NICOLE Kidman narrowly avoided a close encounter of the political kind yesterday when she made a splash on the set of superhero film Aquaman on the Gold Coast.

Kidman spent the day filming her first scenes as the King of Atlantis’s (Jason Momoa) water-breathing mother Queen Atlanna at Village Roadshow Studios and on location at a sprawling set over the road at Coomera.

The actress is expected to wrap her role with a second and final day of filming today.

media_camera Inflatable blue screens shroud the Aquaman set at Waterway Drive, Coomera. Picture: Jerad Williams

Director James Wan captured footage of Kidman on an indoor set in Sound Stages 7 and 8 before production moved to the Atlantis-style city of ruins set at Coomera.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was also on the job on the Oxenford lot yesterday — as part of an inspection of 2018 Commonwealth Games venues.

media_camera Australian actress Nicole Kidman is on the Gold Coast filming Aquaman. Photo: AFP PHOTO/LOIC VENANCE

Village Roadshow will hand its Oxenford studio complex over to Games organisers in January so they can fit it out for squash, table tennis and boxing events — the first time the venue will have been used to host sports events.

While Aquaman filming continues on the Gold Coast, the film’s s Curry Lighthouse set is rising from the rocks at Hastings Point, in NSW.

media_camera Aquaman’s Curry lighthouse set rises from the rocks at Hastings Point, on the Tweed Coast. Picture: Mike Batterham.

Film crew will spend a total of eight weeks bumping in and out of Hastings Point as part of the location shoot but filming is only expected to take “several full days” late in August.

Large sections of the set have been built and painted offsite in a warehouse at Murwillumbah before being transported to the headland.

media_camera Security police the Aquaman set at Waterway Drive, Coomera. Picture: Jerad Williams

Pedestrian access to the headland will only be restricted on those days when the cameras roll — towards the end of the month — to ensure the public can access the site for whale watching season.

media_camera Aquaman’s Curry lighthouse set rises from the rocks at Hastings Point, on the Tweed Coast. Picture: Mike Batterham

AMBER HEARD: DRESSES AND TOMAHAWKS

Screen NSW expects Aquaman to inject $3 million into the Tweed economy as more than 250 filmmakers head south to work on the Hastings shoot.

The production estimates at least 70 of the 700 full-time crew working on the film are “Tweed Shire ratepayers”, with an extra 50 people to be hired on a part-time/casual basis during filming.

The Hastings shoot will also feature local extras.

media_camera Large sections of the Aquaman Hastings Point set were built in a warehouse in Murwillumbah before being transported to Hastings Point. Picture: Mike Batterham

Warner Bros. has offered to train and employ four indigenous community members from northern NSW in security for the shoot and give six young locals jobs as personal assistants on filming days.

Tweed Shire Council has invited Screen NSW to participate in a workshop with local residents, community groups, council staff and interested councillors after the shoot to develop a protocol for future management of filming in the region.

media_camera Aquaman movie set at Hastings Point on the Tweed coast. Picture Mike Batterham

The film’s producers paid a $50,000 bond to use the Hastings headland and have budgeted $35,000 to restore the site once the shoot wraps.

Filming on Aquaman is scheduled to wrap on September 29.

Buzz around the film has been building since Momoa dashed back to the US to present a short, exclusive teaser clip from the film for fans at San Diego Comic-Con.

“We can’t say too much. We’re a ways away, but we made something very, very special,” he said.

media_camera The Aquaman set at Waterway Drive, Coomera. Picture: Jerad Williams

Drone footage of Aquaman set at Hastings Point Drone footage of Aquaman set at Hastings Point

Hailed as “Star wars underwater” by one writer, the clip featured two old men in a fishing boat trying to haul something in on their line before looking into the water to discover ships from Atlantis flying like spaceships and Atlantians riding sharks.

As Momoa later revealed, the ships belong to Patrick Wilson’s character Ocean Master, Aquaman’s villainous half brother.