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Eli makes the best of his tumultuous childhood, despite the odds: His stepdad is a drug dealer, his mom lives with addiction, his elderly babysitter just served 25 years in jail, and his brother’s a poetic clairvoyant with selective mutism. As he faces the harsh realities of life — and the looming dangers that threaten his family — Eli tries to follow his heart and understand what it means to be a good person. Directed by Bharat Nalluri (Shantaram), Jocelyn Moorhouse (The Dressmaker), and Kim Mordaunt (The Rocket), and written by John Collee (Hotel Mumbai), the coming-of-age slash crime thriller series Boy Swallows Universe stars Travis Fimmel, Phoebe Tonkin, Emmy nominee Simon Baker, and Sophie Wilde. It was executive produced by Andrew Mason and Troy Lum.

When will Boy Swallows Universe be released?

Stream it now.

Where can I find the trailer for Boy Swallows Universe?

Check it out at...

In the magical, genre-bending series Boy Swallows Universe, a 13-year-old boy battles the demons that haunt his family as he barrels toward adulthood. The show, based on the book of the same name by bestselling author Trent Dalton, was inspired by Dalton’s own atypical childhood in Brisbane, Australia. The coming-of-age story with a crime-thriller edge, written by John Collee (Hotel Mumbai), swiftly landed in Netflix’s Global Top 10 after its Jan. 11 premiere.

Tudum talked with one of the series’ directors, Bharat Nalluri (Shantaram), and one of the executive producers, Andrew Mason, about the finale and what it all means. Nalluri directed Boy Swallows Universe alongside Jocelyn Moorhouse (The Dressmaker) and Kim Mordaunt (The Rocket). Mason executive produced the series alongside Troy Lum.

Read on for a conversation with Nalluri and Mason about the final episode, and check out this guide for everything else you need...

The Venice Gap-Financing Market (September 1-3), part of the Venice Production Bridge, will present 34 fiction and documentary projects.

The Venice Gap-Financing Market (September 1-3), part of the Venice Production Bridge, will present 34 fiction and documentary projects at the 80th Venice International Film Festival (August 30-Septmber 9), including a new project from Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir, All Before You.

All Before You offers a retelling of the 1963 farner-led revolt against British colonial rule in Palestine. Jacir’s previous director credits include The Oblivion Theory, which won the top prize at the Berlinale co-production market in 2021, Salt Of This Sea, Wajib and When I Saw You,...

The 10th edition of the Venice Gap-Financing Market, organized as part of the Venice Film Festival’s industry program Venice Production Bridge, has selected 62 projects in the final stages of development and funding.

Filmmakers taking projects to Venice include Jim Sheridan, an Oscar nominee with “In America,” “In the Name of the Father” and “My Left Foot”; Annemarie Jacir, whose credits include Cannes’ “Salt of This Sea,” Berlin’s “When I Saw You” and Locarno’s “Wajib”; Aisling Walsh, who directed “Maudie” with Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, and “Elizabeth Is Missing” with Glenda Jackson; and Kim Mordaunt, who won best debut at Berlin with “The Rocket.”

Also selected are Roberto Minervini, who directed Cannes’ “The Other Side” and Venice’s “What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?”; Laurynas Bareisa, who won the Venice Horizons Award for “Pilgrims”; Måns Månsson, who was in Berlin competition with “The Real Estate”; György Pálfi,...

New Feature projects by Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir, Ireland’s Aisling Walsh and Jim Sheridan as well as Romanian filmmaker Anca Damian have been selected for the upcoming edition of the Venice Gap-Financing Market.

The 10th edition of the co-financing meeting will run from Sept. 1 to 3 as part as of the Venice Production Bridge, which is the industry component of the Venice Film Festival (Aug 30 to Sept. 9)

The market will present 62 projects in the final stages of development and funding, selected from 280 submissions.

The selection spans 34 feature-length fiction Film and documentary projects, 14 Immersive projects, 11 Biennale College Cinema – Virtual Reality projects and three Biennale College Cinema projects.

To be eligible for inclusion, the fiction films must have at least 70% of funding in place and be looking for minority partners only.

Full List of Feature Film Projects:

After The Evil (doc) by Tamara Erde, Gloria Films Production All Before You (fiction), by Annemarie Jacir,...

Click here to read the full article.

Netflix has revealed the cast, and released a first-look image, of its upcoming Australian original drama series Boy Swallows Universe.

An all-Aussie production, the eight-part limited series stars Travis Fimmel (Vikings), Simon Baker (The Mentalist) and Phoebe Tonkin (H₂O: Just Add Water) as leads in the adaptation of Trent Dalton’s book of the same name. The cast also includes Felix Cameron, Lee Tiger Halley, Bryan Brown, Anthony La Paglia and Sophie Wilde.

Boy Swallows Universe, a very Australian coming-of-age novel that has become an international bestseller, tells the story of a broken family in Brisbane in 1985. The publisher’s synopsis reads: “A lost father, a mute brother, a junkie mum, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crime for a babysitter. It’s not as if Eli Bell’s life isn’t complicated enough already. He’s just trying...

