Screen Australia invests $11m in new feature films and TV dramas
Shane Jacobson as Kenny
‘Oddball’, a comedy from the makers of 2006 Aussie film ‘Kenny’, and the a two-part television biopic about Gina Rhinehart are among four feature films and four TV dramas receiving $11m in funding from Screen Australia.
Award winning children’s animation series The New Adventures of Figaro Pho has also been commissioned for a second series on ABC3.
The $11m is set to trigger $70m in production spend, according to the announcement from Screen Australia.Oddball, about an eccentric chicken farmer who saves a colony of penguins by putting his sheepdog on their island has been written by Peter Ivan, and will star Shane Jacobson, who played the unappreciated toilet cleaner Kenny in the 2006 film he co-wrote with his brother Clayton Jacobson, who will direct it.
Gina, a two-part miniseries produced by Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder for the Nine Network, will follow the saga of the world’s riches woman as she seeks to expand the mining dynasty left to her by her father, is due to appear next year.
Also approved for investment are two theatrical documentaries: Only the Dead, about Australian war correspondent Michael Ware, and Sherpa: In the Shadow of the Mountain, examining the conflict between Nepalese Sherpas and Western climbers 60 years after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest.
And Only the Dead, from Australian writer Luke Davies and Australian producer Emile Sherman, tells the story of a freelance photographer on assignment for Life Magazine.
Graeme Mason, CEO of Screen Australia said: “This is a strong line-up of character-driven feature projects coming from an incredibly talented mix of film-makers.
“It’s great to see the Jacobson brothers back together again after Kenny with a new feature. Oddball is a film with enormous potential that will appeal to a broad mainstream audience and comes from both an experienced and passionate team.”
Additional TV series include The Kettering Incident, a mystery drama series set and shot in Tasmania for Foxtel, The Secret River, a mini-series based on the Australian novel to be produced for ABC Television, as will Hiding, a series about a Gold Coast criminal who poses as a psychology academic in witness protection scheme in a new town where he relocates with his family.
Luke Jurevicius’s children’s animation series The New Adventures of Figaro Pho will return for a second series for ABC3.
“These five outstanding television drama projects announced today will deliver exceptional and iconic Australian stories to local audiences, and Screen Australia is proud to be an investor in them,” Mason said.
FEATURES:
LIFE
See-Saw (Life) Holdings Pty Ltd
Producers Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Christina Piovesan, Benito Mueller, Wolfgang Mueller
Writer Luke Davies
Director Anton Corbijn
International Sales FilmNation
Australian Distributor Transmission Films
Cast Dane DeHaan, Robert Pattinson
Synopsis A freelance photographer hustling for the next job and a little-known but soon-to-be-immortal actor strike up an improbable friendship in the course of the cat-and-mouse game that is a photo assignment for Life Magazine.
ODDBALL
WTFN/The Film Company in association with Kmunications
Producers Richard Keddie, Steve Kearney, Sheila Hanahan Taylor
Writer Peter Ivan
Director Clayton Jacobson
International Sales Global Screen
Australian Distributor Roadshow Films
Cast Shane Jacobson
Synopsis The story of an eccentric chicken farmer who saves a colony of penguins by putting his sheepdog on their island.
ONLY THE DEAD
Wolfhound Pictures Pty Ltd & Penance Films Pty Ltd
Producer Patrick McDonald
Writers Michael Ware, Patrick McDonald
Directors Bill Guttentag, Michael Ware
International Sales Cinetic Media LLC (representing North American rights)
Australian Distributor Transmission Films
Cast Michael Ware (reporter/cinematographer)
Synopsis Theatrical feature documentary Only the Dead is the story of what happens when one ordinary man, Michael Ware, an Australian journalist for CNN and Time Magazine, is transplanted into the Middle East by the reverberations of 9/11 and butts into history. It is a journey that courses through the deepest recesses of the Iraq War and reveals a darkness lurking in Ware’s own heart – a darkness he never knew was there.
