SYDNEY -- A possible Screen Actors Guild strike may be a disaster for Hollywood, but Australian producers see it as an opportunity to snare thesps ordinarily beyond their reach for midyear shoots.
In the past few years Oz has lost many homegrown actors to Hollywood's A list.
Departees include Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Frances O'Connor, Toni Collette and Heath Ledger. Mixing Hollywood with Aussie work are Rachel Griffiths, Geoffrey Rush and Guy Pearce.
Recent exports include Hugh Jackman ("X-Men"), Sarah Wynter ("The 6th Day"), Simon Baker ("Red Planet") and Eric Bana ("Black Hawk Down").
Now the chance to sign a cast with international cachet is fueling hopes for a subsequent surge in international financing Down Under.
Local actors union rep Simon Whipp thinks speculation is premature, but if a strike occurs, no local productions will be affected.
Australian SAG members will be free to work in local productions and immigration laws permit American actors to do likewise. Any U.S. productions seeking to shoot in Oz during a strike will not have union support.
The union defines as "Australian" such studio pics as 20th Century Fox's "Moulin Rouge," helmed by Baz Luhrmann.
With studios and crews around the country chockfull with U.S. projects until the June 30 pre-strike production deadline, the climate's ripe for local producers to fill the gap thereafter.
Of an enlarged casting pool, Whipp says a lot of producers are licking their lips at the thought.
Producer Al Clark ("Priscilla, Queen of the Desert") has already cast Guy Pearce in debut helmer Scott Roberts' "Blood and Guts" for an August shoot.
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