Category Archives: Film

Film news with a particular orientation towards Australia.

Making the cut

Hype about Blue-Tongue Films as the local industry’s future raises questions about
the place of box office success.

He cites Gene Hackman as his role model and – if all goes according to plan – could
become Australia’s most unlikely leading man since Geoffrey Rush after his Oscar-
winning turn in Shine. He is Joel Edgerton: Australia’s man of the moment in
Hollywood, star of the new Aussie thriller Wish You Were Here and part of the
filmmaking collective Blue-Tongue, lauded by many as the future of the Australian
film industry after producing Animal Kingdom.

Joel Edgerton is part of the much-praised Blue-Tongue Film collective.

Briefly back in Sydney, Edgerton is all too aware of the need to maximise opportunity
while it’s there – he spent a decade breaking into Hollywood, after all – and believes
the ”clubhouse” (which is how he describes Blue-Tongue) is vital to his creative
output and that of fellow club member, actor-director Kieran Darcy-Smith.

The others are Edgerton’s filmmaker brother, Nash, writer-director Spencer Susser,
editor Luke Doolan, stuntman-actor Tony Lynch and the director of Animal Kingdom, David Michod.

Curiously wary of his legacy at age 37, Edgerton insists there’s no better way to foster
talent and maintain the momentum started by Michod’s critically acclaimed debut in
2010.

”David’s success with Animal Kingdom had a residue that rubbed off on all of us,”
Edgerton tells Unwind at the world premiere of Wish You Were Here at the
Sundance Film Festival in Utah. ”Hopefully, it’ll continue.

”We didn’t really intend it but we’re happy that [Blue-Tongue] evolved like that.
What it is is a bunch of guys who all like each other’s work. Now, whenever I write
something, I’ll hand it to the other guys and they tell me what’s wrong with it.”

Although he’s busy making back-to-back films this year – he’s currently shooting
Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama bin Laden feature in Jordan – Edgerton remains a prolific
writer.

He already has one script sold in the US – an ode to the films of John Hughes
called One-Night Stand – with three others in development: the follow-up to Animal
Kingdom, The Rover (co-written with Michod); a follow-up to The Square (co-
written with Nash); and a self-penned police thriller set in the multicultural western
suburbs of Sydney, where he grew up. All are being co-produced by Blue-Tongue.

Despite the critical buzz that follows much of their work, not everyone is convinced.
Given that last year was Australian cinema’s worst in a decade (barely 3 per cent of
the movie-going public watched a local film in 2011), critical applause is not enough.

Gary Hamilton, who heads up global sales-production house Arclight – and whose
latest hit, A Few Best Men, is enjoying a world-wide rollout (including Russia,
Vietnam and Italy, where it’s taken €2.5 million [$3.2 million] at the box office)
despite receiving mixed reviews at home – believes independent producers and their
respective collectives sound nice in theory, but can prove counterproductive in
practice.

”I’d be more interested in seeing another Strictly Ballroom, to be honest,” Hamilton
says on the phone from Beijing, following A Few Best Men’s premiere there.

”We’ve got to make international movies, films that people want to go and see. No
one’s interested in film-festival films. And having individual producers is not the way
to build an industry. As much as I liked Animal Kingdom very much – it was
wonderful – I don’t see it as a model. Australia needs to get away from the mindset
that that alone will build a filmmaking community. It won’t.”

Hamilton, whose list of successes includes 2005’s Wolf Creek and whose next
release, Aussie shark thriller Bait, precedes his multi-director project with John
Polson, Sydney Unplugged – is busily capitalising on the government’s producer
offset tax break to encourage more production back to Australia. That, he says, as
with making commercial movies, is the only way the industry can grow.

”The best thing would be to have it increased,” he says of the 40 per cent payback
option for investors. ”The high dollar puts people off – Canada and Louisiana are as
good as Australia [with tax breaks]. We’re trying to help develop a commercial movie
business for Australia. To do that, you need to lobby government and business for
film.”

