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(L-r) Greg McLean, Phoebe Tonkin, Bryan Brown, Glen Dolman.

During filming of Stan’s Bloom in Victoria last year the creator/showrunner Glen Dolman was already hatching ideas for a second series of the supernatural drama.

So when Stan’s Mike Sneesby and Nick Forward ordered another six episodes in April after he pitched an overview Dolman pressed ahead with plans to bring a fresh perspective to the show.

That involved hiring new directors in Greg McLean and Sian Davies (who collaborated on Stan’s The Gloaming), assembling a new team of writers and adding half a dozen fresh faces to the cast, with the assistance of casting director Leigh Pickford.

Joining him in the writers’ room are Giula Sandler, Matt Ford, Tommy Murphy and Catherine S McMullen. Dolman scripted four of the six eps of the first series, which was named Drama Series Production of the Year at last...

The team behind 'Miss Fisher.s Murder Mysteries', Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger, are back with 'Newton.s Law', starring Claudia Karvan. Eagger talks to If about the show.s development and shooting in the ABC carpark.

How.s Newton.s Law going?

We.re in the middle of a 12-week shoot. Deb [Cox] and I just went to Mipcom and you pay dearly for taking [time off]. We went and came back within a week but a lot of things stockpile.

Did you go there to show footage from the show?

Yeah, ABC Commercial is distributing the show for rest of world, and we did a little Mipcom teaser trailer. It's not our official trailer because not all the material had been shot. And then Deb and I obviously had some meetings with the people they wanted us to. Just to meet some of the North American platforms and talk about what...

Alison Nisselle, Greg Mclean, Ian Anderson, Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger.

Greg Mclean and Alison Nisselle are among the five industry leaders honoured by Film Victoria at last night.s Screen Leader Awards.

The Screen Leader Awards were established by Film Victoria in 2012 to recognise screen professionals who.ve shown leadership through their achievements and a commitment to further developing the industry.

This year saw the addition of two new categories to recognise writing and directing.

The inaugural Fred Schepisi Award was presented to Mclean, acknowledging his achievements in directing from his 2005 debut feature Wolf Creek through to his most recent film The Belko Experiment, which screened at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

Nisselle, whose credits include television dramas Phoenix, Janus, Bed of Roses and the feature film Healing, received the Jan Sardi Award for her significant achievement as a screenwriter.

Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger, the duo behind Miss...

Writer-director Craig Monahan will get the chance to screen his film Healing to key industry figures in Los Angeles and New York after winning the Australian Directors Guild.s Finders Award.

In partnership with the Directors Guild of America Finders series, the Adg selects one Australian feature film which is yet to secure Us distribution and is entered into the Adg Awards.

Monahan will accompany the film when it.s screened later in the year for distributors, managers and agents in La and NY.

Adg CEO Kingston Anderson said, .The Adg selects a film that is submitted to the Awards that does not have Us distribution and would provide the director with an opportunity to showcase their work. Healing and its director Craig Monahan fit perfectly for the Finders Award."

Produced by Tait Brady and Monahan.s Pointblank Pictures and co-scripted by the director and Alison Nisselle, the drama starring Don Hany,...

It took scriptwriter Alison Nisselle and director/co-writer Craig Monahan 10 years to make Healing, a redemptive drama which opens in Australian cinemas on May 8.

Nisselle is hoping her next project, a feature on Julia Gillard, will happen rather more quickly.

But she tells If it will take at least two years to complete her research and finish the script on the former Prime Minister.s reign and ousting by Kevin Rudd.

It was announced last year that Rachel Griffiths will play Gillard in Stalking Julia, based partly on Kerry-Anne Walsh's book The Stalking of Julia Gillard. Wtfn.s Richard Keddie is the producer and Emma Freeman (Puberty Blues, Offspring and the Bob Hawke telemovie Hawke) is attached to direct.

Nisselle got the idea for Healing after reading a Philippa Hawker story in The Age about a rehabilitation program caring for wounded eagles, falcons and owls run by the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary and Prisons Victoria.

Director Alister Grierson acknowledges ABC1 has given his film Parer.s War a tough time-slot next Sunday night, programmed against the finale of Downton Abbey on Seven and the Logie Awards on Nine.

So he.s keen to bang the promotional drum for the dramatised saga of WWII cameraman Damien Parer, whose work almost cost him the woman he loved.

.It.s a very romantic movie, a nice change from my movies which usually show people getting blown up,. said Grierson, whose first feature was Kokoda, the story of Australian soldiers stranded in the Papua New Guinea jungle in 1942, which screens on SBS1 on Saturday night.

The director credits the ABC with giving him, producer Andrew Wiseman, screenwriter Alison Nisselle and DoP Mark Wareham a lot of creative freedom on the $4.5 million production, a generous budget for a telemovie. Matt Le Nevez plays Parer with Adelaide Clemens as the woman he loved,...

Director Craig Monahan.s first film in 10 years is an intelligent and satisfying drama.

