When two Australian films open on the same weekend after getting mostly positive reviews at Miff and generate copious publicity for the stars and filmmakers, the industry might have expected both to post solid opening figures.
Yet there were modest debuts for the Spierig brothers. Predestination and Matthew Saville.s Felony, reigniting the debate about how hard it can be for Australian films to cut through with mainstream audiences.
The Spierig.s time-travelling thriller featuring Ethan Hawke, Noah Taylor and a knock-out performance from Sarah Snook, rang up $202,000 on 49 screens plus about 4 grand in previews, released by Pinnacle Films.
Saville.s psychological thriller starring Joel Edgerton, Tom Wilkinson and Jai Courtney made $185,000 on 47 and $197,000 with sneaks, handled by Roadshow.
The per-screen averages for both are far better than The Rover (which debuted with $143,000 on 41 screens) and These Final Hours ($207,000 on 164).
Tim McGahan, who produced Predestination with Paddy McDonald and the Spierigs,...
Yet there were modest debuts for the Spierig brothers. Predestination and Matthew Saville.s Felony, reigniting the debate about how hard it can be for Australian films to cut through with mainstream audiences.
The Spierig.s time-travelling thriller featuring Ethan Hawke, Noah Taylor and a knock-out performance from Sarah Snook, rang up $202,000 on 49 screens plus about 4 grand in previews, released by Pinnacle Films.
Saville.s psychological thriller starring Joel Edgerton, Tom Wilkinson and Jai Courtney made $185,000 on 47 and $197,000 with sneaks, handled by Roadshow.
The per-screen averages for both are far better than The Rover (which debuted with $143,000 on 41 screens) and These Final Hours ($207,000 on 164).
Tim McGahan, who produced Predestination with Paddy McDonald and the Spierigs,...
- 9/1/2014
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Wendy Hughes, who has died in Sydney aged 61, will be remembered by her peers as one of the finest actors of her generation.
Hughes won the AFI award for best actress for Careful, He Might Hear You in 1983 and was nominated on six other occasions, for Newsfront, My Brilliant Career, Lonely Hearts, My First Wife, Echoes of Paradise and Boundaries of the Heart.
.She was a brilliant actress who set the standard and was pioneering for her era,. filmmaker Philippe Mora, who was a close friend in the 1980s and early 1990s, told If.
.In my opinion without Wendy there would have been no Judy Davis, no Nicole Kidman and no Cate Blanchett. If timing had been different she would have been a major international star. As it is she leaves a legacy of perfect performances as one of Australia's greatest actresses..
Mora wanted to cast Hughes as the female...
Hughes won the AFI award for best actress for Careful, He Might Hear You in 1983 and was nominated on six other occasions, for Newsfront, My Brilliant Career, Lonely Hearts, My First Wife, Echoes of Paradise and Boundaries of the Heart.
.She was a brilliant actress who set the standard and was pioneering for her era,. filmmaker Philippe Mora, who was a close friend in the 1980s and early 1990s, told If.
.In my opinion without Wendy there would have been no Judy Davis, no Nicole Kidman and no Cate Blanchett. If timing had been different she would have been a major international star. As it is she leaves a legacy of perfect performances as one of Australia's greatest actresses..
Mora wanted to cast Hughes as the female...
- 3/8/2014
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
The Us version of Rake, which stars Greg Kinnear as brilliant, womanising and self-destructive criminal lawyer Keegan Deane, will screen on the rebranded Universal Channel on Foxtel.
Due to a holdback agreement with the ABC, the Us show cannot screen in Oz until after the third series of the Australian Rake airs on the public broadcaster. The remake premieres on Fox at 10 pm on Sunday January 19 with a strong lead-in, the Nfc Championship Game, and will then screen on Thursday nights at 9.
Peter Duncan, who co-created the original series with Richard Roxburgh and Charles Waterstreet, tells If the holdback agreement is not an issue, noting, .The ABC has been pretty generous. The Us series won.t finish screening until April. I am not sure when the new series will go to air in Australia but I believe it.s late February, so it.s not going to be a massive imposition.
