One of the main reasons the Justice League movie is not moving forward as much as it would like too after the writers strike, is down to one thing. Australia. Director George Miller has been trying to get the film made in his native Australia so that it can benefit from a 40% refundable tax offset. Many films have been rewarded with help from the Australian Government, such as Baz Luhrmann latest movie. The films leading actors, Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, are Australian. Baz Luhrmann himself is Australian, as are two of the writers. It was all filmed in Australia and the name of the damn movie is called Australia! It doesn’t get more Australian than that! The problem the Australian Government have with The Justice League is that is it described as ‘an American story that will be performed in American accents.’George Miller and Warner Brothers have tried. They have hired many Australian actors for the lead roles, such as Megan Gale as Wonder Woman. They have also ditched the word ‘America’ from the title, instead calling it Justice League Mortal.

George Miller spoke about the situation to The Sydney Morning Herald.

“A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Australian film industry is being frittered away because of very lazy thinking,” Miller said. “If that’s going to be the final decision, they’re throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars of investment that the rest of the world is competing for and, much more significantly, highly skilled creative jobs.”

Miller said he had “utter creative control” over Justice League and plans to appeal against the decision. “It feels to me like I’m not fighting for this film. I’m fighting for the Australian film industry.”

The Australian-born director said the industry needed movie franchises, even if they were not identifiably Australian, to boost production, improve skills and draw talent back from overseas.

“New Zealand built up their franchises through Hercules and Xena into Lord of the Rings,” he said. “Now they’re doing three Tintin films, two more Hobbit films and Halo. They’ve got work for 15 years in that country.”