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Madeleine Madden hitches a ride with ‘Dora the Explorer’

Madeleine Madden.

After starring in Picnic at Hanging Rock, Tidelands and Pine Gap, Madeleine Madden has landed her first role in a US movie.

Madden has been cast in Paramount Pictures’ Dora the Explorer, the live-action version of the Nickelodeon series which is shooting at Village Roadshow Studios.

She is playing the best friend of Dora (Isabela Moner), a teenage explorer who sets off on an adventure with her monkey Boots and cousin Diego.

The director is James Bobin (The Muppets, Muppets Most Wanted, Alice Through the Looking Glass). Nick Stoller, who penned both Muppets movies, and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel (New Girl, The Millers) wrote the screenplay.

Micke Morena (Escobar: Paradise Lost) is playing Diego with Eugenio Derbez (Overboard) as roguish explorer Alejandro Gutierrez. Moner last starred in Sicario: Day of the Soldado. The movie is is scheduled for release in August next year.

The Queensland government stepped in to top up the Location Offset after the federal government declined to do so.

Last week the Pasadena-based National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) organised a boycott of Paramount Studios, the first in its 32-year history, accusing it of having the worst record for Latino representation in films.

In response the studio said its new leadership team is ensuring better representation in front of and behind the camera in upcoming films including Dora the Explorer, Instant Family, Bumblebee and Limited Partners.

Madden, who is repped here by Sue Barnett and Associates, has worked steadily after making her debut in in Deborah Mailman’s short film Ralph when she was 12. Her credits include Doctor Doctor, Mystery Road, Tomorrow, When the War Began, Ready for This, Redfern Now and Jack Irish: Dead Point.

She played schoolgirl Marion Quade in FremantleMedia Australia/Foxtel’s Picnic at Hanging Rock.