palais Theatre
- Rippon Lea Estate
- Melbourne Town Hall
- Trades Hall
- The Trust
- The Hotel Windsor
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Those landmarks span grand mansions, a theatre, a town hall and one of the city’s oldest hotels, giving the project a ready-made spread of period architecture without anyone leaving Victoria.
The figures attached to the shoot are substantial. Fog City is set to pour $60 million into the Victorian economy, generate 365 jobs for local crew and 2645 roles for cast, casuals and extras, and bring work to 250 businesses across the state. The Victorian government has framed it as another result for local screen workers, with the production offering on-the-job development alongside paid positions.
It lands in the middle of a busy run for screen work in the state. Recent local shoots include Michael Shanks’ Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel with Daniel Kaluuya, action thriller Empire City with Gerard Butler and Hayley Atwell, drama series The Airport Chaplain with Hugo Weaving and Shabana Azeez, comedy Separated at Birth with Nazeem Hussain and Urzila Carson, and children’s series Little Lunch: New Class. The slate follows earlier Victorian-made features Thrash and War Machine.
Fog City was secured for the state by VicScreen through the Victorian Screen Incentive, with the production also drawing on the Federal Government’s Location Offset to get across the line.
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