George Clooney and Julia Roberts attend the Money Monster Premiere. Photo / Getty Images
George Clooney and Julia Roberts attend the Money Monster Premiere. Photo / Getty Images
Hollywood heavyweights Julia Roberts and George Clooney have quietly flown home from Queensland to wait out the Covid-19 outbreak.
After stunning locals with their low-key presence in Queensland, megastars George Clooney and Julia Roberts have quietly fled the state amid a spike in Covid cases as the Omicron variant continuesto run rampant across the country.
The rom-com they were filming, Ticket To Paradise, has subsequently been put on hiatus just two weeks before it was due to wrap, the Daily Mail reported.
According to the publication, filming will remain on pause for at least three months. Universal confirmed the delay to Deadline but declined to disclose a time frame.
Tropical Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays, Queensland Australia. Photo / Getty Images
According to the Courier Mail, Clooney and Roberts left Queensland late last week after the set recorded a number of positive cases that caused lengthy filming delays. Filming across Hamilton Island, the Gold Coast and Brisbane had begun in November.
It comes after Queensland recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic on Tuesday, with 18 Covid-19 deaths and 15,962 new infections.
Directed by Ol Parker, Ticket To Paradise stars Roberts and Clooney as a divorced couple who team up and travel to Bali — filmed in the picturesque Whitsunday region — to stop their daughter getting married. Billie Lourd, Kaitlyn Dever and Lily Lucas Bravo also star.
It will be the pair's first project together since 2016's Money Monster, with productions expected to generate $47m and more than 270 jobs for Queenslanders.
The film was set for release on October 21, 2022, which will likely be delayed.
Before they flew home, the Hollywood heavyweights had been spotted around the Gold Coast and Brisbane in between takes.
Roberts, 54, was pictured on the Gold Coast in December wearing a chic business outfit carrying a bag holding knitting supplies.
Patrons at the Calile were lucky to rub shoulders with three of the most famous people in the world last month. Photo / Instagram
And earlier that month, diners at the swank Lobby Bar at trendy Brisbane hotspot the Calile Hotel were lucky to rub shoulders with Roberts, Clooney and his wife, human rights barrister Amal Clooney.
The trio are understood to be longtime friends after filming Ocean's Eleven together in 2001, and collaborated on its subsequent sequels.
