Hollywood action star Liam Neeson to shut down regional Victorian roads for next movie

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A regional Victorian highway will be closed next week to make way for filming of a movie starring Hollywood actor Liam Neeson.

Harrison Ford's mate Liam Neeson, 72, is heading to Australia to film The Mongoose, which will be his third movie filmed in Victoria in four years.

The veteran actor, who's most famous for his roles in movies like Schindler's List and Taken, was spotted posing for the media at Bacchus Marsh Aerodrome on Wednesday.

Neeson said the setting, which had been transformed to resemble America's south-west, was an appealing place to film.

"It's a real-life fair dinkum yarn, the team, the crew, they're as good as they come," he said.

Highway shutdown

The film's producers, Al Corley and Bart Roseblatt, said they'd be closing off parts of the Calder Freeway near Castlemaine next week to film a high-speed car chase scene with Liam Neeson.

"The whole film is a non-stop chase from start to finish," Mr Corley said.

We've had to close down a major highway for a day so we can film a chase scene.

We'll only need about a kilometre and a half, so we'll only be shooting in a specific area, so we'll aim to not disturb anyone.

The state government said the film was expected to pump more than $19 million into the Victorian economy, with an estimated $2 million spent in regional communities.

Liam Neeson's previous Victorian-based productions include Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky and Blacklight.

Crews from Victoria are among the best in the world

Code Entertainment said that the Victorian crews were among the best in the country.

"It's a tough slog. You're here with flies and it's 36 degrees today and 25 the other days," Mr Corley said.

The Aussie crews are not only tech-savvy, but they're right up there with the best of the Hollywood crews.

They've got a real can-do attitude, and that's exactly what you need when filming a movie.

The weather in Victoria has been quite tricky to predict so far.

"We've got four choppers operating today... and when we arrived this arvo, it was socked in, but by 10 we were able to get airborne," Mr Rosenblatt said.

Last week we had a setup at the quarry, and out of the blue, no warning, a severe storm rolled in overnight with 50-kilometre winds, and it completely destroyed the entire setup.

So we keep adapting … If you don't like the weather here in Victoria, just wait five minutes, mate.

The film crew will continue shooting until next February and the movie will be available on Amazon at the end of 2026.