Sigrid Thornton's National Film & Sound Archive's Longford Lyell lecture says film and television needs tax breaks

The Daily Telegraph reports

AUSTRALIAN film and television productions need continued tax breaks or the industry faces being eroded and its talent diluted, actress Sigrid Thornton said.

Delivering the National Film & Sound Archive’s Longford Lyell lecture in Melbourne last night, Thornton reflected on her decades-long career in the industry both here and overseas.

A bipartisan commitment to subsidise the industry for cultural reasons had underpinned and sustained it over the years.

"Without them we would not have survived as an industry, albeit we are small industry,'' Thornton told AAP ahead of the lecture.

"By virtue of our population, we cannot expect to survive as an industry without government assistance and support.''

A regulatory quota framework for television provided the continuity of production, Thornton said.

"The cultural argument that we need to tell our stories using Australian voices has been the historical basis for government investment in our industry,'' she said in the lecture.

"It also seems to speak to a widespread public hunger.''

A refundable tax offset for producers of Australian projects had proved a very positive mechanism and should be safeguarded, Thornton said.

"Industry and government need to be vigilant and exercise care in defining the elements that are to constitute an Australian film for the offset rebate,'' she said.

"The push to dilute and erode Australian cast and Australian writer involvement in eligible projects could undermine the integrity and the legitimacy of productions.''

Increased quotas of local programs for the ABC, SBS and subscription television could also be considered.

"I believe we also need to consider the potential value of ramping up production to produce more stories on lower budgets, using the same funding pool and mechanisms,'' she said.

Increased production would mean more opportunities to tell more stories and the chance to "develop our skills as a filmmaking community''.

Thornton said while there were many who disagreed with her, Australia should probably take the hit and make more films on lower budgets to allow industry growth.

"On a historical basis, it's reasonably clear the size of the budget has not determined the likelihood of those breaking through - both on the global and international market - in terms of market success,'' she told AAP.

"My argument would be to support and underpin the growth of the industry, it would be a favourable outcome if we were to have a stronger output.''

Overseas success of local productions was an added bonus to communicate the uniqueness of Australia.

But populating the Australian landscape with imported actors or repackaged overseas content using taxpayer funding should be resisted, Thornton said.

"Actual market returns don't bear much scrutiny, but Australian taxpayers are prepared to underwrite the production of Australian stories in order to see their characters reflected on their screens.

"It would be all too easy to be distracted and flattered while a larger and stronger culture increasingly weakens a smaller and less robust one.''

G'Day USA gala to honour Aussie trio

Guy Pearce won an Emmy award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Mildred Pierce this year. Picture: Source: AP

 

 

The Herald Sun reports

EMMY Award-winning Australian actor Guy Pearce, multi-platinum soft rock duo Air Supply and basketball star Luc Longley will be honoured at the upcoming G'Day USA Los Angeles Black Tie Gala.

The Aussie trio follows in the footsteps of past G'Day USA honorees, including Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Greg Norman, Rod Laver and Cate Blanchett.

Pearce won an Emmy in September for his performance alongside Kate Winslet in the TV mini-series Mildred Pierce.

The 44-year-old from Melbourne was also part of the ensemble for the last two best picture Oscar winners, The King's Speech and The Hurt Locker.

Air Supply duo Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight top 10s in the US selling in excess of 20 million albums.

The 2.18m tall Longley is Australia's most successful basketballer. He teamed with Michael Jordan in the Chicago Bulls to win three NBA championships and has played for the Phoenix Suns, New York Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"All three honorees have demonstrated excellence in their chosen fields and embody the essence of what Australia Week was created to celebrate; a significant contribution promoting Australia in the United States," Australian Consul-General in Los Angeles Chris de Cure said.

Other past G'Day gala honorees include Eric Bana, Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, Toni Collette, Barry Gibb, Keith Urban and Olivia Newton-John.

The gala is the highlight of the annual G'Day USA festival designed to showcase Australian business, education, entertainment, innovation and tourism in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, San Diego, New York, Houston and Chicago.

Australian celebrity chef Guy Grossi will collaborate with top Hollywood chef Wolfgang Puck to supply the several hundred guests at the event, which is being held on January 14.

