Screen NSW claims its $974,000 will turn into $25m of production spend and 1,015 jobs
Jungleboys’ previous venture A Moody Christmas
Screen NSW has announced funding for four film and TV projects which it claims will generate more than 1000 jobs.
According to the announcement from the state government body, its $974,000 in grants will also create “more than $25 million investment”.
Among the TV shows to receive funding is the follow-up to A Very Moody Christmas, The Moodys, from production company Jungleboys.
Screen NSW claims that its $200,000 grant will be responsible for 274 jobs and lead to production spend of $3.5m on the ABC comedy.
The funding was given to the projects through Screen NSW’s Production Finance Fund and Regional Filming Fund.
According to the announcement, the “four new film and television projects… will together generate more than $25 million investment and 1,015 jobs for the State”.
George Souris, Minister for the Arts, said in the announcement: “The follow-up to the hugely popular series A Moody Christmas, is slated for Sydney and the NSW South Coast supporting 274 jobs and a production spend of more than $3.35 million.”
One of the projects, a film called Backtrack, will be written, directed and produced by Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Rite writer Michael Petroni. This is Petroni’s first work in Australia since 2002’s Till Human Voices Wake Us.
Souris said Backtrack would support 520 jobs and have a production spend of more than $6 million.
The other works include international TV comedy/drama Camp, starring Rachel Griffiths, and a Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder documentary called Two Men in China.
The announcement:
- Title: Backtrack
- Company: See Pictures Pty Ltd.
- Locations: Sydney, Picton and/or Bathurst surrounds.
- Screen NSW support: $500,000 from Production Finance Fund and grant of $100,000 from Regional Filming Fund.
- Jobs and production investment: 520 jobs and NSW production spend of $6,649,558 million.
- Production dates: July 1, 2013 – August 14, 2013.
- Synopsis: Backtrack is described as a spine-chilling supernatural thriller from writer/director Michael Petroni and producers Jamie Hilton (The Waiting City) and Antonia Barnard (Last Ride). Psychologist Peter Bowers’ life is thrown into turmoil when he discovers that his patients are the ghosts of people who all died in an accident 20 years previously. Afraid of losing his mind, Peter returns to his home town where he uncovers a terrifying truth, which only he can put right.
- Title: The Moodys
- Company: Jungleboys.
- Locations: Sydney and NSW South Coast.
- Screen NSW support: $200,000 from Production Finance Fund
- Jobs and production investment: 274 jobs and NSW production spend of $3,352,438.
- Production dates: August 26, 2013 – October 11, 2013.
- Synopsis: The follow-up to the hugely popular series A Moody Christmas. Picking up a month after we last saw them, it will visit the Moodys at various family events throughout the year. Like A Moody Christmas, each episode will revolve around a particular occasion that naturally brings them back together such as Australia Day, Bridget’s 60th Birthday, or the Easter Long Weekend.
- Title: Camp
- Company: Matchbox Pictures for NBC
- Locations: Murwillumbah and surrounding Northern Rivers areas.
- Screen NSW support: $100,000 grant from Regional Filming Fund.
- Jobs and production investment: more than 200 jobs and NSW production spend of $14,703,216, including a regional spend of $3.2 million.
- Production dates: March 18, 2013 – June 27, 2013
- Synopsis: A raunchy, funny, loud summer series with moments of romance and wistfulness following the lives of the families, counsellors and owners of the quintessentially American Little Hawk Family Camp. It’s a relentlessly cheerful, lakeside slice of family summer heaven that is completely unplugged – no cell phone reception, no TVs, no internet.
- Title: Two Men in China: Australia
- Company: Cordell Jigsaw
- Locations: Australian locations including Port Hedland and Dampier, Pilbara and Chinese locations Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chengdou.
- Screen NSW support: $74,000 from Production Finance Fund.
- Jobs and production investment: 21 jobs and production spend of $760,241.
- Production dates: April 8, 2013 – June 10, 2013.
- Synopsis: Climate expert and explorer, Dr Tim Flannery, joins forces with personality John Doyle, for the fourth time, to make sense of one of the most enigmatic countries on earth. The three-part series will showcase how Australia’s mineral and agricultural wealth is driving the Chinese economy, feeding its people and accelerating the growth of the most populous nation on earth, and how our relationship with China is changing us.
