OCTOBER2010

THEBOOMERANG

Patrick Hughes’ Red Hill blasts into cinemasBran Nue Dae & Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole picsMeet Your AiF: Brad ShieldIn the News: Lurhmann Kidman Byrne Carpani Proyas Passmore Wan...and more!

AUSTRALIANS IN FILM

OCTOBER 2010

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From the EditorDear Members and FriendsIt’s been a long time between films and celebratory drinks for Patrick Hughes, whose first feature Red Hill is about to see a release in U.S. cinemas next month. I remember meeting Patrick in 2001 when his taut and terrific short The Director won the Inside Film Award for short film. His work displayed a mature grasp of story and a confident visual style. His desire to throw his energy into feature filmmaking was evident even then, so little wonder his anticipation is sky high after years of work bringing his vision to the screen. Break a leg Patrick! But of course Patrick’s story is more common than not. Dig a little into the careers of many of the names featured in the pages of The Boomerang and you’ll discover success very rarely comes quick: David Michôd’s Animal Kingdom was a good ten years in development; Rose Byrne honed her craft over a decade in

Australian film and television before making a name for herself Stateside; and Stacey Testro chaperoned dozens of great entertainment careers before actively collaborating with James Wan and Leigh Whannell on the Saw franchise and deserving of all the success it delivered. Let’s face it, we can hardly call ourselves fair dinkum creatives unless we spend years in the artistic doldrums, wake week after week to screen executives’ politely phrased Thank you but No’s, and suffer loudly and painfully to our friends and family for the sake of our art. Patience in this business is not so much a virtue; but a lifestyle.- SPJ

PS. A big thanks to Australian filmmakers, including AiF Ambassador Miranda Otto and the cast of Tomorrow When The War Began, who are currently involved in a major anti-piracy campaign, known as the Accidental Pirate campaign. Watch the ad and join the conversation at our websites and blogs here:accidentalpirate.com.au/blog.accidentalpirate.com.au/www.youtube.com/user/AccidentalPir8

PSS. Do you have a background in journalism or publishing and love the idea of promoting the best in Australian film? Then help us out as a contributing editor. For more information, please contact AiF Executive Director Sophie Scarf at sscarf@australiansinfilm.org

ContentsFrom the EditorFrom the PresidentNewsFeature Preview Red HillMeet Your AiF Brad ShieldScreenings and Events Bran Nue Dae Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole All Photos thanks to Getty ImagesRear Window

Who’s Who at AiFPresidentPaula PaizesVice PresidentDavid PrattChairman of the BoardSusie DobsonTreasurer & SecretaryRob MarsalaBoard MembersJenny Cooney Carillo, Michelle Day, Andrew Warne, Megan WorthyExecutive DirectorSophie Scarf

The BoomerangEditor & DesignerStephen Jenner editor@australiansinfilm.org

CoverRyan Kwanten in Patrick Hughes’ Red Hill

News SubmissionsPlease email the Editor with any Australian or member film-related news or announcements.

Australians in Film | 2800 28th St, Suite 320 | Santa Monica CA 90405

Tel: 310 452-5939 | Fax: 323 446-8724 | www.australiansinfilm.org | administrator@australiansinfilm.org

THEBOOMERANG

Ryan Kwanten and Claire Van Der Boom in Red Hill

OCTOBER2010

Dear Members and Friends

How quickly a year passes! It is that time again. We are calling for Applications for the 2011 Heath Ledger Scholarship later this month. Go to our website for dates and details and if you think you have what it takes to be the next Heath Ledger Scholarship Winner, then make sure you apply! Cant wait to see two great films, back to back, this month. On Oct 25, we screen Red Hill starring AIF’s  2010 Breakthrough recipient, Ryan Kwanten, and then on October 26 we screen Tomorrow When the War Began written and directed by AIF Ambassador Stuart Beattie. Stuart’s film is currently one of the highest grossing films in Australian box office history! Both Ryan and Stuart will be attending our Q&A’s. And speaking of time passing – it is AIF’s 10 Year Anniversary next year! Hard to believe it is nearly ten years since AIF launched in May 2001 with a screening of Moulin Rouge at the Zanuck Theatre on the Fox

Lot. We are busy planning some fabulous celebratory events for next year to make it our biggest and best year ever! Watch out for details. Don’t forget to let us know if you have any comments or suggestions on our screenings or programs. We welcome member input!

Best wishes, Paula Paizes

Welcome New MembersA warm welcome to our new members. We hope you enjoy being a part of Australians In Film.

Sean MeehanBrad ShieldLucie BarronMatthew HearnJane Forbes

Australians in Film Members’ work coming to a screen near you!