Fans just push me out of the way, says Hugh Jackman's wife

The Herald Sun reports

IT'S not easy being Hugh Jackman's other half.

His wife of 15 years, Deborra-Lee Furness, said she's "been almost pummeled" by crazed fans or "Hughophiles" who try to get to the 43-year-old actor.

"Literally, they will push you out of the way," Furness told the New York Post.

"Hi, I'm chopped liver. How do you do?"

The sassy blonde also brushed off critics of her marriage to the younger star currently appearing in his own one-man show, Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway in New York.

"Hugh is much more mature than me, so we balance each other out. And heaven forbid I have a human experience and carry a little weight," the 55-year-old said.

Responding to speculation about his sexuality, she said: "The line I heard was, 'Wolverine? Who would have thought?' Hugh and I don't pay much heed.

"It's kind of tragic that these people have nothing better to do than gossip about people they don't know."

Miller wants Mad Max 4 shot in Australia

Fury Road Broken Hill, one of the locations that George Miller plans to use for the latest Max Max movie. Filming has been posponed until 2012.

The Age reports

George Miller puts his right hand into a pocket in his black pin-striped suit jacket and fumbles around for a moment before eventually pulling out a shiny new iPhone.

"I just bought this and I'm still trying to work out how to use it," the Queensland-born, Sydney-based Oscar-winning director and former casualty ward doctor chuckles during an interview in a Beverly Hills hotel.

Miller, 66, manages to click on the camera option on the smartphone and flicks through the videos he has stored away until he finds the one he is searching for.

"I'll show you something. This is Broken Hill," he says, holding the iPhone up to reveal video he took of the once scorched, bone-dry, red-earthed outback outside of the mining town in far west NSW.

You can hear Miller chatting away on the video as he comments on the kilometres of lush, beautiful flowers swaying in a slight wind. It is a stunning sight and could be mistaken for one of Claude Monet's rich, vibrant garden paintings.

"It is amazing. Isn't it?" Miller says.

The desert beauty of the lush outback, however, could cost Australia tens of millions of dollars in film production and hundreds of jobs.

Miller had planned to bring South African beauty Charlize Theron and Britain's new acting prince, Tom Hardy, to Broken Hill to film the fourth chapter in his Mad Max film series, to be titled Mad Max: Fury Road, but just like the previous three Mad Max films the story is set in a desert wasteland.

Thanks to rain in the region, Broken Hill in its present state is perfect for a romantic drama, not the fourth chapter of Mad Max.

Miller confirms Mad Max: Fury Road could be shot in the south-west African nation of Namibia, although a final decision has not been made, leaving open to the possibility the production could remain in Australia.

He wants it to be in his homeland and NSW politicians are scrambling to keep it in their state.

Theron, the blonde beauty and 2004 best actress Oscar winner, would also like Mad Max: Fury Road to be filmed in Australia, despite Namibia being a short flight from her home town in South Africa.

"I would love it. I love Australia," Theron confirmed in an interview last week to promote her new drama, Young Adult, a role that will likely score her another Oscar nomination.

She also concedes the production is likely headed to Namibia.

"Yeah it looks like Namibia. That's the latest," Theron says.

Miller, a giant in Australia's film and TV industry with films Babe, The Year My Voice Broke and Dead Calm and the TV mini-series Cowra Breakout and The Dismissal among his credits, is aware Australians will be disappointed if Fury Road departs to Africa.

"Yeah, it's such a pity, but I hope everyone understands," Miller says.

A final decision will be made after he takes a breather from his latest film, Happy Feet 2, a follow-up to his Oscar-winning animated film about singing and dancing penguins in Antarctica.

"To be honest, I'm not thinking much about it (Fury Road). I have just finished Happy Feet 2," Miller says.

"The last seven months we have worked seven days a week, almost 100 hour weeks."

When it is suggested Australia has plenty of other desert locations than Broken Hill, he explains Coober Pedy in South Australia, where the third in his series, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, was filmed was hazardous for the vehicles that are such a major part of any Mad Max film.

"If it was horses you could ride them off-road, but what they call the moon plains out there had that shard stone and it would just cut up the cars so you couldn't do stunts," Millers explains.

