Australia’s leading film producer, Roadshow Films, has indicated it will narrow its focus to “Australiana” films rather than try to compete with Hollywood in genres such as romantic comedy.
Roadshow’s head of production, Seph McKenna, said this was a “pivot point” for the company as it accepted it could not compete fairly with Hollywood’s stars, budgets and results in particular genres including comedy, sci-fi or zombie films. “When we try to make films that Hollywood makes, on a budget we can afford, it doesn’t work,” Mr McKenna told a ScreenWest audience seminar at the Cinefest Oz Festival.
He said comparing the trailers of two romantic comedies released during the same period of 2010 — the Melbourne film I Love You Too and the US film Date Night — was “illustrative of what we’re up against. (Australian lead actors) Brendan Cowell and Yvonne Strahovski cannot compete with Steve Carrell and Tina Fey.”
He also pointed to other recent romantic comedy releases from Roadshow that had not performed as well as hoped at the box office, including the musical Goddess and Working Dog feature Any Questions For Ben? starring Josh Lawson, as well as a number of recent genre films that could not compete with similar Hollywood fare, including post-apocalyptic film The Rover, crime drama Felony and Perth zombie film These Final Hours. “If the story can be told nowhere else other than Australia, then I’m interested,” Mr McKenna said.
Historically, Roadshow’s biggest successes have fit Mr McKenna’s description of “Australiana”. Roadshow has seven of the top 15 highest-grossing Australian films, the first two of which are essentially “studio films” — Happy Feet and The Great Gatsby — followed by Red Dog, The Dish, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Muriel’s Wedding and Mao’s Last Dancer.
The two highest-grossing films at the Australian box office are classic “Australiana”— Crocodile Dundee ($47.7 million in 1986) and Australia ($37.5m in 2008) —followed by Babe’s $36.7m in 1995. Others major hits that could be described as such include Crocodile Dundee II ($24.9m in 1988), Red Dog ($21.4m in 2011) and The Man from Snowy River ($17.2m in 1982). The current hit, Last Cab To Darwin, starring Michael Caton, also fits the bill, with $4.8m at the box office already. This will probably rise to $7m, making this the first year since 2001 with four local filmsearning more than $7m.
Roadshow will soon release the family comedy Oddball, starring Shane Jacobson, Deborah Mailman and American star of Frozen, Alan Tudyk. The dramatisation of the true story about a Warrnambool farmer who trains a Maremma sheepdog to protect from ferals a colony of penguins fits the “Australiana” billing, as does the other major local release coming this year, Universal Pictures’ The Dressmaker, a romantic period drama with an all-star cast led by Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Hugo Weaving and Liam Hemsworth.
Mr McKenna said Australian films still had opportunities globally with mid-budget films as American studios focused upon “the big spectacle” and “gigantic event” films that need to “be watched around the world”.
“They’re working as much as they did during the Harry Potter era,” he said of the US blockbusters. “The Australian and independent business, it’s a much more nuanced story (and) that’s where (there are) opportunities for subsidised film systems (including Australia’s) over Hollywood. Hollywood is handcuffed to big- event films.”
Michael Bodey – The Australian – August 31, 2015
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