The Social Network, Kirk Baxter, editor

Let Me In, Kodi Smit McPhee, actor,

Secretariat, Dean Semler, cinematographer

Saw 3D: The Final Chapter, Stacey Testro, James Wan & Leigh Whannell, producers

From The PresidentAiF Events CalendarPut these terrific upcoming AiF screenings in your diary

now. See you at the movies!

October 25 - Red Hill

October 26 - Tomorrow When The War Began

November 12 - The Kings

Speech

December 9 - Rabbit Hole

Other diary dates: Screamfest, one of the

premiere genre festivals in

the United States, is

screening two features and

one short film from Australia this year.  The features are:

Needle from director John V.

Soto.  Screens Saturday

October 9th at 7:30pm with the director and several

members of the cast present.

The Clinic from James

Rabbitts.  Screens Sunday the 10th at 5pm.

The short is Attack! from

director Adam White. This

screens in the Shorts Program #3 on Saturday the 16th at

7:30pm.  The director and

producer of the film will be in

attendance.

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OCTOBER2010

Newsloved Australian television

series McLeod’s Daughters.

Written by Annie Brunner and to

be directed by Dean

Parisot, Against the Wall is a

family drama set in Chicago

following policewoman Abby

Kowalski (Carpani), who causes

a rift with her three cop

brothers when she decides to

join the department’s Internal

Affairs division.

 

Kidman returns to the stage 

Nicole Kidman will star in a

Broadway revival of Tennessee

Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth.

David Cromer is the director

and it will be produced by Scott

Rudin. The production will mark

Kidman's first Broadway

appearance since her notorious

debut in The Blue Room

(1998-99).

The $5 million film went on to

gross more than $80 million

worldwide. Luhrmann said:

“After years of talk about

bringing Strictly Ballroom to

the musical stage, I’m

energised by the partnership

we have made with Global

Creatures, an Australian

company that has made a giant

impression on the world’s

stages over the last three

years.”

Carpani Against the Wall 

Australian actress Rachael

Carpani has landed the central

role in another cable pilot with

a female lead, Lifetime's

Against the Wall. Carpani rose

to prominence in the much-

Ballroom for the stage

Strictly Ballroom will be

refashioned into a stage

musical by Baz Luhrmann,

produced by Global Creatures

and Bazmark. The 1992 film

was written and directed by

Luhrmann based on a stage

play he originally conceived

and co-wrote as a student at

Sydney's National Institute of

Dramatic Art (NIDA), the school

which also gave us Mel Gibson,

Judy Davis and Cate

Blanchet. The original movie

won the Prix de la Jeunesse at

the 1992 Cannes Film Festival

and launched Luhrmann's

international directing career.

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

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OCTOBER2010

News

The Glades passes numbers testA&E Network has picked up

drama series The Glades for a

second season with a 13-episode

order headlined by Aussie actor Matt Passmore.

Aussies lasses join Reeves in Generation Um 

Adelaide Clemens, the 2010 AiF

Heath Ledger Scholarship

runner up has been cast as a

lead in Generation Um, which stars Keanu Reeves, and fellow

Australian, Bojana Novakovic.

year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Leigh Whannell

wrote the script. The film is a

modern take on the haunted

house chiller genre. It's

guaranteed a theatrical release, with a level to be determined.

Wan and Whannell created the

Saw franchise, with Wan

directing and Whannell scripting

the first pic in that series. The film stars Patrick Wilson, the

charming Rose Byrne, Barbara

Hershey and Angus Sampson.

Rose gets X’yRose Byrne is also currently

filming X-Men: First Class in the

UK, along with James McAvoy,

January Jones and Michael

Fassbender. Directed by Matthew Vaughn, the film goes

back in time to explore the

friendship between Charles

Xavier and Erik Lensherr, before

they took the names Professor X and Magneto, as they discover

their powers and use them to

fight the biggest threat the

world has ever known. 

Proyas for Paradise Lost adaptation Aussie director Alex Proyas

(Dark City, The Crow, I Robot,

Knowing) has signed on to

direct Paradise Lost for Legendary Pictures, an

adaptation of the 17th century

English poem by John Milton.

The script has been through a

number of passes: Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi

wrote the initial adaptation,

which was later developed by

Stuart Hazeldine. His draft was

then polished by Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost

Ark). Ryan Condal delivered the

most recent draft of the script.