Due to a holdback agreement with the ABC, the Us show cannot screen in Oz until after the third series of the Australian Rake airs on the public broadcaster. The remake premieres on Fox at 10 pm on Sunday January 19 with a strong lead-in, the Nfc Championship Game, and will then screen on Thursday nights at 9.
Peter Duncan, who co-created the original series with Richard Roxburgh and Charles Waterstreet, tells If the holdback agreement is not an issue, noting, .The ABC has been pretty generous. The Us series won.t finish screening until April. I am not sure when the new series will go to air in Australia but I believe it.s late February, so it.s not going to be a massive imposition.
- 11/3/2013
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
An Australian production company has landed a pilot of one of its top dramas with a major Us network.
Fox has commissioned the pilot for an American version of courtroom drama Rake, produced by Essential Media and Entertainment.
In October, Mumbrella reported Essential had entered into a co-production deal with Sony Pictures to shop an Americanised version to the networks.
The Us production will star actor Greg Kennear in the lead of Cleaver Green, the role played by Richard Roxburgh on ABC1. Paul Attanasio, the Ep of House will executive produce with script supervision from Peter Duncan who co-created the original series with Roxburgh and Charles Waterstreet. Duncan will also executive produce with Attanasio as well as Roxburgh and Ian Collie of Essential Media and Entertainment.
Hollywood agency CAA packaged the deal with the pilot expected to air in March.
Earlier this month, Essential Media and Entertainment was named Independent...
Fox has commissioned the pilot for an American version of courtroom drama Rake, produced by Essential Media and Entertainment.
In October, Mumbrella reported Essential had entered into a co-production deal with Sony Pictures to shop an Americanised version to the networks.
The Us production will star actor Greg Kennear in the lead of Cleaver Green, the role played by Richard Roxburgh on ABC1. Paul Attanasio, the Ep of House will executive produce with script supervision from Peter Duncan who co-created the original series with Roxburgh and Charles Waterstreet. Duncan will also executive produce with Attanasio as well as Roxburgh and Ian Collie of Essential Media and Entertainment.
Hollywood agency CAA packaged the deal with the pilot expected to air in March.
Earlier this month, Essential Media and Entertainment was named Independent...
- 11/23/2012
- by Colin Delaney
- Encore Magazine
As Good As It Gets and Little Miss Sunshine actor Greg Kinnear is set to play an Americanised version of Richard Roxburgh’s Cleaver Greene, the criminal defence lawyer in ABC’s Rake.
The show will be a co-production between Essential Media and Entertainment and Sony Pictures with executive producer of House, Paul Attanasio to Ep the series.
Attanasio will also supervise the script to be written by Peter Duncan, who co-created the original series with Roxburgh and Charles Waterstreet.
Chris Hilton, CEO of Essential Media and Entertainment told Encore: “The show was pitched around Los Angeles last week with Peter, Ian Collie, Greg and Paul as well as a number of Sony executives. We pitched to eight networks and the interest level is very high.”
“Almost everyone said they were keen to pilot it so it’s a matter of choosing the best sensibility and price and who seems most committed to it,...
The show will be a co-production between Essential Media and Entertainment and Sony Pictures with executive producer of House, Paul Attanasio to Ep the series.
Attanasio will also supervise the script to be written by Peter Duncan, who co-created the original series with Roxburgh and Charles Waterstreet.
Chris Hilton, CEO of Essential Media and Entertainment told Encore: “The show was pitched around Los Angeles last week with Peter, Ian Collie, Greg and Paul as well as a number of Sony executives. We pitched to eight networks and the interest level is very high.”
“Almost everyone said they were keen to pilot it so it’s a matter of choosing the best sensibility and price and who seems most committed to it,...