Wish You Were Here may not fit that mould but the husband-and-wife team behind
it – writer-director Darcy-Smith and writer-actor Felicity Price – are adamant that,
given its generally positive reception at Sundance, such a universal story that
Australians, in particular, can relate to should resonate strongly with the cinema-
going public. Even if Animal Kingdom’s $5 million-plus local box-office haul proves
elusive.

”Animal Kingdom was something of a masterpiece,” Price says, matter-of-factly.
”That was quite an out-of-the-box success. It just doesn’t happen that often. I mean,

it got Oscar-nominated; when does that happen? You just have to accept it and move
on.”

Regardless of how well it plays out in theatres, its creative alumni are determined to
continue on their path, pointing to a potentially divided landscape in the years ahead.
What, after all, is more important: cultural awareness or commercial enterprise?

Edgerton and his teammates believe a middle ground of sorts is possible. ”I want
them to carry something more,” he says of the stories he and his Blue-Tongue
colleagues are currently developing, and of his choices as an actor. ”I mean, it has to
be a commercial thing. I’m trying not to get lured by money. The real question is: do
they resonate beyond entertainment? If so, we’re doing something right.”

Wish You Were Here is out on Wednesday.

The producers

Despite their all-male line-up, the Blue-Tongue collective has an impressive roll-call
of tough-talking female producers to thank for its successes. You could say as the
women handle the purse strings, the men go off and create.

Joel Edgerton, currently securing financing for three projects, says it’s hardly
surprising the members of Blue-Tongue have surrounded themselves with a like-
minded group of savvy women. ”Kieran [Darcy-Smith] has aligned himself with
Angie Fielder, David [Michod]’s got Liz Watts, Nash [Joel’s brother] is working with
Louise Smith,” he says. ”And the movie I’m working on here, I’m working with
Rebecca Yeldham [an Australian who’s produced films such as The Motorcycle
Diaries]. We’ve got these people filling in the parts of the industry that we’re not
really good at: robust, creative financing. We say Animal Kingdom is a Blue-Tongue
film, or a David Michod film, but really it’s a Liz Watts film, a Porchlight film. David
is part of Blue-Tongue.

”But without Liz, Animal Kingdom would never have been made.”

Ed Gibbs – SMH – April 22, 2012

Werner Herzog on death, danger and the end of the world

He’s risked his life to make films, been shot at, and his latest film investigates a
triple homicide. So is Werner Herzog fascinated by death? No, he tells Steve Rose,
he’s just not afraid of it.

Werner Herzog: ‘If we perish I want to see what’s coming at me, and if we survive, I
want to see it as well.’

Some years ago, Werner Herzog was on an internal flight somewhere in Colorado
and the plane’s landing gear wouldn’t come down. They would have to make an
emergency landing. The runway was covered in foam and flanked by scores of fire
engines. “We were ordered to crouch down with our faces on our knees and hold our
legs,” says Herzog, “and I refused to do it.” The stewardess was very upset, the co-
pilot came out from the cabin and ordered him to do as he was told. “I said, ‘If we
perish I want to see what’s coming at me, and if we survive, I want to see it as well.
I’m not posing a danger to anyone by not being in this shitty, undignified position.'”
In the end, the plane landed normally. Herzog was banned from the airline for life
but, he laughs, it went bust two years later anyway.Herzog tells this story to illustrate
how he’ll face anything that’s thrown at him, as if that was ever in any doubt.

Now approaching his 70th birthday, the German film-maker has assumed legendary
status for facing things others wouldn’t. He’s lived a life packed with intrepid movie
shoots, far-flung locations and general high-stakes film-making. He has a biography
too dense to summarise. But his tale also confirms the suspicion that he’s helplessly
drawn to danger and death. Or vice versa.

Continue reading Werner Herzog on death, danger and the end of the world

Joel Edgerton: Enjoying life on ‘the list’

Joel Edgerton is rapt yet philosophical about his ‘overnight’ success.

In the past year, Joel Edgerton has gone from Animal Kingdom, via Warrior and The
Thing, to The Great Gatsby, becoming the next big thing in Hollywood on the way.

