Battle of Long Tan producer takes new direction with script
Long Tan producer Walsh
The producer of the long term film project The Battle Of Long Tan has brought in a new team for a restructure of the script originally drafted by veteran director Bruce Beresford.
Martin Walsh said that he had approached The Story Shop trio of James Nicholas, Paul Sullivan and Karel Segers to develop a new approach to telling the story of the Vietnam battle and the Australian soldiers involved.
Walsh, who is producing the film through his production company Red Dune Films, is aiming to raise a budget of $15m. Walsh told Encore that Beresford – whose direction credits include Driving Miss Daisy, Breaker Morant, Mao’s Last Dancer and currently The White Mouse may yet direct. He said: “We talk all the time.”
Actor Sam Worthington – who narrated Walsh’s 2006 documentary on the Battle of Long Tan – remains interested in the lead role, said Walsh.
The rewrite by The Story Shop has tightened the story around what will still be an ensemble action film. In the Battle of Long Tan 108 Australian and Kiwi soldiers did battle with up to 2,500 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army.
Walsh said: “We now have a story stream that coherently anchors the myriad of twists and turns of an historic military encounter; one that still resonates 45 years after it happened.”
Walsh – himself a former special forces soldier – purchased the rights to the story written by one of the soldiers in the battle back in 2004.
As part of the process, he is now looking for an up and coming script writer ready to join the project as a “professional internship.”
He said: “The structure of the narrative, buoyed by the original script from Bruce, is now ready for a final burst of inspirational writing to take the project to the next stage of financing.”
James Nicholas, creative director of The Story Shop, said: “We are thrilled to be given not only a great cinematic true story but an opportunity to show the world one of the seminal moments of Australian military courage and achievement. Most importantly we are writing a story that will entertain today’s audiences.”
Much of the filming is likely to take place in Far North Queensland. Walsh is seeking funding from Screen Australia, Screen Queensland and Screen NSW, as pre and post production is likely to take place there. He is also aiming for private funding.
He said: “I am hopeful we will have this draft within eight to ten weeks. That will be more than enough for the funding process.”
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Now I’ve heard it all… an intern screenwriter. How low has our industry sunk when the screenplay is like an afterthought passed off the the intern.
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I no longer have any links with this project.
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Gee – wonder if this will ever make production? Only things that matches its pre production longevity is its hype …
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Dear Peter,
We are not engaging or employing an ‘intern’. For the record, I’ve invested more than $100k+ of my own money in ‘professional’ writers and we still haven’t been able to crack the right story to date. However, my two LA based Executive Producers and producing partner know we now have the right through line, direction and characters to make this work.
What was characterised in the interview above was that we have a sound structure and methodology for an experienced or emerging writer who is willing to work within this framework under the direction of The Story Shop team. The quote was selective and it was simply a porr characterisation of what we’ve put in place.
To Writing writers into the picture – Shine took almost 10 years, Red Dog took almost 10 years. Are you saying there is some magic timeline that a film should be made in x number of years? 🙂 Like good wine, some things get better with age.
We said from the outset that we will only bring this to the screen when it’s right or not at all. We have a responsibility to tell this right and not simply exploit the legend we’ve help create for a cheap and rushed movie. We just don’t want to rush an incomplete story/script into production. Australia’s had many films in this category, for example Kokoda. Kokoda is a very important story but the film didn’t do it justice at all. We could have had this movie in production in late 2008 but the script wasn’t ready. Many other producers would have simply pushed ahead and made it.
We’ve also had many Australian films suffer from a lack of marketing. We actually started this project with a marketing plan back in 2005. So far we’ve made an award winning and critically acclaimed documentary ‘The Battle of Long Tan’, we’ve generated and driven all of the media interest and PR in this story (including a couple of 60 minutes stories) starting with the 40th Anniversary in 2006 and as recently as the 45th anniversary in August this year. We have also helped drive 3 government enquiries to get their medals successfully upgraded.
We also wanted to avoid rushing a movie into production with very few people knowing about the story. We now have more than 120,000 views on YouTube of the various Long Tan videos, 5,000 views now of my documentary on Vimeo, 2,000 people per month to our blog and getting close to 900 people on our Facebook page. 40% of all interest in the story and movie now comes from North America.
Now, I’d rather a slow burn to build broad interest and demand, get the story right with the right creative team and budget and therefore make it a success vs rushing something, simply for the sake of it.
Cheers…….
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For what it’s worth, I’ve carefully reviewed my shorthand notes of my phone interview with Martin. I’d respectfully disagree with him that our description of his offer of a professional internship is a “poor characterisation” or indeed selective. Those were the words he chose, used within context. He directly used the words “up and coming screenwriter” and indeed “professional internship”.
Indeed, he was also keen that we mention that opportunity in the article.
Martin, I wish you luck with the project, It’s an inspiring story.
Cheers,
Tim Burrowes – editor-in-chief – Encore
Hi TIm,
I didn’t mean to infer a poor characterisation by you, I meant by me! 🙂
Regards,
Martin
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Why don’t you make a film about the battle on Binh Bah?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Binh_Ba
Bin Bah was a turkey shoot, we had a military victory there as well, nobody wants to talk about that battle…why?