- 10/2/2012
- by Colin Delaney
- Encore Magazine
Exclusive: After years of courtship by TV networks, Greg Kinnear has committed to doing a series. The Oscar-nominated actor is attached to star and co-executive produce a U.S. version of the popular Australian legal comedic drama Rake. House executive producer Paul Attanasio will executive produce through his Atelier banner will and supervise the script, which will be written by the Australian series’ co-creator Peter Duncan. In an unusual move, the Sony Pictures TV-produced project is currently being shopped to both broadcast and cable networks. I hear all major broadcast nets are taking the pitch, but it is not clear whether the show will end up on network or cable. Rake follows the chaotic world of a criminal defense lawyer, Cleaver Greene (Kinnear). Brilliant, iconoclastic and innately self-destructive, he has a mind-numbing lack of discretion and a total inability to pause before speaking his mind. From bigamists to cannibals and everything in between,...
- 9/28/2012
- by NELLIE ANDREEVA
- Deadline TV
This article originally appeared in If Magazine #148 (August-September).
The bar was lowered and now gets even lower. Controversial series Rake, which follows charismatic barrister Cleaver Greene.s legal misadventures, is currently assailing ABC viewers for a second time.
The first series, broadcast on ABC in late-2010, did well. It won lead actor Richard Roxburgh a Silver Logie for Outstanding Actor and the series attracted about 700,000 weeknight viewers, which the ABC considered good for an offbeat drama . enough to commission a second series.
Series two picks up where series one left off says producer (and former solicitor) Ian Collie from Essential Media & Entertainment. The story format is the same, with Cleaver defending a client each week . whom he knows to be guilty . intercut with episodes of his chaotic personal and family life.
The series continues to focus less on legal and police procedural elements than the typical legal drama and more on character and relationships,...
The bar was lowered and now gets even lower. Controversial series Rake, which follows charismatic barrister Cleaver Greene.s legal misadventures, is currently assailing ABC viewers for a second time.
The first series, broadcast on ABC in late-2010, did well. It won lead actor Richard Roxburgh a Silver Logie for Outstanding Actor and the series attracted about 700,000 weeknight viewers, which the ABC considered good for an offbeat drama . enough to commission a second series.
Series two picks up where series one left off says producer (and former solicitor) Ian Collie from Essential Media & Entertainment. The story format is the same, with Cleaver defending a client each week . whom he knows to be guilty . intercut with episodes of his chaotic personal and family life.
The series continues to focus less on legal and police procedural elements than the typical legal drama and more on character and relationships,...
- 9/21/2012
- by Peter Lavelle
- IF.com.au
Today sees the most comprehensive relaunch of an Australian metro or national newspaper in at least five years, with The Sun-Herald showing Sydneysiders its new look.
It’s a definite improvement, and I suspect that in the process of reconfiguring the sections, Fairfax Media is going to save some print costs too. it also reverses most of the changes made in its last redesign about 18 months ago.
Let’s start with the cover.
The first reality kicks in the with new, dark blue masthead. Despite many advances, colour newspaper printing is still something of an imprecise art. In the case of my edition, the dark blue is so dark that the masthead has actually gone black.
The same goes for the headline on the front page teaser for Annabel Crabb’s column.
The major change though is the cover led image. Which by the way strikes me as a good strategy.
It’s a definite improvement, and I suspect that in the process of reconfiguring the sections, Fairfax Media is going to save some print costs too. it also reverses most of the changes made in its last redesign about 18 months ago.
Let’s start with the cover.
The first reality kicks in the with new, dark blue masthead. Despite many advances, colour newspaper printing is still something of an imprecise art. In the case of my edition, the dark blue is so dark that the masthead has actually gone black.
The same goes for the headline on the front page teaser for Annabel Crabb’s column.
The major change though is the cover led image. Which by the way strikes me as a good strategy.
- 3/25/2012
- by mumbrella
- Encore Magazine
Encore visited the set of the new Australian legal drama Rake. Producer Ian Collie and director Peter Duncan spoke to Aravind Balasubramaniam about the public fascination behind the legal profession and how their show aims to de-mystify the trade.
