Australian film production eyes a strong 2014

-By David Pearce

Several analysts are predicting that 2014 will be one of the

strongest years yet for Australian films at the local and

international box office. The buzz started at the Toronto and

Venice Film Festivals, where several 2014 films debuted and gained

international distribution. Opening in Australia on Dec. 26 and the

U.K. on Jan. 1 is The Railway Man starring Colin Firth,

Nicole Kidman and Stellan Skarsgård. In this drama, a British

soldier who was tormented by a Japanese interpreter while a

prisoner during World War II discovers that the man is still alive

and sets out to find him. The Weinstein Company has U.S.

rights.

TWC also has U.S. distribution for Tracks, releasing March

in Australia and April in the U.S. In 1977, Robyn Davidson traveled

for nine months across 2,700 kilometers of Australian desert from

Alice Springs to the West Coast with one dog and four unpredictable

camels. Along the way, she met a National Geographic photographer

who recorded the trip. During the 1980s and ’90s, several films

were announced about the journey, with Julia Roberts and Nicole

Kidman at various times named as the lead. But it was not until

October 2012 that filming finally started with rising Australian

star Mia Wasikowska as Robyn.

Late January is the worldwide release date for a big-budget

contemporary version of the Frankenstein tale based on the graphic

novel by Kevin Grevioux, I Frankenstein. This one stars

Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, Jai Courtney and Miranda Otto.

In 2005, an unheralded outback thriller, made for A$1 million,
Wolf Creek, took the Australian box office by storm,

grossing around A$6 million locally and another US$16 million in

the States. Actor John Jarratt is back as the villain, with some

new backpackers to terrorize in Wolf Creek II, opening

mid-February in both Australia and Italy. Director Greg McLean

again handles the thrills.

Around the Block, a coming-of-age drama starring Christina

Ricci, gained high praise at Toronto. Ricci plays a teacher at a

tough inner-city Australian school who encourages a young

Aboriginal student to break out of the cycle of violence and seize

his potential. It has been called an Australian Dangerous

Minds. Release is early 2014.

Four thrillers, all with strong casts, have real potential. Robert

Pattinson created a stir when he arrived Down Under to film The

Rover with Guy Pearce. David Michod directs this outback

thriller set ten years after the collapse of the Western economic

system. In the heist thriller Son of a Gun, Ewan McGregor is

Australia’s most-wanted criminal, who’s working with a new young

protégé (Brenton Thwaites). Kill Me Three Times has already

been scheduled for release in both the U.S. and Australia in 2014.

Simon Pegg, Bryan Brown and Luke Hemsworth head the cast, as three

tales of murder in an Australian surfing town are all

interconnected. Matt Saville’s thriller Felony concentrates

on three detectives, one of whom is guilty of a crime. This film

gained a strong reaction at Toronto and stars Tom Wilkinson, Joel

Edgerton and an actor on a real roll, Jai Courtney. The latter has

moved from Australian soap operas to the TV series “Spartacus,”
Jack Reacher with Tom Cruise and I Frankenstein,

noted above. He is currently filming Unbroken, which

Angelina Jolie is filming in Sydney, and then moves to Russell

Crowe’s The Water Diviner.

Australian comedies don’t always travel well, but Roadshow has high

hopes for Now Add Honey, in which a Hollywood teen star

returns home to suburban Melbourne and finds her life turned

upside-down. The film stars Portia de Rossi and Robyn Butler.

Rounding out this partial list of Australian films for 2014 is
Canopy, a war drama that received praise in Toronto. Khan

Crittenden and Mo Tzu-Yi star in this tale of an Australian fighter

pilot who is shot down near Singapore and must find his way through

dangerous jungle terrain to safety.

***

The Australian Movie Convention held in October 2013 was a real

success. I have been to exhibition conferences in Europe, Asia and

the USA, but this remains one of the friendliest and most welcoming

I have attended. The weather was a beautiful 25 to 30c (77-86

Fahrenheit) and I managed to grab some time at the beach, just

minutes from the venue at Jupiters Hotel. The 1,500-seat theatre at

Jupiters was transformed into a state-of-the-art digital and 3D

cinema, with superb picture and sound. This was done thanks to

Digipex, Dreamweavers, Hoyts Cinema Technology Group, Deluxe

Australia, Doremi, RealD and Christie Digital. (A CP2220 projector

was installed for the duration.) At least 200 trailers and excerpts

were screened as well as 10 features. There were some most

informative industry discussions and speakers in the more formal

aspects of the Convention.

An excellent initiative is the Deluxe Network Bar, a bar open

exclusively for conference attendees at 10 p.m. every night. One

night at the bar I was talking to one country exhibitor who is

about to change over to digital. “I have been carrying heavy cans

of film around for 40 years,” he told me. “It is time for me to

have a lighter load.” He then went on to explain how he had

attended the Christie Training Workshop and spoken to a variety of

suppliers at the trade show. “I have learnt more in the last three

days about installing digital than I would have in six months

trying to phone and e-mail suppliers. This has been the perfect

conference for me.”

Not everybody was happy. After the screening of Bad Grandpa,

I was standing next to a couple who run an independent cinema. “We

have to show that film,” said the husband. “I am not having that

coarse language in our cinema,” replied the wife. I quietly walked

away.

 


Send your Australia/New Zealand news to David Pearce at

insidemovies@hotmail.com.

Australian film production eyes a strong 2014