Docklands Studios Melbourne continues to attract high profile productions with the December 15 public announcement of writer-director Leigh Whannell’s new sci-fi thriller Stem.

Leigh Whannell made his directorial debut with Insidious: Chapter 3. Photo: Insidious.wikia.com

Creating around 200 jobs and injecting millions into Victoria’s economy, Stem is in pre-production at Docklands and was brought here through Film Victoria’s production incentive fund. Starring Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus, Spider-Man: Homecoming), Stem will be made in association with Goalpost Pictures Australia and Blumhouse Productions.

Docklands Studios CEO Rod Allan says Stem enhances the international reputation of the studios, with Helen Mirren’s new thriller Winchester also to start pre-production and HBO’s The Leftovers wrapping up filming in September. “We’re delighted that influential film-makers like Leigh Whannell, along with Goalpost and Blumhouse, recognise the world-class facilities we have at Docklands.”

Whannell says “It is not only hugely exciting for me to be making Stem but to be doing it in Australia makes it extra special, utilizing the incredibly talented artists we have here to realize the film with me. And to be shooting this science fiction film on the streets of my beloved hometown of Melbourne is a dream come true for me.”

Stem will start filming in early 2017 and centres on a technophobe who avenges his wife’s murder with the help of an experimental computer chip called Stem.