Saw filmmakers strike US distribution deal Sony Pictures Worldwide

Acquisitions Group has closed a

deal for North American

distribution rights to Insidious, the James Wan-directed thriller

that premiered in the Midnight

Madness program during this

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OCTOBER2010

Red Hill

Audiences and established filmmakers started paying attention to Patrick Hughes when his short film The Lighter, won the world’s biggest short film festival Tropfest in 2001. However, it was his graduation film from the Victorian College of the Arts School of Film and Television (VCA), The Director, that originally put his work on the map the year before. The film won the IF Award for best short, most popular film at Flickerfest International Short Film Festival and an AFI Best Editing nomination amongst others.

Hughes has been plying his craft with the commercial production house @radical.media, shooting high caliber advertisements for globally-recognised brands such as Playstation, BMW, Honda, Mercedes, Vodafone and Xbox.

The story behind the release of his first feature, ten years after graduation from film school, is

not uncommon. Hughes has done it the hard way, going extreme indie to produce the type of film that he believes most expresses his capabilities as a writer/director.

On the eve of Red Hill opening on 5th November on screens in the US, Patrick Hughes describes, in his own words, the tough but satisfying journey of bringing his story to the cinema.

“I was ready to make my first film ten years ago. I wrote scripts that were optioned, but for various reasons I always found myself stuck in development hell. That is the most frustrating aspect of filmmaking. Unlike other art forms, you need loads of cash to create your vision, but of course nobody lets you make a movie until you’ve made a movie.

After many frustrating years watching from the sidelines while directing television

commercials, I came to the conclusion that the only way I was going to get my first film made was if I just went out there and made the damn thing myself. From the very beginning I was inspired by filmmakers such as Robert Rodriguez, the Coen Brothers and Aussie legend George Miller; directors who made their first films outside the system and risked everything in the process.

When I sat down to write Red Hill, my goal was to create a story that I knew I could make on a tight budget. Unfortunately the finished script was loaded with stunts, shoot-outs, pyrotechnics, horse chases, car crashes and prosthetic limbs getting blown off… Oh, and did I mention that half the film takes place at night, in a remote town in the dead of winter? In hindsight, I probably should have used a little more discipline when conjuring up the set pieces.

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Steve Bisley plays town cop in Red Hill

OCTOBER2010

Red HillClearly, Red Hill was a passion project for all involved. We made the film independently, raising the money privately; the production went ahead with neither a distributor attached nor any government funding beyond a location grant. But I knew that if I could just get the film in the can and bash together an edit in post, I would have something viable to sell and the rest would fall into place. And thank god it did, otherwise my wife and two small children would be living in a cardboard box right now.

In the end, Screen Australia and Arclight came on board to help us complete it, but in order to get the film made in the first place, I pulled in every favour that was owed, or I could claim was owed to me from the world of television commercials. Because of this, our production was blessed with an incredibly dedicated and talented crew, many of whom were seasoned industry professionals. Only problem was we had minimal resources and only four weeks to shoot the entire movie. Sourcing second-hand film stock from Hollywood, we shot the whole thing using short ends from productions such as Entourage - Season 5 and the last instalment of the Fast and the Furious franchise.

Filmmaking at this level is gut-wrenchingly stressful, yet wonderfully liberating at the same time. Working under such tight and gruelling conditions, the function of the director becomes one of managing compromise. Going into the production, I knew we had bitten off more than we could chew, but that’s the game, that’s how movies get made,

and in the world of indie filmmaking the rule is simple – Quit your whinging and just tell the damn story!

I love westerns for the simple fact that there is no subtext to a bullet. They are stories built on the backbone of a moral code. Tales of men whose honour has been tarnished, whose lives have been wronged, men who seek nothing more than the simple taste of revenge. And that’s exactly what makes the genre such a visceral experience for audiences. If delivered with right amount of empathy, vengeance can be a powerful motivation, one that audiences can root for. When making Red Hill I was inspired by films such as High Plains Drifter, No Country for Old Men and Deliverance. I wanted to tell a story that was lean, raw and mean, but above all else I wanted to entertain.

I’ve always felt Australia was ripe for a modern-day western; our landscape is rich in history and conflict. With the film shooting in and around an old gold mining boomtown in high-country Victoria, the production

was able to capitalise on the stunning beauty of the mountainous region, giving our canvas an expansive sense of scale and scope.

When examining the vast Australian landscape, I realised not a whole lot has changed since the 1800s. Sure, instead of horses we now use cars and instead of mail we now have the benefit of mobile phones, but if one were to take away these modern devices, the majority of our small rural towns are still incredibly isolated. Red Hill taps into this sense of isolation, fusing elements of the horror genre with that of the western, all rolled together into a present-day cop drama.

Red Hill is my tribute to the western genre. It’s about revenge, redemption and sacrifice. The character of Jimmy Conway is a representation of our dark colonial past. Over the years many stories have been told of the injustices suffered by Australia's indigenous community, but few had given them a voice of revenge - I felt it was about time.” -Patrick Hughes

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Ryan Kwanten gets more than he bargained for in Red Hill

OCTOBER2010

Brad ShieldCinematographer Where were you born and raised?     Brisbane, and various parts of North Queensland.