"It wasn't safe. It is very difficult."

Kevin Spacey chooses 37m luxury superyacht Tango for Richard III season at The Star in Sydney

The Daily Telegraph reports

KEVIN Spacey has chosen to stay in a six-star luxury superyacht featuring the ultimate in maritime luxury, instead of one of the city's best hotels for his Sydney visit.

One of Hollywood's most respected actors, he flew into town on Sunday night to play his acclaimed role as Shakespeare’s Richard III at The Star casino for 12 shows from Thursday.

Instead of heading for one of the usual-celebrity-suspect digs, Spacey has chosen to float on the Harbour - and be mobile around it - instead of being confined to a hotel for his two-week stay.

Spacey took over the custom-designed 37m superyacht Tango moored in Middle Harbour on Sunday before he motored from the mooring yesterday after hosting a few guests on Sunday night.

"Tango was moored near the Spit Bridge and he looked really relaxed and enjoying himself when he got on board on Sunday afternoon," a source told us of Spacey.

And why not? The yacht has just had an overhaul and everything is new, although its testy charter company operator was in no mood to expand further yesterday. The Tango charter vessel - worth more than $5 million - is capable of navigating the world's oceans, sleeps 10, can accommodate 49 party guests and features more opulent space than some of the city's better apartments.

It includes ensuite bathrooms, a jacuzzi, a giant aft deck, saloon, dining room, watersports and fishing equipment plus a 7m tender to transport people to and from it.

Just where Spacey plans to anchor each night was unknown - the charter company refused to comment on who had hired Tango yesterday or where it was.

Australian actor Chris Hemsworth up for BAFTA Award

Australian actor Chris Hemsworth portrays the title character in a scene from the 2011 film Thor. Photo: AP/Paramount Pictures/Zade Rosenthal Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

CHRIS Hemsworth is still hammering away at Thor glory.

The Aussie actor, whose action film was a massive box office success worldwide, is up for the British Film And Television Academy's rising star award, the entertainment news website Variety reports.

Also on the longlist for the award are Tom Hiddleston, Felicity Jones, Eddie Redmayne, Adam Deacon, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris O'Dowd.

These eight will be whittled down to five on January 17. The winner, who will then be voted by the public, will be announced at the BAFTA ceremony on February 12.

In the past, the gong has gone to the contender who appears in the year's highest grossing film, thus putting Hemsworth among the favourites.

UK actors Simon Pegg and Sienna Miller were among the jury who put together the longlist.

Since taking on the title role in Thor, Hemsworth has packed on more than 9kg of muscle to become the rippled Norse god of thunder - and the new body requires constant protein to maintain it.

Hemsworth played the hammer-wielding Norse god Thor in the superhero movie from Marvel directed by Kenneth Branagh.

The prodigious son

With Mia Wasikowska in Restless.

Helen Barlow, The Age, reports

Henry Hopper is doing a convincing job of following in the footsteps of the original Easy Rider, writes Helen Barlow.

Given the string of gangsters Dennis ''the Menace'' Hopper played in his later years, it's easy to forget how handsome he was in his youth. His 21-year-old son, Henry, reminds us.

Henry Hopper is the spitting image of his old man as a youngster and, during his father's dying days, he did him proud. Hopper jnr is outstanding in Gus van Sant's new movie, Restless.

Henry is now taking up the family gauntlet, even if playing a death-obsessed teen who meets the terminally ill Mia Wasikowska at a funeral was a little close to home. Restless is dedicated to the memory of his renegade father - who died in May last year from prostate cancer.

''I have a love for art and for film though I resisted being an actor for some time,'' explains Hopper, who was one of the discoveries of this year's Cannes Film Festival.

''I'm realising now that acting is a means of self-expression and is the collaborative kind of work I want to do.''

The third of Dennis's four children (he had one with each of his four wives) and his only son, Henry grew up in Los Angeles, living between the homes of his mother, ballerina Katherine LaNasa, and his father, who also had a residence in New Mexico. Dennis made time to take his son to school whenever he could - but the pair truly bonded only when Henry expressed interest in being an artist in his teens.