The law is fairly arcane for a lot of people outside that legal circle. So there is a fascination, a bit like the masons. According to Collie, of Essential Viewing Group, “Sometimes it is good to prick that fantasy.”
The story is the brainchild of Richard Roxburgh-who plays the lead character-co-writer and director Peter Duncan, and real life barrister Charles Waterstreet. Together they work shopped the idea of the protagonist Cleaver Greene; a brilliant, iconoclastic and self destructive criminal barrister with an affection for cases that are unwinnable and beyond bizarre.
“He is a rake, a classic Lothario who manages to professionally get his life together and is the compassionate...
The law is fairly arcane for a lot of people outside that legal circle. So there is a fascination, a bit like the masons. According to Collie, of Essential Viewing Group, “Sometimes it is good to prick that fantasy.”
The story is the brainchild of Richard Roxburgh-who plays the lead character-co-writer and director Peter Duncan, and real life barrister Charles Waterstreet. Together they work shopped the idea of the protagonist Cleaver Greene; a brilliant, iconoclastic and self destructive criminal barrister with an affection for cases that are unwinnable and beyond bizarre.
“He is a rake, a classic Lothario who manages to professionally get his life together and is the compassionate...
- 10/31/2010
- by Miguel Gonzalez
- Encore Magazine
In scrutinizing a historical footnote to World War II, this Australian film paints a harrowing portrait of war crimes and political power.
Brilliantly acted and photographed, ''Prisoners'' nevertheless faces an uncertain boxoffice in the United States, where the grim nature of the subject matter will tempt only the most serious adult moviegoer. Yet if ever there were a time for a film which demonstrates that making peace is a trickier business than waging war, it's now.
Brian A.Williams, who co-authored the script with Denis Whitburn, bases the story on his father's experiences as an Australian military lawyer prosecuting Japanese war criminals on the little-known Indonesian island of Ambon.
After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Australian liberators uncovered a mass grave on the island containing the remains of hundreds of Australian prisoners of war. The Australians put on trial all the Japanese officers and soldiers who controlled the POW camp in hopes of bringing forth evidence of who was truly responsible.
The fictional counterpart of Williams' father, Capt. Cooper, played with smoldering anger by Bryan Brown, is after a big fish -- Vice Adm. Baron Takahashi (''Star Trek's'' George Takei). The Oxford-educated aristocrat, who commanded the camp, clearly had to be the one who ordered the tortures and executions of the POWs. But Cooper has no real evidence.
Soon Cooper becomes aware of behind-the-scenes political maneuvering in which not only his commanding officer (John Bach) but an American major (Terry O'Quinn) are working to make certain Takahashi is acquitted.
The Americans in Tokyo have postwar plans for the Admiral. And they don't want the embarrassment of a conviction for brutal war crimes to interfere with those plans.
The script lays out the issues coolly, letting the images of unearthed, beheaded skeletons and looks on the faces of Australians and Japanese alike tell the emotional story.
Director Stephen Wallace gains excellent performances from a talented cast. As he did in his 1980 prison drama, ''Stir, '' Wallace shows a flair for dramatizing issues among tough men in claustrophobic situations.
Cinematographer Russell Boyd, one of Australia's best, catches the vivid colors of the dark jungles and sweaty barracks. (The film was shot in and around the Warner Roadshow Studio complex in Queensland.)
The film does bog down in the talkier passages. And none of the characters achieves a larger-than-life dimension. Only the situation makes them interesting people.
This docudrama is more docu than drama. Williams, who also co-produced, may have felt a need to stick to the historical record at the expense of a fiction which might have achieved a greater truth.
Whatever the case, ''Prisoners'' offers an illuminating chapter on the always sad tale of men and warfare.
