Sydney on Screen on a break

Hi everyone,

Sydney on Screen will be on a break for a couple of weeks from Friday 24 August onwards.

We look forward to seeing you again in September and to celebrating our 1^st-year anniversary with you.

Thanks again for your support!

Cheers,

Luke & Michael



Solo sailor Jessica Watson's story to be made into major movie

Jessica Watson's round-the world solo sailing adventure is to be made into a feature film. Picture: Russell Shakespeare Source: The Daily Telegraph

James Wigney, News Limited Network, reports

The life of round-the-world sailor Jessica Watson is to be turned into a major movie that will be filmed in Sydney and the Gold Coast next year.

Watson, who was 16 when she became the youngest woman to unofficially circumnavigate the globe solo and unassisted, will be immortalised on film in True Spirit, due for release late 2013. The movie will be made by the same production team behind Soul Surfer, the hit biopic of Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm in a shark attack and returned to be a champion.

American producer David Brookwell said he had been looking out for another “inspirational family film” to make and had followed Watson’s dangerous journey with interest from afar. He said the net would be cast far and wide to find a young Australian to play Watson, with the role most likely to go to an unknown actor.

“There are not a whole lot of big movie stars that could play her, so there is an opportunity to find somebody new,” Brookwell said.

“We might find the next Sandra Bullock at the age of 14. But we are looking for an Australian girl.”

Watson, 19, said the prospect of someone else playing her was “a very strange idea” and says she was uncertain as to whether she wanted to be involved when first approached. But she said she had been inspired by their earlier film on Hamilton and agreed to come on board as a consultant.

“It’s quite surreal but I’m really looking forward to doing my part to make it as accurate as possible,” Watson said at the Australian International Movie Convention on the Gold Coast today.

“I want to share it all with whoever they choose because that will help get the story across. It’s not stuff that you openly talk about all the time. It’s been a couple of years so I have closed a lot of those emotions up and I am looking forward to opening them again.”

Watson, who sailed through freezing waters and raging storms on her 210-day odyssey, admitted the movie would bring back both good and bad memories as well as bringing to light as-yet untold elements of the journey.

“It’s going to be looking at it in quite a different way as well,” she said.

“All those memories are part of it but there are so many more stories and so much more emotion in a story that everyone thinks they know.”

Brookwell said the movie would focus on the inspirational aspects of the voyage and was a chance to redress some of the controversy surrounding the trip. At the time Watson came in for criticism for being too young and inexperienced for such a monumental undertaking and her parents blasted for allowing her to make the trip.

“It’s really important to understand the preparation of her voyage because there was so much on the negative side and I don’t think the critics fully understood what she did and the fact that Jessica really drove this project – it was hers,” says Brookwell.

“Her parents were not living vicariously through her. The clear message here is that if you have a dream and work hard at it, you can make that happen.”

Farrell recalls life chapters

Colin Farrell says he has gone through many different chapters in his life since his acting career began 18 years ago. Picture: Supplied Source: National Features

Neala Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Half a lifetime ago, an Irish kid by the name of Colin Farrell landed in Sydney.

With his two friends, Farrell checked into the Oxford Koala Hotel in Oxford St. Their room had only two beds.

"The two lads took a bed each, they were knackered from the flight," recalls Farrell. "But I was in the mood to walk around the streets of Sydney."

Only two weeks shy of his 18th birthday, Farrell plugged in his Discman - "Remember Discmans?" he laughs - and hit the footpath. There he came across Liz Mullinar Casting. He went inside ...

"I had no work to show, I was just like, 'Yeah, I've been an actor in Ireland ... ' I lied," Farrell admits.

"They introduced me to this gang of people that needed somebody - an actor in the play they were about to do had just got a Pepsi commercial so they lost him," he laughs.

"Because it was about Ned Kelly and the bushrangers they were looking for a dialect coach to help with Irish accents as well. That's why I got the part, more than any acting acumen. We performed that in the Performance Space in Redfern, for a week. That was my first experience of working with a bunch of actors."

As with many a backpacker, Farrell wasn't sure whether his trip was to find his path in life or to just, you know, get drunk.

"One finds one in the other then one forgets what one found and has to go, 'Where the f--- did I put myself?'," he mock-philosophises.

"No, we went over just out of adventure, the three of us. It was really cool. I haven't been back since and that was, man, that was 18 years ago. I can't believe it was that long ago ... "

Eighteen years later, Farrell may not have returned to Australia, but he has seemingly managed to cram several different lives into his 36 years.

"We probably all have," he says. "The chapters of my life maybe just by being in the public forum seem a little more, not extravagant, but a bit more in-your-face. But just chapters of a life, like we all have."

Farrell's acting chapter began in earnest when he returned to Dublin and enrolled in a course at a theatre school.