Dennis was best known as the wild-man actor from Apocalypse Now and Blue Velvet and the director of Easy Rider but he was a painter with an astute eye for art. He joked that his pop-art collection of early works by Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol was worth so much more than he earned from movies.

''Well you know, art only goes up,'' his son muses. ''I always embraced and respected my father's acting but I always saw it as his job. Sometimes I saw it gave him some pain because it was work and I think I avoided it because of that.

''When I got to know him more and more he was developing more as an artist and a lot of our relationship was built really around that … it is very much about having an interconnectedness with creative people and feeling safe in that.''

Henry was living in Berlin in a kind of artists' collective when van Sant, who is renowned for working with new young actors (such as River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, Nicole Kidman, Joaquin Phoenix) heard about him.

''As a person, he seemed really right,'' van Sant says. ''As an actor he was very good. He had done a number of stage plays and had studied at the Actors Studio in Santa Monica. He was a natural.''

Two decades ago, van Sant offered his father a role in My Own Private Idaho but it was the wrong role.

''Dennis said he wanted to play one of the young guys. I had to not call him back,'' van Sant recalls. ''He was probably joking. Before he died, Dennis saw a rough cut of Restless on DVD … and he said Henry is like a younger version of himself.''

Like his dad, Henry was not always angelic, getting in trouble in his early teens as he was ''tearing around'' Venice, California, with his skateboarding friends. ''When I was 15, my parents gave me an ultimatum and I came up with acting classes as a way of staying out of trouble.''

Even so, he came to Restless with hardly any movie experience and was grateful to be acting alongside an old hand such as Wasikowska.

''I don't know what I would have done without Mia,'' he says. ''She is a very, very special person. And Gus, too; I had so much faith and trust immediately. I don't know if I could have given as much as I did because I felt very protected to be able to open up in that way.''

Henry's good friend Elena died during the first week of shooting the film in Portland and he flew back to LA for her funeral. ''The film has been very therapeutic,'' he says.

Wasikowska says she and Henry clicked: '' We have a similar dynamic. Henry is a beautiful actor, very instinctive and intuitive. It was obviously a pivotal moment in his life when he was making this movie. It was a really intense time, given the subject matter, and he did so well. His dad was a really important person to him.''

So was it intimidating having a father who was deemed one of the coolest guys on the planet? ''I love that question!'' Henry enthuses. ''Well, something that he taught me that was good advice was, 'Be cool! Be cool!' ''

Although not the big talker his father was, Henry, with his quiet intensity, is heeding his father's advice.

Curious case of Cate's falling star

Andrew Taylor, The Age, reports

TAXES, death and a star performance by Cate Blanchett are often seen as three of life's certainties.

Blanchett's latest stage role as Lotte in the Sydney Theatre Company production of Gross und Klein has won praise from theatre critics.

But recent film roles such as her murderous CIA agent, Marissa, in Hanna, which opened this year's Sydney Film Festival, have not been universally applauded.

''I must say it's the first time I've seen Cate on screen where I thought she was over the top,'' said At the Movies co-host David Stratton in a review of Hanna in July. ''It just wasn't a strong performance.''

The Sydney Morning Herald's Paul Byrnes was not impressed with either the film or Blanchett's portrayal of ''another ice-cold modern witch - the kind of cartoonish character for which she has an inexplicable fondness''.

''This one's from the American south, although Blanchett's accent wanders widely over the map.''

Hanna is one of a growing list of underwhelming Blanchett movies.

''Cate Blanchett's talent has never been in doubt but it is true that recent film roles have not had the critical acclaim of earlier ones,'' Louise Keller, deputy editor of Urban Cinefile and Sun-Herald film critic, said. ''Perhaps the fact that the highly anticipated screen chemistry between Blanchett and Russell Crowe in their first film together, Robin Hood, did not live up to the hype, may have contributed somewhat to the muted response to her performance, good box office results aside.''

Both films were made after Blanchett became the co-artistic director of the STC, with husband Andrew Upton, in 2008. Blanchett said the theatre appointment was ''not a dalliance''. But has her firm commitment to the STC come at some expense to her film career?