PRISONERS OF THE SUN
Skouras Pictures
Director Stephen Wallace
Producers Charles Waterstreet, Denis Whitburn, Brian A. Williams
Executive producers Graham Burke, Greg Coote, John Tarnoff
Writers Denis Whitburn, Brian A. Williams
Director of photography Russell Boyd
Production designer Bernard Hides
Music David McHugh
Editor Nicholas Beauman
Costume designer Roger Kirk
Color
Cast:
Capt. Robert Cooper Bryan Brown
Vice Adm. Baron Takahashi George Takei
Maj. Tom Beckett Terry O'Quinn
Maj. Frank Roberts John Bach
Lt. Hideo Tanaka Toshi Shioya
Capt. Wadami Ikeuchi Tetsu Watanabe
Pvt. Jimmy Fenton John Polson
Sister Carol Littel lDeborah Unger
Running time -- 109 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Brilliantly acted and photographed, ''Prisoners'' nevertheless faces an uncertain boxoffice in the United States, where the grim nature of the subject matter will tempt only the most serious adult moviegoer. Yet if ever there were a time for a film which demonstrates that making peace is a trickier business than waging war, it's now.
Brian A.Williams, who co-authored the script with Denis Whitburn, bases the story on his father's experiences as an Australian military lawyer prosecuting Japanese war criminals on the little-known Indonesian island of Ambon.
After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Australian liberators uncovered a mass grave on the island containing the remains of hundreds of Australian prisoners of war. The Australians put on trial all the Japanese officers and soldiers who controlled the POW camp in hopes of bringing forth evidence of who was truly responsible.
The fictional counterpart of Williams' father, Capt. Cooper, played with smoldering anger by Bryan Brown, is after a big fish -- Vice Adm. Baron Takahashi (''Star Trek's'' George Takei). The Oxford-educated aristocrat, who commanded the camp, clearly had to be the one who ordered the tortures and executions of the POWs. But Cooper has no real evidence.
Soon Cooper becomes aware of behind-the-scenes political maneuvering in which not only his commanding officer (John Bach) but an American major (Terry O'Quinn) are working to make certain Takahashi is acquitted.
The Americans in Tokyo have postwar plans for the Admiral. And they don't want the embarrassment of a conviction for brutal war crimes to interfere with those plans.
The script lays out the issues coolly, letting the images of unearthed, beheaded skeletons and looks on the faces of Australians and Japanese alike tell the emotional story.
Director Stephen Wallace gains excellent performances from a talented cast. As he did in his 1980 prison drama, ''Stir, '' Wallace shows a flair for dramatizing issues among tough men in claustrophobic situations.
Cinematographer Russell Boyd, one of Australia's best, catches the vivid colors of the dark jungles and sweaty barracks. (The film was shot in and around the Warner Roadshow Studio complex in Queensland.)
The film does bog down in the talkier passages. And none of the characters achieves a larger-than-life dimension. Only the situation makes them interesting people.
This docudrama is more docu than drama. Williams, who also co-produced, may have felt a need to stick to the historical record at the expense of a fiction which might have achieved a greater truth.
Whatever the case, ''Prisoners'' offers an illuminating chapter on the always sad tale of men and warfare.
PRISONERS OF THE SUN
Skouras Pictures
Director Stephen Wallace
Producers Charles Waterstreet, Denis Whitburn, Brian A. Williams
Executive producers Graham Burke, Greg Coote, John Tarnoff
Writers Denis Whitburn, Brian A. Williams
Director of photography Russell Boyd
Production designer Bernard Hides
Music David McHugh
Editor Nicholas Beauman
Costume designer Roger Kirk
Color
Cast:
Capt. Robert Cooper Bryan Brown
Vice Adm. Baron Takahashi George Takei
Maj. Tom Beckett Terry O'Quinn
Maj. Frank Roberts John Bach
Lt. Hideo Tanaka Toshi Shioya
Capt. Wadami Ikeuchi Tetsu Watanabe
Pvt. Jimmy Fenton John Polson
Sister Carol Littel lDeborah Unger
Running time -- 109 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 7/18/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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