Netflix’s series adaptation of Australian novel Boy Swallows Universe has unveiled its cast, and first images from the shoot have been released.

Travis Fimmel, Simon Baker and Phoebe Tonkin topline an ensemble cast for the eight-part limited series, which is based on Trent Dalton’s book and is now in production in Brisbane, Australia.

Deadline first revealed news of the project in May 2019, and Netflix boarded it earlier this year.

2022 Netflix Pilot & Series Orders

The book, set in the violent working-class suburban fringe of Brisbane in 1983, follows Eli Bell, an articulate 12-year-old boy, and his mute brother Gus. A synopsis for the novel reads: “Eli Bell’s life is complicated. His father is lost, his mother is in jail and his stepdad is a heroin dealer. The most steadfast adult in Eli’s life is Slim — a...

Travis Fimmel, Simon Baker and Phoebe Tonkin head the adult cast of “Boy Swallows Universe,” an Australia-set fantasy-drama series. Production has now begun in Brisbane, Queensland.

The eight-part limited series is an adaptation of Trent Dalton’s international best-selling novel “Boy Swallows Universe” and is being produced by Brouhaha Entertainment, together with Anonymous Content and Chapter One, for streaming platform Netflix.

“Boy Swallows Universe” follows working-class Brisbane teenager Eli Bell in a whirlwind story about drug addiction, ex-cons, poverty, violence and the discovery of hope through the power of love. Dalton has pitched the story as involving “a boy who receives a message on a red rotary dial phone in a secret underground room that tells him he must bust into Brisbane’s notorious Boggo Road Prison to save his mum’s life on Christmas Day.”

The roles of the young Eli and Gus Bell will be played by Felix Cameron...

Six-part anthology series Fires, about the experiences of everyday people at the frontline of the 2019-2020 bushfires, will premiere on Sunday, 26 September, 8.40pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.

Filmed in Melbourne and regional Victoria earlier this year, the Tony Ayres Productions drama goes behind the images and the headlines to touch on the stories of people directly affected by the fires.

The series begins in Queensland in September 2019, at the start of the fire season, and continues as the fires make their deadly march south, burning out of control through Nsw and Victoria until February 2020. Each episode is set in a different location as the fires spread and build to a terrifying onslaught across the country through Christmas and New Year.

As the fires grow in intensity and ferocity and threaten different communities, new characters appear, whose stories reflect the breadth of experience during Australia’s black summer.

Bringing...

Next month’s Criterion Channel selection is here, and as 2021 winds down further cements their status as our single greatest streaming service. Off the top I took note of their eight-film Jia Zhangke retro as well as the streaming premieres of Center Stage and Malni. And, yes, Margaret has been on HBO Max for a while, but we can hope Criterion Channel’s addition—as part of the 63(!)-film “New York Stories”—opens doors to a more deserving home-video treatment.

Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.

I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies,...

Yet another Jungle Entertainment series is headed Stateside – this time drama Wakefield, with Showtime snapping up the US rights.

It’s the second Australian acquisition by the ViacomCBS-owned premium network of late, having also picked up See-Saw Films’ The End last September.

Created by Kristen Dunphy and originally commissioned by the ABC, Wakefield explores the fine line between sanity and madness through the perspectives of staff and patients at a psychiatric facility.

The cast is lead by Brit Rudi Dharmalingham, a gifted nurse, who is the sanest person in what is a pretty crazy place. But when a song gets stuck in his head, a dark secret from his past begins to intrude into his present.

The ensemble also includes Mandy McElhinney, Geraldine Hakewill, Harriet Dyer, Ryan Corr, Sam Simmons and Felicity Ward.

Sam Meikle is a showrunner with Dunphy, and both wrote alongside Joan Sauers and Cathy Strickland. Series...

Showtime has headed down under for its latest drama series acquisition.

The ViacomCBS premium cabler has picked up Wakefield, an Australian series starring The Split’s Rudi Dharmalingam and set an October 18 premiere date.

The eight-episode series, which debuted on Australian public broadcaster ABC in April, is a psychological drama that shines a comedic light on what happens when the sanest individual working in a psych ward begins to lose his grip. It is inspired by creator Kristen Dunphy’s personal experiences.

Dharmalingam plays Nik Katira, who after years working as psych nurse at Wakefield, is exceptionally good at his job. With a gift for soothing the afflicted and reaching the unreachable, he’s the most stable person in what tends to be a pretty crazy place. But right now, as his own sanity is slipping, the question is … why? Tackling the complexity of mental illness with humor and heart,...

Producer Jeremy Thomas, best picture Oscar winner for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” is a Cannes veteran and was the talk of the Croisette for David Cronenberg’s “Crash” (1996)

Thomas is back in 2021 as the subject of Mark Cousins’ documentary “The Storms of Jeremy Thomas” that details his annual road trip from London to Cannes, while he reflects on a storied career. The film very early on discusses the abundant sex on display in several of Thomas’ films.

“I identified with what Paul Verhoeven said the other day about the neo-puritanism of the new world that we live in because it’s true,” Thomas tells Variety. Thomas says that Arthur Miller’s 1953 play “The Crucible,” which details witch hunting in New England in the late 1600s, is a great text to read in today’s age. He reflects that he probably wouldn’t have had the career he has...