The Oscar winner's original three-year contract included a clause allowing her to take three months out each year to pursue other activities.

Keller said: ''Her choice of projects - and what roles are on offer - would be limited.''

Keller also points out that as the mother of three young children, Blanchett may not want to constantly uproot her family to far-flung film locations.

Running a major theatre company may not be conducive to continued celluloid success, suggests the film critic Ed Gibbs. ''Kevin Spacey is the other most obvious example,'' he says. ''His film output has suffered somewhat while running the Old Vic in London.''

Blanchett's theatre focus may be a product of the ''celluloid ceiling'' that leaves quality actresses slogging it out for slim pickings, according to Professor Deb Verhoeven, from Deakin University's School of Communication and Creative Arts.

''Theatre offers roles that may not exist in the cinema [and] the opportunity to set the agenda in a way that the corporatisation of Hollywood sometimes limits.''

Even actors as famous as Blanchett required a plan B, Verhoeven said. ''The confronting career reality in Australia for actors is that, unless you want to work some of the time in retail selling shoes, you need to develop a suite of acting skills that can carry you from film to TV and to theatre and back again.''

Blanchett will not be performing in the STC's 2012 season, a decision that could impact the company's box office. In fact, Blanchett appears to be ramping up her film career, with the two blockbusters of The Hobbit and two other films, Lawless and Knight of Cups, being made.

Verhoeven said the critical reception to Blanchett's films, as shown by Slate's Hollywood Career-o-Matic, had consistently swung between good and bad: ''According to the Career-o-Matic, she's due for a critical hit and we should expect one soon.''

Test you showbiz knowledge! The answers

1. Match the stars with their parents:

                       

1/ Naomi Watts             d/ Peter and Myfanwy (Miv)       

2/ Hugh Jackman          c/ Chris and Grace                    

3/ Nicole Kidman           b/ Anthony and Janelle

4/ Russell Crowe           a/ Alex and Jocelyn      

5/ Toni Collette              e/ Bob and Judy

2. Which was released first, The Matrix Revolutions or The Matrix Reloaded?

The Matrix Reloaded

3. Which actor played Russell Crowe’s boyfriend in The Sum of Us?

John Polson

4. What two hit movies was Bill Hunter filming at the same time that necessitated him to have different hair styles and facial hair length, and be in different parts of Australia?

Muriel’s Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

5. Which two stars were initially lined up to play the main roles in Australian movie “Kangaroo” in 1983?

Bryan Brown and Olivia Newton-John. The roles eventually went to Colin Friels and Judy Davis and the film was released in 1986.

Test your showbiz knowledge!

1. Match the stars with their parents:                       

1/ Naomi Watts             a/ Alex and Jocelyn

2/ Hugh Jackman          b/ Anthony and Janelle

3/ Nicole Kidman           c/ Chris and Grace 

4/ Russell Crowe           d/ Peter and Myfanwy (Miv)

5/ Toni Collette              e/ Bob and Judy          

2. Which was released first, The Matrix Revolutions or The Matrix Reloaded?

3. Which actor played Russell Crowe’s boyfriend in The Sum of Us?

4. What two hit movies was Bill Hunter filming at the same time that necessitated him to have different hair styles and facial hair length, and be in different parts of Australia?

5. Which two stars were initially lined up to play the main roles in Australian movie “Kangaroo” in 1983?

Bee Gee Robin Gibb on road to recovery

ABC News reports

Robin Gibb, singer and musician with legendary band the Bee Gees, says he is on the road to recovery after being treated in hospital last month, reportedly for liver cancer.

The star posted a message on his blog thanking fans for their love, kindness and support.

Last year, the 61-year-old underwent surgery for a blocked intestine, the same condition which led to the death of his twin brother Maurice in 2003.

Robin was forced to cancel several appointments last month, including one with British prime minister David Cameron, after he was hospitalised with severe stomach pains.

His spokesman said the family did not want to comment on UK media reports that he has liver cancer.

The Bee Gees scaled the heights of the pop world in the 1970s with disco hits Stayin' Alive and Night Fever, and notched up over 200 million record sales during a career which has spanned seven decades.

