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AICN-Downunder: Wolf Creek; Black Sheep; Charlotte's Web; and a Debate between George W. Bush & Forrest Gump'
Father Geek here with Latauro and the latest from the Southern Hemisphere far East sector...
I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed.
AICN-DOWNUNDER
There's been a bunch of debate the last week or so about the Australian film
industry and what needs to be done to fix it. Channel Seven's "Sunrise"
programme featured presenter David Kosch making some ill-informed comments.
The following day, the Film Finance Corporation had somebody on to rebut
claims that they're wasting taxpayers' money. What a mess this interview
was.
The claims made by Kosch seemed to imply that the decisions on which films
should get funding were made by boring, out-of-touch men in suits.
Brilliantly, the FFC sent over a boring, out-of-touch man in a suit who had
trouble answering stupid questions like, "Why don't you get normal people to
decide which movies get made?" (paraphrasing).
Kosch seemed affronted that Craig Lahiff wouldn't be blacklisted and
prevented from making another film after his 2002 film BLACK AND WHITE
failed to make its money back at the box office. Boring Man In Suit
responded to this argument in a fairly inarticulate, political-speak manner.
I had to slap my head. To quote Wil Anderson from a recent "Glass House"
episode, "It's like watching a debate between George W. Bush and Forrest
Gump".
That interview was probably seen by more people than any of the other
Australian film industry discussions appearing in magazines and newspapers,
and it did nothing to further the level of debate on the subject. It
probably lowered it. "Normal people"? Are you kidding me?
The entire local industry is in dire need of a shake up. It's more serious
than it's been for a while now, and there's no sign of improvement on the
horizon. THREE DOLLARS was very good, but it's not going to light the box
office on fire. Scroll down, you won't see it on the Top Five. Of course,
you won't see THE EXTRA there, either, despite it starring the very popular
comedian Jimeoin.
Nestled in the pandering, lowest common denominator arguments of David
Kosch, there was a valid point: films seem to be funded by accountants
completely out of touch with audiences, and with no concept of quality
control.
NEWS
It seems the CHARLOTTE'S WEB production can't cop a break. After the coup of
getting animatronics designed by Stan the Man Winston, it seems there's been
something of a mistake in the creature design. Here's our scooper:
"Allegedly it seems that the animatronic pigs designed and manufactured in
the USofA, based on good ol' USofA looking pigs - have arrived Down Under
only to look nothing like the local ozzie non-animatronic piggies on set.
Allegedly it seems that they have discovered the hard way that pigs ain't
pigs the world over." Thanks to the "Horse's Mouth".
BLACK SHEEP, Jonathon King's debut feature, has been snapping up interest
all over the place. Aside from Richard Taylor and Weta doing some design
work (which is all sorts of cool), distribution has already been sold to
Icon, which will distribute the film in Australia, New Zealand (its country
of origin), and the UK. The film promises to be a horror comedy, and if it
can live up to the premise (NZ's four million residents versus the country's
four million sheep after a genetic experiment gone wrong), this could be all
kinds of cool.
AWARDS AND FESTIVALS
CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
WOLF CREEK, the Australian film seen by everyone who doesn't live in
Australia (was apparently set for local distribution until they sniffed
international success and snatched it away from us!) will soon be seen by
those people who live in the magical land of Freedom. Cannes will screen
Greg McLean's WOLF CREEK as part of the Directors' Fortnight section.
INAUGURAL HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL
The Human Rights Commission's first film festival will feature features,
shorts, animations, docos, all apparently designed to draw attention to
issues, as well as shock and inspire. A list of films playing as well as
other details can be found at http://humanrightsfilmfest.net.nz/, but here
are the dates:
Auckland: May 12 to May 19 at the Academy Cinema on Lorne Street
Wellington: May 25 to June 1 at the Paramount Theatre on Courtney Place
Christchurch: May 13 to May 15 at the Regent on Worcestor
BOX OFFICE
It's that awkward time of the year where nothing particularly special is
out, though it's nice to see IN GOOD COMPANY up near the top (even if it
does seem like somebody took an intelligent film and peppered it with
expositional lines so everyone got what was going on). Will the Guide take
top spot next week? What am I, Nostradamus?
