Audiences don’t want to be confronted, says Kojo MD
Kojo Pictures MD Kent Smith believes Australian audiences are currently looking for enjoyable journeys on screen, as the distributor prepares for the release of Lou and The Tree.
“That seems to be what people are after at the moment; audiences are looking for something that’s not confronting. In tough times, that’s often the way,” Smith told Encore.
Kojo currently has three films that fit into that model: Lou, The Tree and Swerve.
The family drama Lou, directed by Belinda Chayko and starring British actor John Hurt, will finish post-production this week and is likely to be a limited release with 15-20 copies. Smith believes the project will be easier to market than their 2009 Australian title Beautiful, which only made $56,000 at the box office.
“It’s about a young girl finding love, and it’s a much clearer genre, a much clearer market probably. It’s a gentle film,” said Smith.
Kojo isalso working on the French/Australian co-prod The Tree, currently in post-production.
“Of all our films, this one is particularly exciting and probably the biggest one we’ve been involved with. It’s got huge international potential,” he said.
The Tree was directed by Julie Bertuccelli and stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marton Csokas and Aden Young.
Smith hopes the film will be selected for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and is considering a winter release for Australia. Memento Films are in charge of international sales.
Kojo’s most recent project will finish shooting this week; the action/adventure Swerve, directed by Craig Lahiff and starring Jason Clarke, Emma Booth and David Lyons. It goes into post-production at Oasis Post in Adelaide next week.
“There are VFX, quite a few stunts sequences with someone being thrown out of a moving train, there’s car crashes, so it’s quite an action-packed film with dry humour. It’s quite an entertaining, strong film. It’s a very marketable one too,” explained Smith.
Swerve will be represented internationally by MovieHouse Entertainment, and they will be targeting the festival markets and Toronto in particular.
“It will be released in the second half of the year, depending on how we go at Toronto and how much heat is on the film. We want to be flexible, so it might not be out until 2011,” said Smith.
Exactly, I mean, all you have to look at is the entire Italian neo-realism movement in the wake of WWII. Umberto D was a wonderful romp.
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