Charity worker is Joel Edgerton's new role

Nice one, mate ... Joel Edgerton / Pic: Damian Shaw Source: The Daily Telegraph

 

The Daily Telegraph reports

HIS star has never shone brighter in Hollywood but Joel Edgerton, star of The Great Gatsby and possible Oscar contender for Warrior, is set to turn his back on the hoopla for several weeks to volunteer for The Fred Hollows Foundation.

While collecting his GQ Man of the Year gong on Tuesday night, Edgerton told Confidential he planned to travel to India and Nepal in January to assist the non-profit organisation before returning to his "fickle life".

The Aussie actor is set to wind up the filming of Gatsby in late December.

"I'm going to India and Nepal in January and doing a bit of work with the Fred Hollows Foundation because they are a very special group of people who I have been lucky to be associated with for many, many years," he said.

"And after that I guess I'm going back to America and back to my fickle life."

It is understood Edgerton, who is an outside Best Supporting Actor chance for Warrior, will follow Gatsby with a film he wrote and for which he has secured backing.

Following that, Edgerton said he was considering two major movie roles.

If he catches the attention of Oscar voters it will be Edgerton's first nomination, although he admits he is taking a philosophical approach to awards season.

"I really hope that Warrior figures in the awards season ... certainly I think Nick Nolte deserves (a nomination) but while it was received incredibly well, it didn't set the box office on fire," he said.

"It's always flattering when anyone holds your work in high regard. I don't know whether (the Oscar buzz) is hearsay, though. You get a lot of that leading up to the Academy Awards - but when the cards actually fall it's often very different to the murmurings.

Love conquers Alex O'Loughlin's fear

Lucky in love ... Alex O'Loughlin and his girlfriend, professional surfer Malia Jones. Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

A NEAR-death experience in the water as a child has kept him high and dry, but Alex O'Loughlin's blooming romance with professional surfer Malia Jones will soon send him into the waves once more. 

The Hawaii Five-0 hottie showed off the new love of his life at Tuesday’s GQ awards, saying they are madly in love.

"I have fallen for a beautiful Hawaiian woman," he told Confidential.

"I'm a very lucky guy and very happy at the moment. She's amazing."

Glamazon Jones - once named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" - said she is on the brink of giving O'Loughlin his first surf lesson in Honolulu, where they are both based.

Jones is a divorcee. In 2007 she married fellow pro surfer Aussie Luke Stedman, with whom she has a son, two-year-old Spike.

O'Loughlin, who used to date Holly Valance, also has a son, Saxon, 15.

IN a thinly veiled speech, Rachael Taylor took aim at her abusive ex-boyfriend Matthew Newton while accepting her award for GQ Woman of the Year.

One day after Newton's teary TV tell-all - in which he admitted that he almost killed himself after assaulting his then-fiancee in Rome last year - Taylor used the GQ gongs as a platform to fire a retaliatory shot at the fallen actor.

"I am a huge supporter of good men," she said at the podium, her "Matthew" tattoo still visible on her right wrist.

"Men that know how to honour a woman and how to applaud her and celebrate her. And I think that is the very gesture that GQ magazine is doing tonight. I'm so humbled. Truly this is not lost on me at all."

Meanwhile, the Red Dog star, in a chic Dion Lee dress, inadvertently gave away some of her diet tips.

While boyfriend Josh Lawson tucked into the three-course meal, Taylor ate nothing but a bread roll all night washed down with soda water.

Who would turn down a meal prepared by Dave Evans, really?

Not Lawson, who ate his own and his girlfriend's. Yesterday the busy couple flew to Melbourne for commitments there.

ALSO from the skinny minnie department, Sharni Vinson went where no woman had gone before.

The Step Up 3D starlet poured herself into a super-tight dress by Alex Perry, who said she was the only one to ever fit into the frock.

"Apparently it's been sitting there and no one has been small enough to wear it," Vinson shrugged.

Clearly Perry - who often courts controversy due to his constant fat-bashing - has a new muse.

Australian and American screen producers join forces

Colin Delaney, Encore Magazine, reports

The producers’ guilds of Australia and the USA have entered into an affiliation agreement it was announced today.

