First it was Byron Bay, then Sydney, and now it seems South Australia will be the next lucky location to host Hollywood heartthrob Zac Efron.

Gold, a Stan original production, is set to begin filming next month and has been fortunate enough to recruit the 33-year-old actor.

Director, writer and co-star, Anthony Hayes (Animal Kingdom, The Slap) said Efron’s star-power was an “absolute gift”.

“To have Zac Efron as my main man on this film is an absolute gift and to see what he is creating already is like nothing we’ve seen from him before,” Hayes in a statement.

“I can’t wait to deliver this bold, visceral and cinematic film to audiences all around the world.”

https://twitter.com/theanthonyhayes/status/1324448468539117569

Hayes wrote the screenplay with the help of his wife, Polly Smyth.

Also staring in the film is award-winning actor Susie Porter (Wentworth, Puberty Blues). 

An outback thriller, Gold follows two men who discover the biggest gold nugget ever found, and the extremes they will go to to protect it.

While one man leaves to secure the excavation equipment, the other stays behind to keep watch over their newfound fortune, enduring the harsh desert climate, mysterious intruders and ferocious wild dogs.

Slowly, he begins to suspect he has been abandoned and left for dead.

“This is an exciting, gripping and timely tale about greed, humanity, who we are, what we’ve done to the world and where we are heading if we aren’t careful,” Hayes said.

Efron has been hiding out Down Under since March with his Australian girlfriend Vanessa Valladares.

The two sparked rumours they were making the move from their tropical Byron paradise when they were spotted having lunch in Sydney in early October.

Australia’s low counts of COVID-19 has caught the eye of a number of big shot Hollywood heavyweights looking to escape their own pandemic-riddled studios.

Efron can look forward to rubbing shoulders with some other A-listers in SA, including Rachel Griffiths and Erik Thomson who are working on Aftertaste, and Sean Harris and Joel Edgerton who are filming thriller The Unknown Man. 

Production for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic is well underway in Queensland, as is Nicole Kidman’s Nine Perfect Strangers.

Also joining the hotbed of Hollywood projects is Tiger King drama Joe Exotic andYoung Rock.