Robert Luketic directs Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl on the set of The Ugly Truth. Photo: Saeed Adyani
Philippa Hawker, The Age, reports
The Australian director is entertaining a host of ideas, including television projects, as he prepares to shoot a feature here.
AFTER a succession of Hollywood movies, director and Victorian College of the Arts graduate Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde, Monster-in-Law) is back in town, with plans to shoot a feature in Australia for the first time.
He has closed a deal with Eric Bana, he says, to star in Brilliant, a heist movie that is due to start production in April next year. At the moment, he's checking out locations. ''Whether it's shot in Sydney or in Melbourne remains to be seen. I know for sure a portion of it requires Melbourne, but we don't know how much time we will spend in each place.''
There are plenty of other elements not yet in place. Bana - who is in New Orleans playing Elvis - is on board, ''as the first piece of the puzzle,''Luketic says. ''I have this wild dream that I will get Geoffrey Rush to play the co-lead, and I have my eye on Rose Byrne and Mila Kunis, but it's early days, none of that's confirmed.''
Bana's character ''steals priceless objects for the sport of it''. His associate is a streetwise young woman who is a small-time pickpocket. There's a massive diamond heist, Luketic says, and a set-up with some unexpected twists.
''There's a wonderful thing that happens - it's very refreshing, it's not what you think it is, and it's one of the reasons I wanted to do the movie.''
One of his inspirations is Norman Jewison's visually inventive 1968 caper movie, The Thomas Crown Affair. But for the music, he wants a contemporary feel. He is on the lookout for ''an interesting DJ or someone who works in electronic music to make a piece for us''. He is also keen to talk to the English outfit the xx, and plans to ''jump on a plane and hunt them down''.
But Brilliant isn't the only thing on his mind. He has turned to television for the first time, with three projects in development: a legal procedural show that he is working on with the CW network in the United States; ''a darker, more cable-style story of a woman with three kids who runs an upmarket escort ring; and a third series, the tale of a dynastic American family and an unexpected inheritance.
He is executive producer, and would shoot the pilot. A lot of feature directors are interested in working on TV now, he says, because cable will take risks that studios aren't prepared to consider.
There are also ''a lot of other movies competing for my time'', he says, including a film to be shot in China, and another in New York. ''You have to entertain a few things at once … one may not happen and another may be postponed.'' In fact, he says, as we have been speaking, he has had three emails updating him on various projects.
He is discussing an all-Australian project with Sydney animation and special effects outfit Animal Logic (Happy Feet). ''We're very guarded in the world of animation,'' he says, adding he can't go into detail but it's ''uniquely Australian, it's set in Queensland, and it's very cool''.
He is also planning to find time for his role as mentor for the film and video component of the Qantas Spirit of Young Australia awards. Entrants can be filmmakers aged between 18 and 30, and entries close on March 30 next year.
Luketic, who recently got his pilot's licence - ''I have a share in a jet and I fly myself around'' - will make himself available, for a year, for the winner. He is keen to share his experiences, to show that it's not just about ''getting your foot in the door, but about how to be a survivor and have a career, regardless of which part of the business you work in''.
He is particularly struck, he says, by the way the film world seems to be polarised, more than ever, between ''your $100-million-plus big studio movies and ultra-ultra-low-budget films - we don't even say 'low budget' any more. But in between, it's dwindling. It's either rich or poor. It's an interesting time, globally.''
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