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AICN Downunder: Solo; The Hitcher; John Carter of Mars; Elizabeth, the Golden Age; ... Explorations of Jasper Morello
Father Geek here in Central Texas with ol' Latauro's report from his uber cool, plush offices deep in the coral forests of the Great Barrier Reef...
I prefer women with a past. They're always so damned amusing to talk to.
AICN-DOWNUNDER
Is Project Greenlight Australia guilty of nepotism?
If you read the AICN-D talkback last week, you would have come across the
following post (which I've edited down slightly) by "projectredlight":
"I am writing this because I have information about illegal activity
effecting the decision making process of Project Greenlight Australia. ... I
cannot say how I have received this information as I run the risk of
exposing myself by doing so, however the right amount of research can reveal
that everything I am about to say is true. Sam Worthington, one of the
judges of Project Greenlight Australia, has been friends with series winner
Morgan O'Neill for years. The two studied at NIDA together and are very,
very close. This in and of itself presents enough of a conflict of interest
to indicate that Worthington had no business as a judge of the finalists.
However what I am about to say goes well beyond this. SAM WORTHINGTON,
PROJECT GREENLIGHT JUDGE, CO WROTE THE WINNING SCRIPT! This is a fact.
Though uncredited, Worthington had significant input into O'Neils screenplay
before judging it as winner and ensuring it a one million dollar budget."
(To read the full post by "projectredlight", go to:
http://www.aintitcool.com/tb_display.cgi?id=20496#920585)
I asked him to email me, and we spoke about where he got his information
from, how he could verify it, etc. Even with repeated promises of anonymity,
"redlight" would not divulge his identity (though he did, after some
coaxing, confirm he *wasn't* Mark Felt). Is he legitimately afraid of
reprisals, of losing his job and being ostracised from the industry, or did
he get knocked back from Greenlight and is now seeking revenge? Tough to
say, as some of his claims checked out and others didn't.
I'm going to start by saying that, at time of writing, I've found absolutely
no proof that Sam Worthington had any input into the winning script. At the
moment, it is nothing more than an unfounded claim by an anonymous
individual. We won't be coming back to it in this article.
Let's slow down a bit.
For any who might not be aware, Project Greenlight is a project started in
the US by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. A reality show/competition whereby
scripts are submitted and the winning script is given a $1million budget and
put into production. This year, Project Greenlight Australia was launched, a
co-production between the Movie Network and Screentime.
As AICN-D reported last week, actor/filmmaker Morgan O'Neill took out first
place with his script SOLO. Unfortunately, in retrospect, I made a vague
joke about those who had read his script writing in to "tear him a new one",
intending to make fun of the jealous nature found in many aspiring
Australian filmmakers. Man, that one really came back around.
After swapping emails with "redlight", I did some checking. Sam Worthington
and Morgan O'Neill were, in fact, in the same NIDA class. They graduated in
1998, and the class list can be read at:
www.nida.unsw.edu.au/media/nida_ar_second_part.pdf (scroll to page 7). Then,
in 2002, they collaborated on the short film BIOPIC, which was written and
directed by O'Neill, starred Worthington, and was co-produced by both of
them.
That's a pretty definite connection. I wrote to Project Greenlight
Australia, to the Movie Network, and to the respective agents of both Sam
Worthington and Morgan O'Neill to ask for comments.
On Thursday, I got a call from PG-A publicist Tracey Mair, who assured me
that they were indeed aware of the relationship between Worthington and
O'Neill. "Sam Worthington and Morgan O'Neill both went to NIDA," she said,
"and have worked together fleetingly in the past. This is not surprising as
the Australian film and television industry is tiny."
The word "fleeting" came up a couple more times as the relationship was
played down. The following points were then passed on to me, and it's
important to note them:
1. Contestants were narrowed down from 1200 to 100 without Sam's input.
2. Third party professional readers culled the 100 to 50 and using their
assessment criteria, the finalists were culled down to 20. Sam was not a
third party reader.
3. The Panel, consisting of Chris Berry, Sue Milliken, Greg Haddrick,
Victoria Treole and Brian Walsh reduced the finalists down to 10, without
Sam's input.
4. Sam and Pia [Miranda] were brought into the Panel only after the Top 10
had been decided. These two were added to give some perspective from an
actor's point of view. Producer Sue Seeary was also included as an advisor
at this point.. Sam's view represented 1/8th of the decision, and was never
a casting or influential vote. Collectively the panel chose SOLO, for all
the right reasons, it was the favoured choice because of quality of the
screenplay - even without Sam, SOLO would have been announced as the winner.
That last comment is fairly spurious. There is absolutely no way to know if
SOLO would have been picked if Worthington had not been on the panel. It
also goes without saying that his opinion counted (otherwise, why would he
be there?). He's a judge. We must then consider the following three
possibilities: (1) Sam Worthington was pushing for Morgan O'Neill's script;
(2) Sam Worthington was pushing for someone else's script; or (3) He was
completely superfluous to the process.
