Friday, November 18, 2016

"Disney got a big government grant to make a 'Pirates of the Caribbean' film in Queensland, Australia, but nobody will say how much"

LAT:
Boyd, 39, wanted to know the size of the production grant the Queensland government gave to Walt Disney Co. to entice the company to shoot the fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” film there. He was skeptical of claims that the movie would be a financial boon for the state.

“It was, ‘Hang on a sec, who is actually working on this? We don’t really see any benefits here,’” said Boyd, who heads a video production company in Queensland. “We went, ‘OK, well how much is this costing, as a taxpayer?’”

But Burbank-based Disney and two Queensland governmental entities took the unusual step of fighting the release of the information, contending it was confidential and that making it public could damage Disney's business.