1. THE INTERPRETER
2. THE PACIFIER
3. IN GOOD COMPANY
4. ROBOTS
5. THE AMITYVILLE HORROR
RELEASED THIS WEEK
Nicole Kidman finds a partner even shorter than Tom, Sam the Man does the
inspirational teacher bit, Matt Dillon completely fails to insert his member
into any character's leg wound, Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings finally gets
the joke and contacts her lawyers, and I can't even bring myself to talk
about this one.
BIRTH
COACH CARTER
CRASH
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
XXX2: THE NEXT LEVEL
NEXT WEEK
- Warner Bros. greenlights a script about an assortment of chocolates who
dream of becoming wrestlers, titled LET'S GET READY TO RUM BALL, bought for
US$7million from Shane Black
- Steven Somers signs on Jack Black as "Lou" and Will Ferrell as "Bud" for
the new MUMMY movie
- The Wachowskis will follow-up their second unit directing on V FOR
VENDETTA by providing craft services on the next Mike Leigh joint
Peace out,
Latauro
AICNDownunder@hotmail.com
AICNDownunder@hotmail.com
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O, and third.
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Racist garbage posted all over the place with impunity by shitbags like ForeverTJ and vikingkitty, blatent studio cocksucking by Harry and crew and a truly crappy UI have made this site one of the toilets of the internet. Anybody wants me I'll be over at cinescape.com, CHUD or cinemablend: timelier movie/TV/etc news and analysis of far higher quality than this sewer, and far more intelligently run! Plus they don't *selectively* enforce their own rules either - unlike here, eh fatboy? AICN = FUCKTARD ZOO. And I'm out like a herd of turtles.
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From Statistics NZ. Black Sheep wil owwwwn!!!
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..........so........it's a porn film......
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...1)We make films NO ONE gives a fuck about. I mean really, the plotlines from most of the shit that comes out of here wouldn't be fit to run in the midday movie timeslot. It's boring as fuck and just plain tired. 2)Sam Worthington. Who the fuck made this guy a star? This guy is as thick as two short planks and just as wooden. How does he keep getting lead roles? 3)Money. Cash. Dollars. We have NONE. And this is what it all boils down to. We need ore investors to give people a chance. We need some balls to the wall genre flicks to appeal to an international market and I'm sad to say won't happen anytime soon as our industry is so focused on telling Australian stories that DON'T appeal to ANYONE except Australian film critics. The general Australian filmgoing public could not give two shits about Aussie film. When your choices are some dreary, whiney David Wenham flick or CGI robots it's not hard to tell what your $12 is going on. And that is audiences here in general, and this is why cinematic crimes like The Pacifier do so well over here.
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One person having a hissy fit and declaring that he's leaving is like McDonalds losing a customer.. or one caffine junkie switching from Coke to Pepsi.. I wonder if Harry will have to put up more flash ads to pay for the loss.. Now.. onto more important things.. The Australian people have neither the funding from Gov't or enough major financial backers to make the kind of movies most moviegoers want to see... movies that make money are usually the ones that spend in excess of 40-50 million (barring the Blair Witch once in an eon fluke type), and even if we did have the money, we don't have a population base to bring home enough dollars to warrant such a production... unless it ships internationally in which case you're looking at millions in advertising and marketing for the film to bring in some bank.. if you break even on the advertising overseas alone, you're seen as a success... how many GOOD australian films have made it overseas? The Castle?.. Chopper?.. Japanese Story?.. The Bank?.. Lantana?. No, sadly the ones that make it are the quirky ones.. like Muriels Wedding.. Priscilla queen of the Desert, or *gulp* Crocodile Dundee... It's really sad.. We obviously have world class studios and production facilities (Just ask George Lucas, the Wachowskis and Bryan Singer) so what's the problem?... I'm no economist but the only way I see Aussie films getting noticed and rolling in overseas dosh is to have a fantastic story, a-class production values and genuine star quality.. then maybe you'll get international bank and hopefully raise the bar for Aussie cinema.. unfortunately as far as I can see the problem still lies with financial backing. It's a real shame.. because there really are some little gems of Australian cinema that deserve a wider audience.
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With the exception of "The Dish" (and that was a few years ago) was Mad Max 2. So, I have to agree that they're not really making Australian films I want to see. That's the problem - I have no idea about the solution though.
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Don't worry, no-one will. And PJ already blew up a sheep in Bad Taste - maybe that started the war?...
