Red Dog star ... Rachael Taylor shines. Photo: Getty Images
Michael Idato, The Age, reports
In the corridors of power in Los Angeles they call it, jokingly, Aussiewood. But the invasion of the film and television industry's Mecca by Australian actors is a very serious business.
First there was Mel, Nicole, Russell, Hugh and Cate. Then the LaPaglia brothers, Heath Ledger, Miranda Otto, Guy Pearce and Julian McMahon. To that we add Melissa George, Eric Bana, Rachel Griffiths, Matt Passmore, Sam Worthington, Ryan Kwanten and Josh Lawson. For the 2012 television ''pilot'' season we can add almost a dozen more names, some well known, some still emerging, who form the vanguard of Australia's biggest Hollywood invasion in recent memory.
Almost 100 pilots will be filmed during the pilot season, for the US broadcast networks ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW, and leading cable channels such as FX, HBO and Showtime. Not all survive but for emerging Hollywood talent they are a toehold on the entertainment industry's main game.
Of those pilots, easily the most Australian is Americana in which Anthony LaPaglia will play a fashion industry titan and Natalie Mendoza will play a ''beautiful 30-something bitch''. To rub a little more Australian salt into the wound, Rabbit-Proof Fence director Phil Noyce will co-produce and direct the pilot.
Other pilots featuring Australians include the futuristic military thriller Last Resort, which stars Dichen Lachman, Daisy Betts and Daniel Lissing, a more traditional firehouse drama Chicago Fire with former House star Jesse Spencer and a supernatural thriller 666 Park Avenue, which will star Rachael Taylor.
There are no fewer than two iterations of the Beauty and the Beast tale in development as pilots and both feature Australians in lead roles. Chris Egan and Meegan Warner will star in a version that remains true to the Disney fairytale for the US network ABC, and Jay Ryan will star in a contemporary take on the story for the CW.
American television industry analyst Nellie Andreeva last week described casting non-American actors as leads for US television shows ''a growing trend over the past decade''. Notable examples include Welsh-born Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters) and Ioan Gruffudd (Ringer), English-born Damian Lewis (Homeland) and Hugh Laurie (House) and New Zealand-born Martin Henderson (Off the Map).
Australian casting director Faith Martin says the trend is in part due to a more ''universal'' process in American casting and producers who are more mindful that overseas program sales are a bigger part of the balance sheet.
''They are choosing people who will speak to a more universal audience,'' Martin says. ''Equally, a lot of our actors are well trained, they have a basic training that is a little more thorough.''
Martin also said US casting directors were drawn to the ''natural beauty'' of Australian actors. ''There is a naturalness here that I think they find very attractive … underneath that is solid training and the ability to do the job.''
The former Seinfeld star Jason Alexander framed it in much simpler terms on Twitter. ''Amazing preponderance of Brit and Aussie actors in US TV and films,'' he wrote. ''Conclusion: we must really suck.''
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