warner bros. and director andy tennant planned to shoot the film in the caribbean, but decided on queensland, australia because the hurricane season in the caribbean was likely to stall production of the film. the key west scenes were filmed in port douglas. filming also took place in brisbane, the gold coast, hamilton island, lizard island, airlie beach, and hervey bay. scenes were also filmed at batt reef, where steve irwin died from a stingray barb in 2006.