There's nothing in the rules and conditions on the Project Greenlight
Australia website that contains the usual stuff about not being a friend or
family member of anyone associated with the companies etc. It wouldn't make
much sense. The Australian film industry is tiny, everyone knows everyone,
it's unreasonable to expect complete disassociation across the board. That's
completely practical for the initial stages of the process. However, once
you get down to those last ten scripts, shouldn't a higher standard be
employed?
Speaking to Ms Mair, I asked if she considered their relationship a conflict
of interest. "No."
I haven't read SOLO. I can't speak to its quality, but I presume that it
wouldn't have gone as far as it did without it being pretty good. It's
irrelevant, as the script's quality is not the issue. The issue is that one
of the judges, regardless of the speculated percentage of his input, had a
personal relationship with the winning entrant. If that's not a conflict of
interest, we're using some pretty different dictionaries.
I love the idea of Project Greenlight, and was overjoyed when I heard it was
coming to Australia. I wish Morgan O'Neill every success, and hope that SOLO
is both brilliant and financially successful. But the fact that Project
Greenlight Australia did not do anything about this situation casts an
unfortunate and unneeded shadow over the proceedings. More on this in coming
weeks.
NEWS
* As has been reported everywhere, Hugh Jackman, an excellent actor who
appears in shoddy films, will appear in the next currently-untitled film by
Woody Allen, an excellent writer/director who makes some shoddy films.
Jackman will play the romantic lead opposite the thinking man's Jessica
Simpson, Ian McShane.
* Cinescape recently ran a rumour about FANTASTIC FOUR villain Julian McMahon
screentesting for the remake of THE HITCHER. Well, earlier this week Mr
McMahon himself confirmed the rumour during an interview with bland pop
station Nova FM in Melbourne. "It's called the Hitcher, it's a real creepy
thing. I'd play the villain again. So that might happen...And I'm doing a
film with Kim Raven (or Raver?) thats set at the Tennessee State Prison in
Nashville called PRISONER." The scooper who passed this along wondered if it
was a remake of the Patrick McGoohan TV series, but I thought it would be
more exciting if it were a remake of the Australian women's prison series.
Before I go too far down that road, I should point out that it's actually an
original script that was a runner-up in the 2003 Project Greenlight
(America). Big thanks to "The Glebe Guy".
* One of my favourite behind-the-scenes stories is how the producers of THE
MADNESS OF KING GEORGE III had to drop the "III" from the title, lest
audience think they'd missed the trilogy's first two installments. Now, in
what could be one of the first every biopic sequels, Cate Blanchett will
return alongside director Shekhar Kapur for more adventures in the life of
Queen Elizabeth. Whilst it would be funny if they decided to go with
ELIZABETH II, the currently-reigning monarch might be a little confused
(though it's doubtful that most film goers would be). ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN
AGE will also feature Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh, Jeremy Irons as the
Earl of Leicester, and Hugh Dancy as the Earl of Essex.
* "Double the Fist" is a strange TV show on the ABC that, upon initial
viewing, I thought was some sort of drug-induced hallucination. Three weeks
later, I'd weaned myself off the glue sniffing and the show was still there.
So, I understand, as the show's makers, who have just begun pre-production
of their first feature film, MARCUS + LOVE. According to Encore Magazine,
the film is "a black comedy about a lonely heart mathematician afflicted
with Asperger's Syndrome". If this ends up being a BEAUTIFUL MIND send up,
I'm totally on board, but be prepared for some serious phone-to-face
injuries.
* A few years ago, Australia's outback desert was used to simulate NASA's Mars
experiments. The terrain was as close as possible to that of Mars (although
later when scientists wanted to simulate conditions in a place with no
atmosphere, they went to Adelaide... ZING!). If it's good enough for Mars,
it's good enough for Hollywood. Rumours abound that JOHN CARTER OF MARS will
shoot down here, taking advantage of said deserts and redness. While the
setting is appropriate, it's more likely just an excuse for the film's
producer Harry Knowles to be near me. The rascal.
Father Geek Note:
While I've heard this rumor too, it is just that at this point in time... JC is still a long way from location shooting, they're still tweeking the wonderful script at this point. The art dept. is coming up with great stuff and that branch of the production is chunked full of more name talent than any fan could hope for... just relax the project is in good (even loving) hands...
AWARDS AND FESTIVALS
ANNECY INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FILM FESTIVAL
Anthony and Julia Lucas have taken out the top prize in France for their
animated short THE EXTRAORDINARY GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORATIONS OF JASPER MORELLO.
Wow. Why not call it XGEJM and be done with it? The film will screen at the
Melbourne International Film Festival next month.