There will be a strong Australian contingent at Series Mania in France this year, including Jungle Entertainment’s Wakefield, Aquarius Films’ The Unusual Suspects, Porchlight Films’ Fisk and Lazy Susan Films’ Iggy & Ace.

2020 saw the international TV festival initially forced to cancel outright before moving industry meetings and networking online. This year it returns, after two postponements, as an in-person event in Lille August 26 to September 3, with an accompanying special digital program.

Series Mania Forum, the industry arm of Series Mania, is set for August 30 – September 1.

Dramas Wakefield, commissioned by the ABC, and The Unusual Suspects, by Sbs, will each compete in the Panorama section.

ABC-ordered comedy Fisk, written, directed by and starring Kitty Flanagan, will be shown in the comedy strand, while Iggy and Ace, an upcoming short-form drama series for Sbs On Demand, will make its world premiere in the web series competitive section.

Two other Australian shows...

When Wakefield premiered on the ABC this month, it was the culmination of a nearly decade-long journey for creator and showrunner Kristen Dunphy.

Finding a home for the mental health-focused series was only half the battle for its creative team as they were forced to navigate a Covid-19 shutdown across international and state borders. Dunphy and executive producer Chloe Rickard, COO Jungle Entertainment, talk to If about what it meant to finally complete the project.

Introspection resulting from self-isolation is hardly a new phenomenon.

But how does it factor into the portrayal of a fictional character?

In the case of Wakefield, Covid-19 protocol may have given lead actor Rudi Dharmalingam some of the emotional triggers necessary to step into the role of Nikhil Katira, a psychiatric nurse whose sanity begins to unravel while working at the titular facility.

Before he could resume filming the miniseries following the Covid-19 lockdown, Dharmalingam first had to complete quarantine,...

Leading producers Tony Ayres and Belinda Chayko have assembled an extraordinary Australian cast for Fires, a drama series that presents personal tales from the front lines of the country’s recent catastrophic fire season.

The series, which is now shooting in Victoria state is produced by NBCUniversal -backed Tony Ayres Productions and Matchbox Pictures. Australian Broadcasting Corporation is on board as local broadcaster. International rights are handled by NBCUniversal Global Distribution.

The project is helmed by three leading film directors: Michael Rymer, Ana Kokkinos and Kim Mordaunt.

The ensemble cast includes: Eliza Scanlen, Sam Worthington, Richard Roxburgh, Sullivan Stapleton, Miranda Otto (“Homeland”), Hunter Page-Lochard, Anna Torv, Kate Box, Helana Sawires, Daniel Henshall and Noni Hazlehurst.

They are joined by newcomers Ameshol Ajang, Stacy Clausen and Nyawuda Chuol.

Fires” is structured as an anthology that weaves character studies inspired by true stories into a narrative about the Australian bushfires of 2019-...

The ABC and Tony Ayres Productions’ (Tap) anthology drama Fires is underway in Victoria, with a stellar cast that boasts Eliza Scanlen, Sam Worthington, Richard Roxburgh, Sullivan Stapleton, Miranda Otto, Hunter Page-Lochard, Anna Torv, Kate Box, Helana Sawires, Daniel Henshall, and Noni Hazlehurst.

Joining the ensemble are also newcomers Ameshol Ajang, Stacy Clausen and Nyawuda Chuol.

Fires, co-created by Tony Ayres and Belinda Chayko, is inspired by accounts from people who survived the catastrophic fire season of late 2019 and early 2020.

Each episode is based around a different community, drawn from reports of ordinary people and the impossible choices they were forced to make.

Chayko, who is the showrunner and lead writer, said: “So many people were affected by the fires of 2019/2020 and we wanted to honour their experiences and the losses they suffered – to ensure that their stories were not forgotten. Fires is a series about ordinary people, caught in the unimaginable,...

Exclusive: Australian drama series Fires has put together its cast.

The series, created by Stateless creator Tony Ayres and Belinda Chayko, has put together an ensemble cast featuring Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects), Sam Worthington (Avatar), Richard Roxburgh (The Crown), Sullivan Stapleton (Blindspot), Miranda Otto (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Hunter Page-Lochard (Harrow), Anna Torv (Mindhunter), Kate Box (Stateless), Helana Sawires (Stateless), Daniel Henshall (Defending Jacob) and Noni Hazlehurst (A Place to Call Home).

They are joined by newcomers Ameshol Ajang, Stacy Clausen and Nyawuda Chuol.

The six-part series, which is inspired by extraordinary accounts from people who survived the catastrophic fire season in Australia of late 2019 and early 2020, will air on ABC in Australia and NBCUniversal Global Distribution is handling international sales.

It is produced by NBCU-backed Tony Ayres Productions and written by showrunner Chayko, Jacquelin Perske, Mirrah Foulkes, Steven McGregor and Anya Beyersdorf.

Executive Producers include Tony Ayres, Andrea Denholm and Liz Watts.

Rudi Dharmalingam in ‘Wakefield’ (Photo credit: Lisa Tomasetti.)