The agreement aims to encourage members of the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) and Producers Guild of America to become involved in co-productions and discuss industry issues in their respective markets.

Geoff Brown, executive director of SPAA said: “It’s a hands across the sea alignment. We are thrilled to join forces with the 4,750 strong Producers Guild and can’t wait to see the possibilities with this affiliation.”

Brian Rosen, president of SPAA said: “It’s not an industrial pact but an agreement to co-operate, collaborate and co-contribute.”

Stu Levy, PGA International Committee Chair said: “In this increasingly global world, this affiliation will encourage Australian and American producers to work together to ideally overcome the challenges they face in the current industry environment. I am thrilled to build our relationship with SPAA.”

SPAA and the Australian screen agencies will send a delegation to Los Angeles in June 2012 to represent Australia at the Produced By conference, an educational forum that invites successful American producers from across film and television.

Running along side Produced By is the Producers Guild Producers Showcase competition, aimed to help film producers develop co-productions and projects as well as build international relationships.

Kylie really is oh so lucky

Kylie Minogue was a hit on X Factor. Source: Supplied

The Herald Sun reports

POP singer Kylie Minogue returned home to Melbourne yesterday for some family time.

Accompanied by her swoon-worthy Spanish beau Andres Velencoso, the diminutive singer was positively radiant, firmly quashing rumours of a split.

Back in Oz to be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame on Sunday, in recognition of 25 years in the industry, Minogue certainly has plenty to smile about.

The Step Back in Time singer has been in Sydney and was a highlight at the X Factor live grand finale.

Proud director counts the cost of paying tribute to a living legend

Garry Maddox, The Age, reports

FOR a director with two Oscar nominations and five AFI awards, David Bradbury has been living dangerously to showcase his latest documentary in cinemas.

He has hired cinemas for one-off screenings around the country to convince distributors there is an audience for On Borrowed Time, his feature-length documentary about veteran filmmaker Paul Cox.

As well as looking at Cox's prolific career - 22 films and 11 documentaries including Lonely Hearts, Man of Flowers and My First Wife - it focuses on his near death from liver cancer and recovery after a transplant almost two years ago.

''He's a living legend who cheated the grave which seemed almost certain it was going to swallow him up,'' Bradbury says.

But trying to find that audience is costing him dearly.

''I'm one step ahead of the bailiff,'' Bradbury admits. ''I've got to come up with six grand to pay the editor the rest of his fee for doing this long version by the end of this month.

''I've had to pay for the posters and the web design, and take the punt that I can actually make a go of it, then entice a film distributor to come on board. I'm somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000 out of pocket.''

Bradbury, 60, became one of the country's leading documentary makers when two of his films were nominated for Oscars in the '80s - Frontline, a portrait of combat cameraman Neil Davis, and Chile: Hasta Cuando?, about General Pinochet's brutal rule.

After getting to know the director, Bradbury began filming interviews when it looked like Cox was dying.

He also interviewed many of Cox's friends and collaborators, including David Wenham, Phillip Adams, Aden Young, Jacqueline McKenzie, Wendy Hughes, Chris Haywood and Bob Ellis, who is full of praise but intriguingly describes him as a ''prophet/charlatan'' who he wouldn't let near either his life savings or his daughter.

''Paul fortunately was generous enough to see it as a tongue-in-cheek comment,'' Bradbury says. ''I wanted to show Paul with those that loved him but also those that had a sense of his human foibles.''

While ABC Arts, Screen Australia and Screen NSW put up $240,000 for a 57-minute TV documentary, Bradbury believes the 86-minute version is one of his best films.

''The clips from Paul's film career are nostalgic flashbacks for the audience who liked those films in the '70s and '80s,'' he says. ''It's an attempt to see … if there's an art-house audience who are interested in looking at the themes that Paul made his films about - love and fidelity within marriage, marriage breakdowns and facing our mortality.''

Cinematographer in the frame for highest honour

Action man ... Don McAlpine at work on new film Mental.

Adam Fulton, The Age, reports

CINEMATOGRAPHERS tend to get little of the public attention given to directors and actors. And Don McAlpine doesn't mind a bit.