BOX OFFICE
Wow, that's pretty depressing. A DreamWorks film beating... well, anything
really. Many people have been questioning the link between loving a film and
caring about its box office results. The (rather obvious) answer is that if
BATMAN BEGINS does really well, a sequel gets made (see: SPIDER-MAN). If,
like BATMAN BEGINS, it takes a fair haul but doesn't really rewrite the
history books, it may justify a sequel, but only after elements are tinkered
with. Like, for instance, execs believing that the film didn't make enough
money because there wasn't enough action and making sure that part two gets
Renny Harlin in place of Christopher Noland. You know, that sort of thing.
Got it? Good. Now commit the following to memory.
1. MADAGASCAR
2. BATMAN BEGINS
3. MR AND MRS SMITH
4. THE LONGEST YARD
5. STAR WARS - EPISODE III: RETURN OF THE SITH
RELEASED THIS WEEK
Scarlet Johannson goes for Oscar glory, the potential box office takings get
shaved down a cup or two by CG artists, Disney drops the ball and goes for
cute over seat-wetting horror, and three young girls live out the wish of
perverts everywhere by getting into Alexis Bledel's pants.
A GOOD WOMAN
HERBIE: FULLY LOADED
POOH'S HEFFALUMP MOVIE
SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS
NEXT WEEK
- Rick Berman promises to reinvigorate the STAR TREK franchise by signing
Vin Diesel on for YOUNG PICARD, which will also star Justin Berfield as
Special Agent Will Riker
- Jessica Biel to star in THE GRAVE SPITTER, the Platinum Dunes remake of I
SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE
- Ben Stiller to star in the remake of THE GREAT DICTATOR, which follows the
misadventures of a Jewish comedian living in 2003 Iraq
Peace out,
Latauro
AICNDownunder@hotmail.com
AICNDownunder@hotmail.com
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+ Expand All
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Whats the deal with JCOM then? after Is Rodriguez still directing or are they yet to find a replacement after his departure from the DGA?
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Don't know shit about JC, but it all sounds cool as hell! And if it shoots in Australia (one of the greatest countries in the world) I'm there. More films need to be made down under!
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Just wanted to point out the obvious, how its extremely hypocritical for a website that made its name reporting "spy scoops" of yet to be released films having a complete blackout when its founder finally gets to shepherd his own film, "John Carter of Mars". Furthermore, unless I read that wrong, Hugh Jackman and Ian McShane are playing gay lovers in a new Woody Allen film? That sounds FAN-tastic!
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McCaig, one of the amazing talents from the SW Prequel design team, is one of the main designers for John Carter.
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so there ya go.
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Shigeru you are a true Gentleman, unless off course you are female, in which case please accept my most sincere apologies for the gender mix up. Guess JC o' Mars (I Like that one, kind of like a Fillet o' Fish, you guys have them in the states right?) won't be filmed in the Australian Outback then considering that Conran is Helming (helm, you've got to find that word funny and always more appropriate) and it will all be done on blue/green screen. Can't wait ;-)
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.....going by our "sitcoms" you'd be right......going by american "remakes" of british shows.....well, you'd be wrong.
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He's been a piece of its development action from the start in late 2002... He's who hired Robert and when he had to leave because of union problems Harry is who brought Kerry and his brother on board. He brought on Mike Kaluta and William Stout to the Art Design crew over 2 years ago. Harry is a very real hands on producer. Ghost Town over at Revolution is from an original story by Harry, and I my live in Mexico City but I hear from my Austin film community friends (I spent 4 years at college outside Austin in the late 90's) that Harry also has an independent Horror film in the works, pardnered with a major genre icon... so lay off him he's earning every bit of that "Executive Producer" title and income.
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Will John Carter be Ginger, I would like to think so. Oh it had better be good you know, can they who give it take it because Sky Captain had ist bits but overall it was crap on a stick, pretty crap but still crap.
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were is the John Carter weekly blogs and the site with artwork and so on aye come on play fair.
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Cheers for that because I thought he was a chimp dressed as a human.
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If they do it right and respect the material, this could be great. Bringing on a great artist like Kaluta is a good sign. Harry certainly grew up with those great Frazetta covers so he should know what it should look like. But to be good it should be kind of bloody and sexy, almost an R at least. Those red-skinned Barsoomian babes don't wear much. -
Jun 25, 2005 3:09:27 PM CDT
"Ben Stiller to star in the remake of THE GREAT DICTATOR, which
by salvatoregravano
Yes, laugh. But Michael Bay will read it and do it.
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SalvatoreGravano :) nice
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If he can afford to reach in the pocket and pull out piles upon piles of millions that such a movie needs (knowing very well that he can burn it all, with such a shitty director as Conran attached to it!), how much more does Harry sleep on? :-O Now I'm not surprised he spends like 10000 dollars a month on DVDs and even buys stuff like the Criterion Set without even looking at the price. :-O
(Those Amazon clicks couldn't have generated all that, could they? Was Harry a trafficker for a few years or what? :-D)
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*Nolan
*Revenge
You know I'm right. Pedantic, but right.
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