Jungle Entertainment, BBC Studios and the ABC’s Wakefield will be among the first drama series to resume shooting after the shutdown after the producers obtained an exemption from Border Force travel restrictions for Rudi Dharmalingam.

The British actor will return to Australia on July 10 and after two weeks in quarantine will be ready to work when filming resumes on August 3.

In the eight-parter set in a Blue Mountains psychiatric hospital created by Kristen Dunphy, Dharmalingham plays Nik, a psych nurse blessed with a powerful combination of common sense and intuition.

Nik is easily the sanest person in what is a pretty crazy place but when a song gets stuck in his head, a dark secret from his past begins to intrude into his present, forming an intriguing puzzle.

Geraldine Hakewill plays a psychiatrist with Mandy McElhinney as the head nurse, Dan Wyllie...

Ben O’Toole in ‘Bloody Hell’ (Photo credit: Daniel Berghofer).

The virtual Cannes Film Market is underway with a raft of titles driven by Australian talent being pitched to buyers either as pre-sales or completed films.

The slate includes Daina Reid’s Run Rabbit Run, Frances O’Connor’s directing debut Emily, Alister Grierson’s Bloody Hell, Christopher Nelius’ feature doc Girls Can’t Surf and Justin McMillan’s Sweet River.

In addition, Hanway is looking to sell worldwide rights to Kim Mordaunt’s Wildlands, a thriller to be shot in Africa starring Matthias Schoenaerts as Richard Thomas, a jaded bomb disposal expert.

The script by Mordaunt and John Collee is based on the director’s experiences in the bomb disposal world in Asia and Africa. After being dismissed from Un forces following a failed mission in Afghanistan, Thomas gets a final shot at redemption when he’s sent to Angola, one...

Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia among previous territories sold.

Viggo Mortensen’s 2020 Cannes official selection Falling has scored a raft of additional key deals for HanWay Films in the UK, France, and Latin America heading into this week’s virtual market.

Mortensen’s feature directorial debut and father-son drama has gone to Modern Films in the UK, Metropolitan in France, California Filmes in Latin America, and Pris in Portugal. UTA independent Film Group represents Us rights.

“With Falling, Viggo furthers his remarkable talents beyond actor, writer, artist, and musician to directorial debut,” said Modern Films managing director Eve Gabereau, who...

Acclaimed Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts (“The Mustang”) will play the lead in thriller “Wildlands,” from director Kim Mordaunt (“The Rocket”).

The “Rust and Bone” actor will play a jaded bomb disposal specialist who gets a final chance at redemption when he is sent to Angola — one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.

With its roots in Mordaunt’s deep knowledge of the bomb disposal world in Asia and Africa, “Wildlands” is based on a script by Mordaunt and John Collee (“Hotel Mumbai”). It will be filmed on location in Africa.

The project was developed by Mordaunt and Sylvia Wilczynski’s Red Lamp Films (“Bomb Harvest”) with the assistance of Screen Australia. Tom Hardy and Dean Baker of Hardy Son & Baker (“Taboo”) will produce with Red Lamp Films. HanWay Films has acquired worldwide sales rights and will begin shopping the film at next week’s Cannes virtual market.

The film will shoot on location in Africa.

Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts has signed to star in Wildlands, a bomb disposal thriller directed by Australia’s Kim Mordaunt and produced by Tom Hardy’s UK company Hardy Son & Baker.

Based on a screenplay by Mordaunt and John Collee, the film will follow a jaded and reckless bomb disposal specialist who is sent to a village in Angola. His efforts to make the village safe from land mines are confronted by spirited locals, bomb-sniffing African pouched rats, and increasingly perilous circumstances.

Wildlands was developed by Mordaunt and Sylvia Wilczynski’s Australian company Red Lamp Films,...

Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust And Bone) is set to star as bomb disposal specialist in Kim Mordaunt’s (The Rocket) Wildlands, which HanWay will be selling world rights on at the upcoming Cannes virtual market.

Inspired by Mordaunt’s ten-year relationship with the bomb disposal world in Asia and Africa, the film is based on the screenplay by Mordaunt and John Collee (Hotel Mumbai) and will be filmed on location in Africa.

The film was developed by Red Lamp Films with the assistance of Screen Australia. Tom Hardy and Dean Baker of Hardy Son & Baker (Taboo) will produce together with Mordaunt’s producing partner Sylvia Wilczynski (The Rocket) through Red Lamp Films.

On the heels of his dismissal from Un forces following a failed mission in Afghanistan, the film will follow Richard Thomas, a jaded bomb disposal specialist with a penchant for recklessness, who gets a final shot at redemption when he’s sent to Angola,...

Matthias Schoenaerts (The Mustang, The Danish Girl) is set play a bomb disposal specialist in Wildlands, directed by Kim Mordaunt (The Rocket, Bomb Harvest).

Inspired by Mordaunt’s 10-year relationship with the bomb disposal world in Asia and Africa, Wildlands is based on the screenplay by Mordaunt and John Collee (Hotel Mumbai, Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World) and will be filmed on location in Africa.