Why isolate one battle where we somehow come out victorious because of a body count and individual courage? At the end of the day, we were an occupying force trying to prop up a corrupt government. That whole war stinks, like most wars, I feel sorry for all the veterans and victims involved, we were wrong to get involved and I feel most politicians supporting that conflict should have been put on trial for war crimes. We did nothing to help Cambodia during its genocide..nothing.
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How would an ‘up and coming screenwriter’ get in touch with Martin and the team to be considered for this ‘professional internship?’
I don’t know why this project is getting hate for taking so long in pre-production, it’s great to see a producer thinking of the project before the profits for once!
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Keep at it Martin. It is a huge effort to organise and a magnificent story to tell.
Best Wishes,
Ian
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A ‘professional internship’, how is that different from an ‘internship’?
Both get ‘on the job’ training but no pay.
Spin?
Funny how they seem so eager to make it known that they are taking on a writer
who they don’t have to pay but who can consider themselves a “Professional”!
Internships are pretty standard in LA but, there, its usually considered
you are at their beck and call 24/7 and treated like dirt.
Does ‘professional internship’ here, mean you won’t be treated like dirt?
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Martin you’re obviously passionate about the project and are aware of how films of the same genre have failed, working with a developing screenwriter might throw a new perspective on the narrative, you run out of chances when you stop taking them..best of luck with finding that up and coming screenwriter..at least you’re committed to looking and trying..all the best.
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Considering the state of the Aussie industry, where there are seldom intern opportunities, Martin is actually offering quite the service. To get any where in this industry, that is held up by the government and thus comes with so much red tape, you need production credits. Getting a production credit can be near impossible unless you already have a production credit. It’s not a good system, but that’s how I see it working.
So Martin offering an individual a ‘professional internship’ is a great opportunity. I can think of a load of people who’d love to have a writing credit on an Aussie blockbuster; it’s the launching pad for a new career!
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Thanks Ian, nice to hear from you. 🙂
Dear John, we are offering an opportunity for either an emerging writer or a professional writer who is willing to work within a structured environment with the team from The Story Shop. I have used and paid (pretty well) 3 professional writers to date. This next draft is no different and it is a paid gig. The only slight difference is that we except the writer to work within a framework and methodology and to a treatment and outline we’ve already settled on.
The principle of the Story Shop is to assist writers and producers develop more effective and better finished scripts. In particular a practical focus on the incorporation of the Hero’s Journey as well as searching for, and bringing, mythical story telling archetypes into each screen story. I believe and so does our producing team in the principles outlined by Dr Karen Pearlman, Head of Screen Studies at AFTRS – watch her comments in this video http://vimeo.com/10429716 – “The purpose of Australian feature film production…..is not to tell our own stories, the purpose of our feature film industry is to make our myths.”
As I said, the comment ‘professional internship’ was probably a bad characterisation on my part! I was trying to make sure that people were aware that any writer needs to work within a very structured framework and methodology which might not suit all writers, hence the words ‘professional internship’. We are not looking at engaging anyone to write for free! So, if anyone is an emerging writer it is a fantastic opportunity to work with some great, experienced professionals or an experience writer who is willing to work with some structure and strong guidance.
Thanks for everyone’s kind comments and support. It is an important story and we hope we can do it justice.
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Martin, I agree with 100%, go with getting it perfect as it is a Very Important story; politics shouldn’t enter into the story of the individual in this situation. A battlefield has its on “rules and outcomes”, that are not usually conveyed in “Hollywood Cinema”.
Marketing and Distribution is a Vital and your efforts are consistent and focused.
You have a big responsibility. All the best with your efforts!
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The way I see it is that Martin has made in his own words a mistake in how it was stated so that is pretty much the end of that. As an ex-special forces soldier myself this is a story that has to be told. A film like this must must must be told with care, fact and integrity. That’s exactly what I see happening during the most important part of a films process. The Script!
I think Martin is looking outside the square purely by giving the script up to other writers to make it better and sometimes it takes a gaggle of writers to bring it all together. In regard to the internship, of course some might consider this as an attempt at slave labor but he’s said now that’s its a paid gig and for someone without experience or actually with experience to get an opportunity to work with a group of really good writers could give the end script a very unique look at the story they are trying to tell.
Martin, having a very good understanding of military history, the story itself and the fact that I love opportunities of any kind, I’ll happily work for little or no pay to get the story up. It’s a good story and as we both know, the men that were involved should be seen for what they did during this campaign. Get in contact if you like. I’ll even through my producer hat on if need be.
ps – just quickly, I was one of the Beta testers for the new version of Gorilla software 5. I think it’s just been released. From the amount of testing and work I and other beta testers put in I can certainly say that this version is outstanding!!! (I am not being paid to say that). So if you are someone like me that is looking for production software to get through budgets, schedules etc then Gorilla 5 has my 5 star review.
Matt Norman
Writer|Director|Producer
http://www.wingmanpictures.com
http://www.salutethemovie.com
http://www.thehumanracefilm.com
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