Queensland, Australia

Underwater 3D epic Sanctum finished filming in Queensland today and I spoke to director Alister Grierson exclusively about it. The Gold Coast director and the stars are flying down to Mt Gambier on Monday to shoot the final underwater cave scenes.

Grierson says they have spent the last three days filming on Dunk Island in North Queensland and are now on the ``home stretch''.

``It's very exciting, but I've got more work to do supervising the shoot with the second unit in Mt Gambier," he says.
``It has been physically demanding for the actors and quite dangerous.
``It's always stressful when you have people in the water in these dangerous situations but they really stepped up to the challenge.
``They're relieved to finish in a way, but it's always sad when you finish a film because it's like a community and you form some really close bonds.''

Sanctum stars Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd and Australian actors Richard Roxburgh and Rhys Wakefield as three divers on a cave-diving expedition gone wrong. It is based on the real-life experience of the producer and writer Andrew Wight and is being executive produced by Titanic and Avatar director James Cameron (also known as God). Majority of the film has been shot on the Gold Coast at Warner Roadshow Studios and Grierson says the post-production will be done in Melbourne, Australia.

``Heading into the editing room, adding the visual effects and all the sound, it's my favourite part of the filmmaking process,'' he says.

He says they will deliver the finished film to the studio in October, with a late 2010 theatrical release most likely.

Despite having a budget of only $30 million, James Cameron says he thought Sanctum would be able to utilise his 3D technology better than Avatar.

``Avatar is much more expansive, but the thing that most people don't understand with 3D is that it works best in a very claustrophobic environment,'' he said.
``With Sanctum you can really feel that those rock walls in the cave are only a few feet away.
``It works exceptionally well in creating a sense of claustrophobia.
``There will accelerated heart rates, tight breathing and white knuckles when they (audiences) go through a lot of the experiences in this film as a result of the 3D putting them right there in these constricted places.''