Wildlands was developed by Red Lamp Films with the assistance of Screen Australia. Tom Hardy and Dean Baker of Hardy Son & Baker (Taboo, A Christmas Carol) will produce together with Mordaunt’s producing partner Sylvia Wilczynski (The ...

Matthias Schoenaerts (The Mustang, The Danish Girl) is set play a bomb disposal specialist in Wildlands, directed by Kim Mordaunt (The Rocket, Bomb Harvest).

Inspired by Mordaunt’s 10-year relationship with the bomb disposal world in Asia and Africa, Wildlands is based on the screenplay by Mordaunt and John Collee (Hotel Mumbai, Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World) and will be filmed on location in Africa.

Wildlands was developed by Red Lamp Films with the assistance of Screen Australia. Tom Hardy and Dean Baker of Hardy Son & Baker (Taboo, A Christmas Carol) will produce together with Mordaunt’s producing partner Sylvia Wilczynski (The ...

Jason Burrows.

Jungle Entertainment CEO Jason Burrows advocates one key structural change if the Australian screen industry is to take full advantage of an expected, post-pandemic boom in demand for scripted content: Treat writers much better.

Burrows is confident Australia can produce drama which competes with the best in the world if writers are given more time for development, greater creative control, more training and mentoring and higher fees.

“If we don’t, we might as well stop making drama,” he said in a webinar with Screen Producers Australia CEO Matt Deaner yesterday.

“We should do that even it means Australia makes one less drama each year, as it will pay off in the long run for all of us.”

Too often, he says, projects go into production or pre-production without finished scripts due to numerous factors including network pressures to fill a gap in the schedule, limited development fees and investment,...

Jocelyn Moorhouse with Dop Martin McGrath on the ‘Wakefield’ set.

Jocelyn Moorhouse was shooting the ABC’s Stateless when Jungle Entertainment offered her the gig of set-up director of the ABC drama Wakefield.

The concept was unlike anything she’d ever heard of, centering on the interaction between staff and patients at a Blue Mountains psychiatric hospital, leavened with musical numbers and tap dancing, so she was hooked.

Brit Rudi Dharmalingam plays Nik, a gifted psych nurse in the eight-episode show created by Kristen Dunphy, who is the showrunner with Sam Meikle, produced by Shay Spencer and Ally Henville for Jungle Entertainment and BBC Studios.

The sanest person in a pretty crazy place, Nik is confronted by a dark secret from his past when a song gets stuck in his head.

Reuniting with the director after collaborating on the Seven Network’s Wanted, Geraldine Hakewill plays a psychiatrist, with Mandy McElhinney as the head nurse.

‘Butch’.

Screen Australia has announced almost $750,000 of story development funding for nine feature films, 11 television series and two online projects.

The slate includes an Imogen Banks-produced musical dramedy, composed by Kate Miller-Heidke; a television adaptation of Melanie Cheng book Australia Day; and a feature film from Helpmann Award-winning playwright S. Shakthidharan.

Screen Australia’s head of development Nerida Moore said, “We are looking for projects that are distinctive in the market, have a very specific audience in mind and reflect a range of Australian experiences. As such, it’s fantastic to be able to support the development of these 22 productions, which give an exciting glimpse into the diversity of stories, formats and genres we will hopefully see on our screens in the coming years.”

“I’m particularly pleased Screen Australia is able to support creators to expand their skill sets and take creative risks, including actors Lucy Durack and...

‘Wakefield’.

British actor Rudi Dharmalingam, Mandy McElhinney and Geraldine Hakewill lead the cast of newly-announced ABC drama Wakefield, now shooting across Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Southern Highlands.

Produced by Jungle Entertainment in partnership with BBC Studios, the eight-parter created by Kristen Dunphy is set in a Blue Mountains psychiatric hospital, and described as a psychological mystery exploring the fine line between sanity and madness.

At the show’s centre is Dharmalingham’s Nik, a gifted psych nurse, blessed with a powerful combination of common sense and intuition. Nik is easily the sanest person in what is a pretty crazy place. But when a song gets stuck in his head, a dark secret from his past begins to intrude into his present, forming an intriguing puzzle that comes together as the series builds to its heart wrenching conclusion.

Starring alongside is an impressive ensemble cast including Dan Wyllie, Harriet Dyer,...

Meg Mundell.

Fremantle and Triptych Pictures’ Kristian Moliere are teaming up to make a TV drama adapted from New Zealand-born author Meg Mundell’s second novel The Trespassers.

The tome follows a shipload of migrant workers fleeing from a pandemic-stricken UK who seek a fresh start in Australia. For nine-year-old Cleary the journey promises adventure, for former nurse Billie it’s a chance to put a shameful mistake behind her, while struggling schoolteacher Tom hopes for a brighter future.

But when a crew member is murdered and people start falling gravely ill, the Steadfast descends into chaos. Trapped on the ship, the trio must join forces to survive the journey and its aftermath.

The screenplay is being written by Andy Cox, who was a script consultant on Stephen Johnson’s High Ground, script editor on Jeremy Sims’ Last Cab to Darwin and script consultant on Kim Mordaunt’s The Rocket.

Lance Kelleher..

After years working in the Us and Europe, director Lance Kelleher is returning to Australia, signing to Photoplay for representation in Anz and Asia..