How did you get involved in your current career?         About a year after I finished school, I applied for a job at Jumbuck Productions - a commercial production company in Brisbane. One of my references was from the chief engineer of Channel 7 Brisbane - my uncle Bob. I didn't realize that Jumbuck Productions was owned by Channel 7. Long story short, I got the job as general s..t kicker. My first day of work at Jumbuck, I was told to get up in the lighting grid. My job was to throw streamers on a giant chicken during the filming a KFC commercial. I’ve loved this business ever since.

If you weren’t in your current career what would you be doing?         I have no idea. While at  school I thought I  would like to be a journalist – that’s if I didn't get to fly fighter jets.

Who do you most admire?     I have been lucky enough to work with a heap of terrific cinematographers over the years, and without fail they have been generous with their knowledge and inspiring with their love of the craft. Other than that, my brother Andrew - who is a top fella and surf photographer - gets in some very heavy situations in the surf and snaps some amazing images.

What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?       Realize how lucky you are to be working and try and have a positive attitude every day you are on a film set.

What is the most favorite film

you have worked on?   Sometimes the worst movies are the most fun to work on eg; Dr Moreau -great crew, fantastic locations, a couple of pretty crazy folk, a mad mad time, but shocker of a movie! Other than that, I love The Thin Red Line as a film. I really enjoyed working with John Woo when I was a  camera operator. We had a good time doing the action on Wolverine with (action) director Peter Macdonald. There is always something to take out of every film you work on, but probably my favourite would be The Square – a really good team effort and terrific movie made for bugger all money.

What are you working on at the moment?       I am shooting a short film for Luke Doolan, an editor who directed one other film called Miracle Fish which was nominated for an Academy Award. He’s a terrific talent and another of the Blue Tongue mob. After that I am looking for a job... anyone... anyone..?

Meet Your AiFTH

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Bran Nue Dae

Jenny Cooney Carillo, Andrew and Lucas

Rachel Perkins & Moderator Dion Beebe

With the grateful support of Freestyle Releasing, Cinemarket and Omnilab Media, AiF held a special screening of Bran Nue Dae at the Harmony Gold Theater on

Sunset Boulevard. The special screening on 7 September was followed by a delightful Q&A with the film’s director Rachel Perkins and cinematographer and

the evening’s moderator Dion Beebe

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Nicholas Coles & Devin Robyn Kershaw & Rachel Perkins

Robert Penfold & Denham Hitchcock Graeme Ray & Samantha Martin Scott Kussmaul & Tommy Cyr

OCTOBER2010

Legends of the Guardians

Jenny Cooney, Callum McAuliffe, Andrew Carrillo & Andrew Warne

AiF Members enjoyed a hoot of a night at the

special screening of Legends of the

Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, on 18

August at the Pacific Design Centre.

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Ava & Seth Horwitz, Susie Dobson & Eloise Whitford

David Bilson, Paloma Felisberto & family

Chris Goddard, Lilly Goddard and friend

Friends of AiF and fellow Owl lovers!

OCTOBER2010

Rear Window

Gillian Armstrong Simon Baker Eric Bana Cate Blanchett Bryan Brown Rose Byrne Toni Collette Abbie Cornish Russell Crowe Roger Donaldson Deborra Lee Furness Melissa George Mel Gibson Rachel Griffiths Scott Hicks Barry Humphries Hugh Jackman Nicole Kidman Anthony Lapaglia Baz Luhrmann Robert Luketic Jacqueline McKenzie Julian McMahon George Miller Kylie Minogue Radha Mitchell Poppy Montgomery Olivia Newton-John Phillip Noyce Frances O’Connor Miranda Otto Guy Pearce Richard Roxburgh Geoffrey Rush Fred Schepisi Naomi Watts Hugo Weaving David Wenham Sarah Winter

AiF Ambassadors

AiF Board of Advisors

Kym Barrett Stuart Beattie Greg Coote Bruce Davey Richard Francis-Bruce Dean Semler

AiF SponsorsWe greatly appreciate the involvement and support of our sponsors.

You or your organization can become a sponsor of Australians in Film. We’d be happy to talk to you to see we can tailor AiF to best benefit your company. Contact Executive Director Sophie Scarf for more information. Email sscarf@australiansinfilm.org or phone 310 452 5939

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Applications will open October 20th, 2010 for the Australians in Film Heath Ledger Scholarship 2011. If you think you have what it takes - check out the details on our website.