That.s according to the first reviews for Healing, which is screening at the European Film Market in Berlin.

Don Hany, Hugo Weaving, Xavier Samuel and Anthony Hayes star in the film scripted by Monahan (who last directed Peaches in 2004) and Alison Nisselle, inspired by a real-life alliance between the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary and Prisons Victoria.

.A group of conflicted men, prisoners and inmates discover the majesty of great birds . and through them, the cleansing power of redemption . in the deeply felt outdoor drama Healing,. said Variety's Eddie Cockrell.

.The first film in a decade from director and co-writer Craig Monahan, whose 1998 psychological thriller The Interview remains an uncommonly smart genre piece, this equally intelligent and satisfying item will prove therapeutic to distribs on the hunt for quality fare..

Hany plays Viktor, a crim of Iranian...

Xavier Samuel Set For Australian Drama ‘Healing’ The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’s Xavier Samuel will co-star with Hugo Weaving and Don Hany in Healing, writer-director Craig Monahan’s drama which starts shooting in Victoria on February 18. Samuel, who’ll next be seen in Catherine Hardwicke’s thriller Plush, plays a young, vulnerable prisoner who gets involved in a rehabilitation program involving treating injured birds at a low-security prison farm run by Weaving’s Senior Officer Perry. Hany plays a long-term crim who has almost given up on life. The cast includes Jane Menelaus, Anthony Hayes, Mark Leonard Winter, Robert Taylor and Justine Clark. The producers are Tait Brady and Monahan’s PointBlank Pictures. Monahan co-wrote the script with Alison Nisselle. Andrew Lesnie is the Dop. Lightning Entertainment consultant Richard Guardian is pitching the project to buyers at Berlin’s European Film Market. – Don Groves Dueling Miniseries On Australian Billionaire Gina...

Screen Australia says it has not mismanaged its finances by spending its annual production funding in just six months - a state of affairs which it says reflects the strength of the local film industry.

The government screen agency revealed in mid-December 2012 that it had spent its entire annual $42 million drama production allocation due to the unprecedented number of quality feature film and television projects seeking support. The shock announcement was reminiscent of the agency's abrupt decision to cut its investment cap in 2009 while several films were mid-financed. That decision.threw several major Australian productions into dissaray including The Tree and the biggest box office hit of.2010, Tomorrow When the War Began (Omnilab Media had to increase its investment at the last minute to ensure production).

Overspending on such a scale has never occurred before, even going back to the era of Screen Australia.s predecessor funding arm, the Film Finance Corporation.

Don Groves is a Deadline contributor based in Sydney Hugo Weaving and Don Hany will star in Healing, an Australian drama about a sympathetic prison warden and his efforts to rehabilitate an Iranian-born prisoner, one of four features agency Screen Australia agreed to co-finance at its board meeting today. The other films that secured Screen Australia investment are Aim High in Creation, a hybrid documentary-drama celebrating “the cinematic genius” of the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, from writer/director Anna Broinowski and producer Lizzette Atkins; and the previously announced The Rover, a futuristic Western from Animal Kingdom writer/director David Michôd, starring Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce; and Felony, which will star Joel Edgerton as a decorated cop who knocks down a young cyclist while driving home after celebrating a drug bust, scripted by Edgerton and directed by Mathew Saville. Healing will be directed by Craig Monahan, who co-scripted with Alison Nisselle.

David Michod

David Michod’s new film has received funding from Screen Australia, as part of almost $20m of investment from the screen agency.

The investment is expected to trigger $100m worth of production across four feature films, five TV dramas and three children’s dramas.

The Rover is written and directed by Michod, with a story by Michod and Joel Edgerton.

The film has cast Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson in the lead roles.

Michod will also produce the film alongside his Animal Kingdom producing partner Liz Watts for Porchlight Films and David Linde, Ep on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for his Lava Bear Films.

The film will be distributed by Village Roadshow with international sales by FilmNation.

The Rover, set in the Australian desert in the dangerous near-future sees Eric, a man who has lost almost everything in life, have his car stolen by a gang of criminals.

Screen Australia will invest almost $20 million across 12 screen projects including futuristic Western The Rover, starring Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce.

The film is the latest collaboration between producer Liz Watts and writer-director David Michôd, following the success of their crime-thriller Animal Kingdom in 2010. FilmNation Entertainment acquired the majority of worldwide rights to The Rover at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year while Village Roadshow will distribute the film in Australia.

Screen Australia has also backed three other feature films: drama Felony, written by Joel Edgerton and directed by Matthew Saville (Noise); Healing, a redemptive prison drama starring Don Hany (East West 101) and Hugo Weaving; and Aim High in Creation, a hybrid documentary-drama about the late Kim Jong-il from writer/director Anna Broinowski (Forbidden Lie$).

Screen Australia chief executive Ruth Harley said the four Australian features have huge potential. "The Rover is a powerful, well-crafted script from a talented team with an impressive cast,...