Kelleher began his career in New Zealand as a news and documentary editor and filmmaker, before directing music videos took him to Sydney and then London.

Kelleher.s portfolio includes campaigns for Jaguar, Canon, Renault Global, Lexus, Jim Beam, Qantas, Alfa Romeo, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Ikea, BMW, Heineken, Sony and Samsung.

Next up, the filmmaker is set to co-produce biopic.One Crowded Hour.alongside Todd Fellman and Sylvia Wilczynski. It follows Australian combat photojournalist and cameraman Neil Davis, who documented conflict in South East Asia for over 20 years.

Written by Kim Mordaunt and Andy Cox, to be directed by Mordaunt, the film is based on the Tim Bowden biography by the same name and has received.Screen Australia development funding..

.The production landscape is changing...

The Asia Pacific Screen Awards and the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival are set to welcome their largest contingent of visiting filmmakers.

There will be 100 filmmakers, three international delegations, international stars and industry representatives from dozens of countries across the region attending the festival and awards ceremony which runs from November 19-29.

Thirty-nine films from 22 Asia Pacific countries are nominated in this year's Apsa Awards, 34 of which will screen to local audiences at Bapff.

Red carpet arrivals will take place in King George Square from 5.30 on November 26, ahead of the ceremony in Brisbane's City Hall.

Guests include model and actress Evgeniya Mandzhieva (The Gulls), Filipino actress Shamaine Buencamino (Lorna),Korean star Jung Jaeyoung (Right Now, Wrong Then)

.Cinematographers.and Apsa nominee, Mark Lee Ping-bing (The Assassin), Australian filmmakers Rolf de.Heer and Molly Reynolds (Another Country), Tibetan actor and comedian.Shide Nyima(Tharlo), Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamed.Arya (Avalanche), Korean...

Cate Blanchett is set to direct a new Australian TV series after her project was earmarked for Screen Australia funding.

Blanchett.s Stateless is one of 23 film and TV projects that Screen Australia has today announced will receive development funding of $640,000..

The successful projects also to be funded include works from Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward, Richard Roxburgh, Marieke Hardy, Jan Chapman, Stephan Elliott and Bondi Hipsters. Nicholas Boshier.

Cate Blanchett.s TV project Stateless centres on the tragic and true story of Cornelia Rau which made headlines in 2004..

The young German/Australian woman escaped a frightening cult only to be trapped in the notorious Baxter Immigration Detention Centre after battling with the legal system..

Stateless will be Cate Blanchett.s first venture into high-end TV.

A cult is also at the centre of another high-end TV project, Trust . a drama based on a journalist.s mission to expose a...

The Sessions writer-director Ben Lewin is attached to helm Blue Rose, a biopic about the self-described .sex crazed. Australian composer and pianist Percy Grainger.

La-based Jeffrey Walker will return to Oz a to direct Dance Academy: The Comeback., a spin-off of Werner Film Productions. popular TV series, which will follow a young ballerina who dreams of being a star.

Following Ruin and Hail, Amiel Courtin-Wilson is to write, produce and direct Hawkwood, a thriller set in the backwaters of Africa which tells of ageing mercenary.s journey from chaos to grace.

These are among 16 feature projects which are receiving more than $620,000 in development funding from Screen Australia.

Lewin will write Blue Rose with Wain Fimeri for producers Chryssy Tintner, Jan Eymann, Judi Levine and Arclight.s Mark Lazarus and Gary Hamilton. His next film is Us indie romantic drama Purple Hearts, which will star Jane the Virgin's Gina Rodriguez...

Go big or go small- just avoid the middle ground in Australian film budgets.

That approach is being advocated by some industry executives and producers in response to the global trend which sees many mid-level films being marginalised.

.In light of the recent flight of the indie audiences in Australia and worldwide and the fact that indie films are struggling in the cinematic marketplace, there will be an increasing bifurcation of the production landscape,. predicts Safc CEO Richard Harris.

.There has long been a discussion about what has been dubbed the .dead zone. for feature films, somewhere between $5m-$15m.

.Some Australian producers will continue to see cinema as the main game for their film and therefore they will think about their budget in terms of competing in what is an increasingly difficult theatrical space.

.Others, however, will be . or in many cases already are . thinking about making their film...

Seven Australian films have been released in Us cinemas this year, of which only The Railway Man is likely to have recouped the Pa& and turned a profit.

Stuart Beattie.s I, Frankenstein tops the list with $US19 million but that.s a poor result considering the reported $65 million budget and the money Lionsgate shelled out to support the launch on 2,753 screens.

Jonathan Teplitzky's The Railway Man platformed on four screens in Los Angeles and New York and gradually expanded to 164 theatres via The Weinstein Co, raking in $US4.4 million. That brings its worldwide B.O. total to $US22.3 million led by the UK.s $8.5 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

A24 launched David Michôd.s The Rover on 608 screens but the thriller was D.O.A., finishing with $1.1 million, which mirrors its results in Australia and the UK.

Greg Mclean.s Wolf Creek 2, Kim Mordaunt.s The Rocket...

