Monsters were rampaging down William Street early this week. It was the most exciting thing to happen in the Brisbane CBD for a long time. It’s almost a shame it wasn’t real.
It was location shooting for Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, with Brisbane standing in for London.
The film, starring Sam Neill, Kaitlyn Dever, Jack O’Connell, Matthew Modine, Delroy Lindo, Alycia Debnam-Carey, is due for release in 2027.
It’s been a big buzz for Brisbaneites, especially one Godzilla tragic of my acquaintance, to have this happening in our hometown.
But one wonders how much longer the movie-making activity centered around the Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast will continue if President Donald Trump’s planned 100% tariff on films made outside the United States is implemented.
We can only hope that he’ll back down, as he has on other issues, so this kind of cultural and economic activity continues.
Mister Brisbane is free to read, but if you appreciate what I’m doing here, and/or
at The Wrinkle and Radio Bert, you can buy me a coffee.
Fun and Games
Brisbane Times attributed this quote about the Brisbane Live venue first mooted for Roma Street and now for the old GoPrint site in the Gabba, to Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee chief executive Cindy Hook:
“I don’t think we need that venue desperately for the Games, but gosh, if we add it and we’ve got some more options, I would love to see that.”
If you’ve been following this saga, you’ll know that the Federal Government offered to help pay for the Brisbane Live Arena, which would have a life beyond the Games as a much-needed replacement for the Brisbane Entertainment Centre at Boondall. But the State Government said No.
It’s now looking for a private partner to fund the project and says it has had several expressions of interest. I’m told the Premier, David Crisafulli, is confident it will go ahead.
My concern here is that Queenslanders as a whole, and ticket purchasers for future events at the venue in particular, will be paying over the odds down the track so that company can make a profit.
Isn’t it iconic?
“West End icon closes doors.” So says my very welcome and often very informative morning newsletter from Brisbane Times.
It’s a story about the closure of family-owned live music venue The Bearded Lady, and I feel sad for the owners, the regulars and the West End community.
But I’m also sad about the further dilution of the word “icon”. Even if we accept its relatively new meaning of “a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration” rather than “a devotional painting or holy figure, especially one produced by the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church”, does a small suburban business shutting up shop really fit the bill?
It’d be a stretch to use the word “icon” in the context of the more storied (original) Cloudland, Her Majesty’s or Festival Hall.
If we allow exaggeration to reign over common-sense descriptions — for example, a TV reporter recently referred to a bit of jostling in a crowd as “carnage” — we have nowhere to go when we want to convey the true scale of an event.
We are diluting, and slowly killing, our language.
Change afoot at 4BC
Rumours about the sale of the Nine Radio network, including 4BC in Brisbane, have been reignited after the announcement of a “new commercial structure” starting on July 1.
Of course, the reshuffle — involving the appointment of former SCA executive Brian Gallagher as commercial director, audio — might actually be about better integrating the radio stations into the who Nine structure. And, of course, increasing their contribution to the company’s bottom line.
Whether it’s being primed for sale or not, Nine Radio still has a lot of work to do in Brisbane.
Untangling itself from the divided, losing side in the recent federal election would be a good start.
P.S. My thoughts are with Brisbane city councillor Ryan Murphy, who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer at just 36. I wish him a full recovery.
Disclosure: Brett Debritz worked as a producer at 4BC a few years ago.
Your criticism of the use of the word 'icon' is spot on, particularly as that eatery, which I've never heard of, is hardly worthy of it. And your highlighting of a reporter describing a situation as 'carnage' when it was nothing of the sort, is what I often point out on X as #NotGoodNewsWriting which sadly is widespread
hello