Screenwriter Craig Pearce buys in Bondi Beach

Screenwriter and actor Craig Pearce is trading Woollahra for Bondi Beach.

Pearce, who co-wrote Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby with Baz Luhrmann, has spent $2.45 million on a three bed apartment  bought a three-bedroom beachside unit for $2.45 million, which he will make his new Sydney base.

Mark Yeats of Raine and Horne Double Bay said the property was a popular one thanks to its “absolutely jaw-dropping view of the beach”, which stretch from Bondi Icebergs to Ben Buckler Point. 

It sold prior to its scheduled auction.

“It attracted a lot of people because of its location and that view,” Yeats told Property Confidential. “Craig came to inspect it and fell in love with it; the fact that it’s beachside and will attract an excellent rental return if he chooses to go down that road in the future was the main attraction.”

But for now, the Campbell Pde unit will be home to the screenwriter who is again working with Luhrmann on his next project - a yet-untitled biopic about Elvis Presley and his manager “Colonel” Tom Parker, who is to be played by Tom Hanks.

Progress of the film, starring young Nickelodeon and Disney star Austin Butler as Elvis, was halted indefinitely after Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive to coronavirus during pre-production work on the Gold Coast in March.

The north-facing apartment has high ceilings, whitewashed floorboards and is located in a secure boutique building. 

This article first appeared in The Daily Telegraph.