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The Blue Mountains will take centre stage as filming begins in Sydney and the city’s west for a new Netflix thriller starring Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton and Eric Bana, with the production set to inject $56.5 million into the local economy and support 460 local jobs.
The movie, titled Apex, is described as a “ruthless game of cat and mouse set in the unforgiving landscape of the Australian wilderness” that brings together the action credentials of Theron who featured in Atomic Blonde and Egerton in his recent hit Carry-On.
Written by Jeremy Robbins, the plot centres on a grieving woman who seeks solace in the wilderness a year after her husband’s death. Theron plays an adrenalin-junkie rock climber who finds herself being hunted by a serial killer during a canoe run.
Bana was only recently announced as the third major star of the movie and his role in the feature has yet to be disclosed.
“I couldn’t be more excited to start production on Apex,” says director Baltasar Kormákur (Everest, Adrift).
“Working in the rugged, beautiful terrains of Australia with three of the world’s most talented, dedicated actors in Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton, and Eric Bana is such a joy, even as I put them through the gauntlet in this unique survivor story.
“For a film like Apex - where the elements and the terrain are characters that loom just as large as the movie stars battling in it - no other country in the world could have taken the place of Australia as our primary location.
“The unrivaled landscape, studio facilities, and talented crews in NSW have been a boon to this production.”
While Theron and Bana have both had extensive careers on the silver screen, Egerton has been making an impact in the industry over the past decade with breakout performances in Kingsman: The Secret Service in 2014 and more recently Rocket Man and Carry-On.
The production of Apex has been supported by the federal government’s Location Offset incentive for overseas productions.
The feature film is produced by Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and David Ready for Chernin Entertainment; Ian Bryce for Ian Bryce Productions; Charlize Theron, Beth Kono and AJ Dix for Secret Menu; and Baltasar Kormákur for RVK Studios.
Apex is executive produced by Ray Angelic, Will McCance and Dawn Olmstead for Secret Menu.
Netflix has yet to announce when the feature movie will be released on the streaming service.
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