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One major contributing factor to the state of the aussie film industry is that we are a very small country, in terms of population. Not only that, but we're so culturally diverse that films tend to be marketed to australian sub-cultures, for example - One Perfect Day, The Wogboy, etc. It should be pointed out that although Australia makes a lot of crap, so does everyone else. For every "You and Your Stupid Mate" there are five or ten of "Ella Enchanted". The problem is not that we make bad films, it's that places like the US and Europe have a large enough local market that one success can carry the losses of nine failures, something that Australia, through sheer weight of people, cannot do. Despite everything the FFC tell you, the key to a sucessful Australian film is not making it for a local audience. And as long as the FFC continue to believe this, (and continue to put it on their funding application criteria), the Aussie film industry will always be a money pit.
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As I'm still here, I'll weigh in. One of the main "decision makers" at the FFC is an ex-film distributor who distributed mostly arthouse fare. That's called getting it wrong. The FFC don't understand or have any interest in genre pics because the bureaucrats who run it don't watch them. Then you have another larger problem in Australia: All the government film bodies are (mostly) run by militant feminists. This is a fact. Film Vic, the AFC, to name a few, are controlled by women. As we all know, women are not known for making groundbreaking genre pics (Katherine Bigelow and Roberta Findlay aside). Militant feminists are even less likely to make or greenlight such films. This is one of the main reasons why genre pics have no standing in Australia. Dykes and militant feminists want to make films like SOMERSAULT, GO FISH and THE WELL. The population of Australia is not so much the problem as is the lack of genre film production. Korea rose from nothing on genre pics; Hong Kong, until recently, thrived on genre pics. The Aussie "industry" has been wringing its collective hands about flop films for decades. They do nothing to rectify the situation because the dykes are there to get other dykes jobs. It's not about filmmaking. It's about a career in "the arts".
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I did not see director Marc Gracie's previous film, TAKEAWAY, as I am Canadian and it wasn't released there. I did just see YOU AND YOUR STUPID MATE. Despite the title and the trailer that suggests something it's not, I thought the film was rather good and just posted an imdb review. Nopt a classic, but knew that it was a lowbrow comedy. Good script, too. Many will disagree, but so what(!)
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I mentioned the small amount of Aussie filmers who are making genre stuff last week (S. Young--Razer Eaters, M. Savage--Defenceless) and should have mentioned G. McClean. I saw WOLF CREEK at Sundance and liked it very much. Very tight. Not "wimpy". Technically polished (shot on HD). Will it do well in Australia? Hope so. Will it spawn more Aussie horror? Not if the militant feminists have their way.
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I'm an independant Aussie film maker and have just completed my first film. I haven't gone the "traditional" Aussie film path of making either a depressing drama or quirky comedy. I've aimed to do what the funding bodies won't allow and have made a supernatural thriller. I've followed in Robert Rodriguez' footsteps and made it for $8000 by doing things that are cheap, yet effective and have ended up with a surprisingly good product. I had considered applying for funding from the funding bodies, but like you guys have mentioned previously, they only want stories that hold (and I quote) "cultural significance" to Australia. Meaning that genre films are not welcome. I think in the long run, I preferred doing things the way I have, because now I have a 98 minute film that I 100% own and had zero interuptions from beurocrats. I will never go to the funding bodies with the changes they have recently made, but unless I can find a private financial backer or studio to fund my films, I'm going to have a tough time moving to the next stage. All I know is my next step will be to take Dark Dreaming (shameless self promotion) to an agent with 3 other scripts in the hopes that they will represent me and help me to the next step. My dream is to make films, my ambition is to make good Aussie films that Aussies will be proud to see.
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than to redo the animatronic pigs to match Aussie pigs? The story takes place in America anyway, so it stands to reason that the animals, no matter where the movie is shot, should look like thet came from an American farm. Or do they figure the audience doesn't care, like those old Tarzan Movies that use Indian elephants in Africa.
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This is exactly what everyone should be doing. Drop me an email, I'd love to take a look at your film.
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That's excellent mate... There should be more people out there willing to get up off thier idea and pick up a camera instead of critisising everyone else who does.. I hope you get where you wanna be in the industry man. I really do. Good luck to ya.
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Thanks for your support guys. I just want to try and help improve the situation with our film industry so that the film commissions can start making sensible decisions and let us make some good films for a change.
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