After shooting his debut film The Rocket in northern Laos and Thailand, Kim Mordaunt will go back to the region to direct a biopic about the legendary Australian combat photo-journalist Neil Davis.

One Crowded Hour is based on Tim Bowden.s biography of that title and is set in Australia, Vietnam and Cambodia.

For more than 20 years from the early 1960s, Davis brought enduring images of the full horror of war directly from the battlefront to the world.s TV.s screens.

After surviving numerous wars he was killed in September 1985 while filming an attempted coup in the streets of Bangkok. His still-running camera recorded his own death.

Andy Cox is writing the screenplay for producers Todd Fellman (Bait, Mental, A Few Best Men) and Lance Kelleher, with Screen Australia funding development.

.We will shoot mostly in Australia and likely Vietnam but are yet to scout in Asia so we...

UK producer Kevin Loader joins comedy drama B Model, to be directed by actor Rachel Griffiths.

Now that it is likely to be set up as a UK/Australian co-production, prolific UK producer Kevin Loader (In the Loop, Hyde Park on Hudson, Le Week-End) has become part of the team behind the comedy drama B Model, to be directed by actor Rachel Griffiths.

Griffiths has directed two shorts, Roundabout and Tulip and this will be her first feature – providing the money can be raised.

Australian producer Louise Smith was reluctant to provide details of the project precisely because it is yet to be financed. The current draft of the script is being written by Samantha Stauss, co-creator of the series Dance Academy.

B Model is included in a list of 18 features that Screen Australia has injected a total of Us$500,000 worth of development money into in the last four months.

One of the...

Screen Australia today announced nearly $535,000 in development funding for 18 features including projects set in Canada, inner-city Berlin, Mexico City, Vietnam, the Middle East and medieval England.

The genres range from family and musical to comedy, drama, thriller, sci-fi and action. The funding will support eight new projects as well as further assistance for 10 titles.

Through its Talent Escalator programs, the agency is placing three producers in professional posts to improve their direct industry experience and supporting short film director Nicholas Verso in the next stage of his professional development.

Screen Australia.s Head of Production Sally Caplan said, .In this round it is encouraging to see such a great range of Australian stories receive support from filmmakers at different levels, some with international creative partners and several with international focus.

"We are also pleased to be able to support emerging local talent with international placements that will increase our industry...

★★★☆☆During the making of his 2007 film, Bomb Harvest, director Kim Mordaunt was inspired by the experience of young people in Laos who make their living extracting for sale, the metal and explosives from bombs dropped during the 'secret war' in the 1960s-70s. That such a huge risk was taken by children just to survive was demonstrable of a tragic tradition of innocent lives being exploited in a country reportedly the "most bombed place on the planet". The Rocket (2013) is Mordaunt's tribute to this mostly unrepresented culture, with the only other Laotian film to date being Good Morning, Luang Prabang (2008), a romance about a photographer falling in love with his tour guide.

At least 17 Australian films look set to be released theatrically in the Us this year following the latest batch of deals announced in Cannes. If that's how it pans out, that will be an all-time record, or the highest in the last few decades. The previous high point was 1997 when 15 features were distributed in the Us, according to Screen Australia, whose records go back to 1985.

The preponderance of VOD-targeted deals with limited theatrical play-off partly explains the upswing this year. Only five Australian features got theatrical exposure in the Us in 2012 and seven in 2011, according to Screen Australia's research.

Main Street Films bought Tim Winton.s The Turning, A24 picked up Julius Avery.s crime thriller Son of a Gun and XLrator Media collared Tony Mahony and Angus Sampson.s dark comedy The Mule. Murali Thuralli.s post-Apocalyptic drama One will also be released in the Us by Main...

At least 17 Australian films will be released theatrically in the Us this year following the latest batch of deals announced in Cannes. If that isn.t a record, it must be close, albeit that some of those deals are VOD-driven, with a limited theatrical release. Main Street Films bought Tim Winton.s The Turning, A24 picked up Julius Avery.s crime thriller Son of a Gun and XLrator Media collared Tony Mahony and Angus Sampson.s dark comedy The Mule. Murali Thuralli.s post-Apocalyptic drama One will also be released in the Us by Main Street Films but that won.t be until next year (see separate story). .The number of Us deals secured for the latest crop of Australian films demonstrates the strength and international audience appeal of Australian storytelling,. Kathleen Drumm, head of marketing at Screen Australia, tells If from Cannes. .Expanding platforms offer new ways into the...

The list of Australian films released in Us cinemas so far this year is short and, on the surface, unimpressive.

Stuart Beattie.s I, Frankenstein tops the list with $US19 million but that.s a poor result for a film that cost a reported $65 million and was launched on 2,753 screens by Lionsgate.

Apart from The Railway Man, the other films had a limited theatrical release, primarily as a platform for Video-on-Demand and DVD sales.

Kim Mordaunt.s The Rocket screened in seven cinemas. The producer, Red Lamp Films. Sylvia Wilczynski, tells If, .It.s doing very well on iTunes internationally; it launched on iTunes on April 22."

Rechristened Patrick: Evil Awakens, Mark Hartley.s re-imagining of Richard Franklin.s 1978 cult horror film Patrick, opened simultaneously on VoD and in cinemas in Los Angeles, New York and Columbus, Ohio; no figures are available yet.