But far from being an overnight sensation as some in the industry might perceive
him to be, the actor, writer and director from Blacktown has worked diligently at his
craft for decades in Australia.

”By the time I got any kind of real momentum in the States, I’d done a tonne of work
here,” he says. ”Now I feel equipped and I feel ready and yet at the same time people
over there are saying this guy’s a relatively new person.”

Instead of focusing all his energy on Hollywood, the 37-year-old will continue
making films in Australia, too. In his latest, Wish You Were Here, Edgerton plays
Dave Flannery, a family man whose holiday with his wife (Felicity Price) goes
horribly wrong. Shifting back and forth in time, the film gradually reveals the details
of a fateful night in Cambodia alongside the consequences back home in Australia.
The story also reveals more about Edgerton than he is entirely comfortable with.

Continue reading Joel Edgerton: Enjoying life on ‘the list’

Mike Figgis on film directing

The Carlisle-born film-maker delighted the crowd with some frank tales about how
– and how not – to make it in Hollywood.

On Saturday night at the Guardian’s Open Weekend, film-maker Mike Figgis
promised he was going to name names – and he duly did. Figgis gave a brilliant
insight into the ups and downs of being a Hollywood director; in his case, more downs than ups. Figgis was born in Carlisle and grew up in Kenya (his father was a
frustrated musician and DJ, his mother secretary to Ernest Hemingway, who may or
may not have had a passion for her), and in the 1990s looked as if he could become
one of Hollywood’s top directors, with films such as Internal Affairs and Leaving Las
Vegas. But, as he explained to a captivated audience, every time he got within sight of
the pinnacle, he blew it.

Continue reading Mike Figgis on film directing

Hike in U.K. tax incentive targets film finance

LONDON — Films are about to get a boost in Britain — and perhaps Hollywood as
well — as the U.K. considers changes in the tax structure that would double the
amount individual backers can write off, and increase the coin that companies can
invest in tax-free projects by 150%.

The modifications will be part of the revisions to the Enterprise Investment Scheme,
which provides tax breaks to boost economic activity for smaller businesses in the
U.K., with qualifying investors receiving an upfront tax break.

“The interesting thing about EIS is that you no longer have to be carrying on your
activity in the U.K.,” says Olswang tax lawyer Cliona Kirby. “Now, you can trade
internationally. So you can actually fund an American film with British money and
make your movie in the U.S. or wherever you like, and still access the incentive.”

Pending approval from the European Union, the annual amount companies will be
eligible to invest in an EIS scheme is set to increase from £2 million ($3.2 million) to
£5 million ($7.9 million), while the amount an individual will be able to invest will
double from $792,977 to $1.59 million.

Continue reading Hike in U.K. tax incentive targets film finance

Global Box Office Hit $32.6 Bil in 2011, Fueled by Exploding International Growth

While the domestic box office was down a sobering 4 percent, the foreign take grew
by 7 percent to $22.4 billion; China now second-biggest international market after
Japan.

The foreign box office rescued Hollywood in 2011, with international ticket sales
reaching $22.4 billion, a healthy 7 percent increase over 2010, according to the
MPAA’s annual Theatrical Market Statistics report.

Globally, ticket sales reached $32.6 billion in 2011, only a 3 percent gain. That’s due
to a marked downturn at the North American box office, where revenue reached
$10.2 billion, down 4 percent over 2010. International reveneus made up nearly 69
percent of the pie.

“The figures on box office reflect only one indicator of an extremely complex and
evolving movie industry,” MPAA chairman and CEO Chris Dodd said. “We’re
working harder and smarter to keep moviegoers coming back for more, whether at
the cinema, at home or on the go.”

Continue reading Global Box Office Hit $32.6 Bil in 2011, Fueled by Exploding International Growth

Screen Australia invests in new features

Screen Australia today announced nearly $5 million investment in four new feature
film projects, triggering close to $20 million in production.