SHERPA: IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOUNTAIN
Felix Media Pty Ltd
Producers Bridget Ikin, John Smithson, John Maynard
Writer/Director Jennifer Peedom
Australian Distributor Footprint Films
Synopsis In 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of the world in an act that symbolised everything good about human cooperation and courage. Sixty years later, an ugly confrontation high up the mountain between Western climbers and a mob of angry Sherpas makes global news. What’s going on up there?
ADULT TV DRAMA:
GINA
Cordell Jigsaw Productions
Executive Producers Nick Murray, Jo Rooney, Andy Ryan
Producers Claudia Karvan, Michael Cordell, Paul Bennett
Writers Paul Bennett, Katherine Thomson
Broadcaster Nine Network
Domestic Sales Cordell Jigsaw Distribution
Synopsis A sweeping saga of empires rising and falling as the world’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, fights to maintain and expand the mining dynasty left to her by her father, whilst her children sue her for their share of the multi-billion dollar inheritance.
HIDING
Playmaker Media Pty Ltd
Producers David Taylor, David Maher, Matt Ford
Writer Matt Ford
Broadcaster ABC Television
Domestic Sales Universal Pictures (Australasia)
International Sales ITV Global Entertainment
Synopsis A Gold Coast criminal enters witness protection, along with his dysfunctional family. He suddenly finds himself in a strange city, with a new name, a new house and a new job – in a university psychology department.
THE KETTERING INCIDENT
Porchlight Films & Sweet Potato Films
Executive Producer Penny Win
Producer Vincent Sheehan
Writer Victoria Madden
Broadcaster Foxtel
Domestic Sales Jetty Distribution
International Sales BBC Worldwide
Synopsis When two girls mysteriously disappear in identical circumstances in the wilds of Tasmania 15 years apart, Doctor Anna Macy finds herself inexplicably linked to both cases. To clear her name, Anna must delve into her troubled past and face some truths about herself and the otherworldly nature of this gothic land.
THE SECRET RIVER
Ruby Entertainment
Producer Stephen Luby
Writers Jan Sardi, Mac Gudgeon
Director Daina Reid
Broadcaster ABC Television
Domestic Sales ABC Commercial
International Sales ABC Commercial
Synopsis In 1810, emancipated English convict William Thornhill stakes a claim on 100 acres of land on the remote Hawkesbury River in New South Wales, only to find that a clan of Aboriginal people also lay claim to the land, as they have done since time immemorial.
CHILDEN’S TV DRAMA:
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF FIGARO PHO
Chocolate Liberation Front Pty Ltd (co-production by Ambience Entertainment, an Omnilab company)
Executive Producers Matthew Street, Christopher Mapp
Producers Frank Verheggen, Daniel Fill, Michael Boughen, Luke Jurevicius
Creator/Director Luke Jurevicius
Writer Mark Shirrefs, various
Broadcaster ABC3
Domestic Sales ABC Commercial
International Sales ABC Commercial
Synopsis Figaro Pho has had enough of being fearful. His fears are preventing him from enjoying a fulfilling life. He has decided, once and for all, to face them and head out into the world and live! With his trusty companion Rivet by his side, surely he will succeed. But Figaro Pho’s new adventures are wilder, more surreal and more hilarious than you could ever have imagined.
Source: Screen Australia press release.
Screen Australia does excellent PR. To say that $11 million from Screen Australia will trigger $70 million in production is correct. However the features film will get a 40% Federal tax rebate and the television projects a 20% rebate for eligible Australian spend. It sounds good for Screen Australia and makes the pollies happy but it is really another sleight of hand, layered subsidy.
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… without which basically nothing would get made.
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…and make no money, chalk another one up for the ‘Sheltered Workshop’ that is Scream Australia. Who said ‘Yes Minister/Prime Minister was a work of fiction!
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Why isn’t Gina funding her own bio pic with her burger change?
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You’d like to think things might change, but it never does, the same old producers getting the same old money and on and on it goes
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