''The job's fantastic. You just say: 'Well this is one of the prices you have to pay,''' the veteran cinematographer says. ''And as you live in the world of the famous, you realise there's not a lot of advantage to being famous.''

McAlpine, who demonstrated in the '70s that Australians could successfully export their cinematography overseas, will today be named the recipient of the Raymond Longford Award, one of Australian film's highest accolades.

He says he is ''astounded'' to be receiving the award for outstanding contribution to Australian screen and culture from the new Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts. ''I've enjoyed what I've done - and then to receive this honour is just absolute icing on the cake,'' McAlpine says from his central coast home. ''I really am thrilled that I got it and I'm thrilled that a cinematographer got it.''

Just one other cinematographer, Russell Boyd (Crocodile Dundee), has won the award. Other recipients include Reg Grundy, Geoffrey Rush and George Miller.

McAlpine, 77, has made more than 50 films across four decades, from Don's Party and My Brilliant Career in the '70s to Breaker Morant and Predator in the '80s and, later, the likes of Patriot Games, Mrs. Doubtfire, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge! and The Chronicles of Narnia. A documentary on his work, Show Me the Magic, is in production.

He will be given the award on January 15 in Sydney. Today's announcement is the first of the inaugural AACTA Awards, which are replacing the AFI Awards.

McAlpine says his film career evolved ''organically'' and without any planning of how to break through overseas. He was a school teacher when he furthered his interest in motion picture photography, later becoming a freelance cameraman. Work with directors such as Bruce Beresford followed.

A big lift came courtesy of the ''freakish situation'' of having several Australian films released in New York within a fortnight around 1980 - The Getting of Wisdom, My Brilliant Career and Breaker Morant.

''Eventually somebody found out they were all shot by the same person. And on the basis of that, Paul Mazursky asked me to shoot Tempest … and from then on I've just managed to hang onto the big league.''

As milestones, McAlpine nominates 1978's The Getting of Wisdom, saying: ''It was the first time I had something beautiful to shoot.'' He also cites Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet - ''the production designer provided me with a brilliant tapestry to work in front of'' - and 2003's Peter Pan, ''one of my least successful movies financially [but] a wonderful experience''.

He has just finished Mental, directed by P.J. Hogan (Muriel's Wedding). ''I've always said I'll retire when no one sends me a script,'' he said.

That seems far off yet.

Blockbuster wars as 'Snow White and The Huntsman' battles 'Mirror, Mirror'

William Colvin, News.com.au, reports

MIRROR, mirror on the wall, which will be the fairest Snow White movie of... 2012?

Two movie versions of the classic fairytale are set to go head-to-head, with Snow White and The Huntsman and Mirror, Mirror vying for box office supremacy.

The trailers for both films, have hit the net and already YouTube fans are fighting over which one will reign supreme. Sharp loyalties have formed on either side, months before the films have even been released.

Snow White and The Huntsman looks like a dark and gritty interpretation with Kristen Stewart playing Snow as a brooding, armour-clad warrior-princess. Charlize Theron stars as the chillingly evil Queen, and Australian Chris Hemsworth is sure to win hearts as the rough, tough, and completely hunky Huntsman.

Over a heavy electronic score that echoes Inception, we’re shown scenes of warfare, murder, mayhem, and even one where Theron’s Queen baths in what looks like thickened cream after eating a woman’s soul.

Mirror, Mirror’s trailer, on the other hand, is a much more light-hearted and colourful affair.

The clip kicks off with a Bollywood-style dance routine to introduce an altogether spunkier Snow White as played by Lily Collins (daughter of Genesis drummer Phil Collins).

Julia Roberts’ character is less evil Queen and more insecure, wise-cracking step-mother, sparking off Nathan Lane as her pantaloon-wearing, bumbling side-kick.

Showdowns between similarly-themed Hollywood blockbusters are becoming a staple of modern cinema.

We saw it in 1998 with Deep Impact and Armageddon. Then there was Antz and A Bugs Life, and earlier this year we even had No Strings Attached facing off with Friends With Benefits.

So when they both finally hit the cinemas, it could either be an epic confrontation - "The Battle Of The Fourteen Dwarves" - or a very long snooze, with no poisoned apple required.