Co-creator of the phenomenal horror franchises Saw and Insidious, Whannell, returned to his home state Victoria to shoot genre-bending feature Upgrade.

The futuristic revenge thriller follows the story of Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) left paralysed after a brutal mugging during which his wife was killed. Grey is approached by a billionaire inventor with an experimental cure that will ‘upgrade’ his body, giving him extraordinary physical abilities which he uses to deadly effect to claim his revenge.

Film Victoria chatted to Leigh Whannell at Dockland Studios Melbourne about his experience of filming in Melbourne and Victoria.

Once the decision was made to bring Upgrade to Australia, second-time director Whannell insisted on shooting in his home town Melbourne, to take advantage of the city’s perfect blend of gothic and urban architecture to create the expansive near-future world of the film.

From the Mornington Peninsula, to RMIT University and the Collingwood Arts Precinct, various suburban locations across Melbourne were used as environments for set pieces and to create the tone and feel of generic US cities. The two key interior sets of the main characters’ houses were expertly constructed on two separate sound stages at Docklands Studios Melbourne.

Upgrade also features one of the biggest car action sequences filmed in Victoria, taking place over three consecutive nights along the Craigieburn Bypass, in a complex shoot involving a number of stunt sequences and vehicles. Film-friendly Victoria Police and VicRoads worked collaboratively with the production to facilitate filming, with Victoria Police also supporting traffic management and providing assistance to the production’s safety officers.

Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) and his wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo)

Upgrade was supported through Film Victoria’s Production Incentive Attraction Fund (PIAF) and Production Incentive Attraction Fund – Post Production, Digital and Visual Effects (PIAF–PDV).

For more information on Victoria’s filming locations and production incentives contact:

Joe Brinkmann
Manager – Incentives and Investments
[email protected]
www.film.vic.gov.au