Jonathan Teplitzky's The Railway Man platformed on...

Kim Mordaunt, Rowan Woods and Rachel Perkins were among the winners in the Australian Directors Guild awards presented in Sydney at the Powerhouse Museum on Friday night.

Mordaunt took the Adg award for best direction in a feature film for his debut film The Rocket. The best direction in a telemovie gong went to Woods for The Broken Shore.. Perkins won the prize for best direction in a TV drama series for Redfern Now series 2, episode 2, Starting Over.

The Adg Awards celebrate the outstanding work of Australian screen directors in the past year in 16 categories including film, television, multiplatform, music and advertising. .The winners include some of the industry.s most experienced directors such as Ray Lawrence, Rowan Woods, Geoffrey Nottage and Rachel Perkins, but also reflect the incredible new talent rising through the ranks who are working across the various screen platforms,. said Adg executive director Kingston Anderson. The...

Female directors have dominated the Documentary Feature category of the 2014 Australian Directors Guild Awards, whilst Home & Away has muscled out any other competition for TV Drama Serial. The nominees, announced this morning, cover 16 categories across film, television, multiplatform, music and advertising. This year has seen the Adg receive more entries than ever before, making the judging process a difficult one. .In the TV drama category, the documentary feature category and the feature film categories especially, the caliber is really high so that.s why there are so many nominations,. says Adg Executive Director Kingston Anderson. .The judges take it very seriously and fully understand the recognition the awards can bring.. In the feature film category, Baz Luhrmann was unsurprisingly nominated for box office hit The Great Gatsby alongside strong contenders Kim Mordaunt (The Rocket), Ivan Sen (Mystery Road), Jonathan Teplitzky (The Railway Man) and Zak Hilditch, whose film These Final Hours,...

★★★☆☆Magical realism helps bring to life one child's search for a new home in the eminently likeable The Rocket (2013), the latest narrative feature from Australian director Kim Mordaunt. Shot entirely on location in Laos, Mordaunt's heartwarming tale of redemption displays a solid - if somewhat basic - understanding of the tumultuous recent history of this green yet war-torn land. Constantly reminded of the mass American bombings of the last half a century, whilst also facing a new threat in the form of unscrupulous energy corporations intent on flooding great expanses of rural Laos, The Rocket's cast of eccentric waifs and strays must band together in order to start afresh in pastures new.

The Rocket | Under The Skin | The Zero Theorem | Suzanne | Veronica Mars | Need For Speed | Plot For Peace

The Rocket (12A)

(Kim Mordaunt, 2013, Aus/Thai/Laos) Sitthiphon Disamoe, Loungnam Kaosainam, Thep Phongam, Bunsri Yindi. 96 mins

Children are often the best ambassadors for world cinema and so it proves here, in a Laos-set tale that's sympathetic but never condescending. The story centres on a displaced boy burdened by a perceived "curse". But it's told with documentary-like conviction and distinctly local details, from James Brown-worshipping war vets to the unexploded ordnance littering the landscape.

Under The Skin (15)

(Jonathan Glazer, 2013, UK) Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan. Krystof Hádek. 108 mins

Glazer's delectably mystifying sci-fi makes Glasgow look like another planet – as seen through the eyes of Johansson's alien seductress, on the prowl for unsuspecting males. It sounds like a highbrow Species, but the imagery and sustained strangeness put it in a realm of its own.

The Zero Theorem (15)

(Terry Gilliam,...

Australian filmmaker Kim Mordaunt has used his background in documentary film to stunning effect in his Laos-set feature debut, The Rocket. We talked to the director about what inspired him to craft his tale of a young boy seeking redemption in his journey through a war-ravaged country, and how, as a director, he navigated some of the challenges and obstacles which can occur when shooting in a volatile and exotic landscape.

You touched on some of the themes found in The Rocket in a previous documentary [2007’s Bomb Harvest] but how was the narrative formed?

We couldn’t have done this film in the Lao language with protagonists from the country unless we’d made the documentary beforehand. The producer Silvia [Wilczynski] and myself lived in Hanoi, Vietnam about ten years ago and we worked there as teachers, on a propaganda newspapers, and I even landed a job as gameshow host on a rigged programme.

This Laos-set drama about a firework competition – and unexploded wartime ordnance – is sweet natured, if low-key

Kim Mordaunt's The Rocket is a debut fiction feature from an Australian documentary-maker, set in Laos. It is a likable piece of work whose gentleness is an interesting contrast to the grim and even tragic subject matter. It should, perhaps, be seen specifically as a children's film. The Rocket seems to have grown out of Mordaunt's 2007 documentary Bomb Harvest, about the work of an Australian bomb disposal expert trying to clear away the huge number of unexploded devices dropped on Laos by the Us during the Vietnam war. Children are still at risk from these terrifying objects in the ground. The story is about a young Laotian boy, Ahlo (Sitthiphon Disamoe), who is believed by his family to be "cursed", a bringer of bad luck. Ahlo battles on, however, making friends with an orphan and her wacky uncle,...