“I’m thrilled to be able to announce production investment for such a unique mix of
feature films,” said Screen Australia’s Chief Executive, Ruth Harley. “These projects
combine iconic Australian stories and compelling genre films from both first time
and established filmmaking teams.”

The Oscar®-winning duo Emile Sherman and Iain Canning (The King’s Speech) will
produce Tracks, the true story of Robyn Davidson’s solitary trek across the
Australian desert, with co-producer Julie Ryan (Red Dog). A quintessentially
Australian story, Tracks is adapted for the screen by writer/director John Curran
(Praise, The Painted Veil).

Seventeen Australian directors including Cate Blanchett, Robert Connolly, Justin
Kurzel, Mia Wasikowska and David Wenham will respond to Tim Winton’s
hauntingly beautiful short stories in The Turning, a cleverly structured omnibus film
from acclaimed producer Robert Connolly. Other directors on board The Turning
include Benedict Andrews, Jonathan auf der Heide, Tony Ayres, Shaun Gladwell,
Rhys Graham, Ian Meadows, Yaron Lifschitz, Claire McCarthy, Ashlee Page and
Stephen Page.

Continue reading Screen Australia invests in new features

Whatever happened to non-linear films?

A decade ago, a caper like Contraband might have been in line for a fashionably
fragmentary narrative treatment – so why not now?

Straight and narrow … Contraband tells its story in a convenational narrative.

It’s a berth on the USS Contemporary all the way for Mark Wahlberg in his new
thriller Contraband, with its story about the counterfeit-money supply lines between
Panama and the United States. In fact, the film is a testament to the glories of (above
board) free trade: once known as 2008 Icelandic production Reykjavik-Rotterdam,
this piece of intellectual property has crossed the Atlantic with star Baltasar
Kormákur, who, as the new film’s director, ushered it smoothly into the Hollywood
warehouse.

Contraband is a solid enough 110 minutes, a bit like a lengthy episode of the Crystal
Maze set in a sweating central American metropolis overseen by some crazed UPS
official. But its feverish overplotting made me think it had missed a trick. It might
have benefitted from stringing together some elegant non-linear connections, like Traffic and Syriana, with whom it shares a fascination with international
logistics.

Continue reading Whatever happened to non-linear films?

Schepisi to Receive Vanguard Award

Director Fred Schepisi will be honored with the Vail Film Festival’s Vanguard Award,
while Krysten Ritter, who plays a lead role in the Starz series Gravity, has been
chosen to receive the festival’s Excellence in Acting Award.

The festival, which runs from March 29 to April 1 in Vail, Colorado, will present the
honores at its awards ceremony on its closing night.

Schepisi, whose credits include Six Degrees of Separation and The Chant of Jimmie
Blacksmith, most recently directed The Eye of the Storm, starring Geoffrey Rush,
Charlotte Rampling and Judy Davis. The film, which will be released in the United
States by Sycamore Entertainment, will have its U.S. premiere as the festival’s
opening night film.

Ritter’s film credits include She’s Out of My League, Confessions of a Shopaholic,
What Happens in Vegas, 27 Dresses and Vamps. She stars in Kat Coiro’s L!fe
Happens, which will screen as the festival’s closing night film.

3/20/2012 by Gregg Kilday – THR

Promoting your film online – Hunger Games

Selling a movie used to be a snap. You printed a poster,
ran trailers in theaters and carpet-bombed NBC’s Thursday night lineup with ads.

Today, that kind of campaign would get a movie marketer fired. The dark art of
movie promotion increasingly lives on the Web, where studios are playing a wilier
game, using social media and a blizzard of other inexpensive yet effective online
techniques to pull off what may be the marketer’s ultimate trick: persuading fans to
persuade each other.

The art lies in allowing fans to feel as if they are discovering a film, but in truth
Hollywood’s new promotional paradigm involves a digital hard sell in which little is
left to chance — as becomes apparent in a rare step-by-step tour through the
timetable and techniques used by Lionsgate to assure that “The Hunger Games”
becomes a box office phenomenon when it opens on Friday.

Continue reading Promoting your film online – Hunger Games