After one year, auditions led to a TV commercial then "a small part in a feature film that cost about a nickel to make".

That got him an agent and an audition for a BBC mini-series, Falling for a Dancer. Then came a play in London that was seen by Kevin Spacey, who hooked Farrell up with a Hollywood agent.

"And the rest ... " says Farrell, letting it hang in the air.

'The rest' includes Tigerland, the war film that made him hot property in 2000. Then Phone Booth, SWAT, The Recruit, Minority Report ...

He mixed the big roles with indies, as well as enough partying (read boozing, drug-taking, womanising) to make a rock star feel incompetent. In 2005, he checked himself into rehab.

The next chapter: flops. Think terrible blonde hair and Angelina Jolie in Alexander.

He wouldn't really emerge from this chapter until 2008's instant cult classic In Bruges - a black comedy about a hitman on the edge in the Belgian city.

So now here sits Farrell in another chapter: a clean-living, yoga-doing father-of-two, diving back into blockbusters with Total Recall, a new spin on the Arnold Schwarzenegger original of 22 years ago (funnily enough, much of the film is set in a future Australia, known as "The Colony"). Why now?

"I didn't have many offers, to be honest, for big projects after a couple of big projects I did didn't work so well," Farrell shrugs. "It's not like people were knocking on my door after Alexander and Miami Vice throwing money.

"To be honest I was nervous about doing a $150 million, or whatever it is, film. 'What does it have to do on opening weekend? Orgh! F---!' But anyway, it felt like the right idea."

Farrell lives in LA, where he can see his two sons, nine-year-old James (with model Kim Bordenave) and going-on-three Henry (with Ondine co-star Alicja Bachleda-Curus).

He started going to yoga classes a year ago: "Maybe you're at home one day, your kids are with their mothers and you go, 'What'll I do today? Ah, yoga!' You get online and you go, '2.45pm. Yoga. OK!'

"I did it with a class of 40 people in Los Angeles, everyone sweating, and I loved it."

It's this kind of stuff that makes him less and less worried that the wheel of exhaustion (with the business, with life) will spin his way again.

"It'd probably help if I stay away from cocaine and whiskey," he says dryly. "I'm not going to say I'm a different man or anything like that, I just do different things. I enjoy the work more; I enjoy being a dad more; I do things I never thought I'd do, like yoga."

And remakes - he has now made two back-to-back: vampire thriller Fright Night and Total Recall.

His reasoning: "Jeff Buckley sings Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen ... There has to be room in art for interpretation."

Besides, he loved the original Total Recall, in which Arnie went to Mars on a "virtual vacation" then regained his secret-agent memory. "It's so out there!" Farrell enthuses.

This remake, from director Len Wiseman, went back to the source material of Philip K. Dick's story and is more serious in tone. Still, it retains the wife who turns out to be not-so-devoted (Kate Beckinsale) and the woman he can't remember loving (Jessica Biel).

And plenty of biffo, especially with Beckinsale.

"I just realised, I have decked women in about nine films," Farrell says. "Pride and Glory, Daredevil, London Boulevard, Intermission, Total Recall ... the list goes on. "I don't know what the hell it is. I mean, it's the furthest thing from anything I am. But I've literally ... " he slams his fist into his palm.

"But Kate and Jessica are both fiercely strong women - I was more worried for my own f---in' safety half the time."

Farrell will next be seen in November in Seven Psychopaths, Martin McDonagh's reportedly similiarly violent and funny follow-up to In Bruges.

"I was there," he says, "but I have no idea what the film's gonna be."

However it turns out, and whatever chapter Farrell enters next, there are no regrets.

"Because it has us here today and I'm fine with it all. There's a lesson in everything," he says.

Oh, except for that one time as a teenager he modelled underwear on Irish television.

"And I'm not talking boxer shorts. A f---ing thong."

Cue YouTube meltdown.

"No," he wails, "it's not on there. Thank God. They know about it, I just don't think they can find it. If someone finds it, please blackmail me, I'll give you whatever you want."

Sing-off show fights to survive

Logie winner Hugh Sheridan. Picture: 10 Channel Source: Supplied

Amy Harris and Joel Christie, The Daily Telegraph, report

Channel 10's under-performing, cross-dressing sing-off I Will Survive is set to live up to its name with the network vowing to stick by the show despite its poor debut this week.

A network spokesman yesterday pointed to positives surrounding the Hugh Sheridan star vehicle, saying that, despite its overall ratings average of just 510,000, the audience increased as the show went on. Starting out with an audience of 423,000, I Will Survive ended its 70-minute broadcast with just under 700,000 viewers - presumably as a result of a significant buzz across social networks.

Ten was also quick to point out the fact the show was among the top trending topics on Twitter - both here and overseas.

"We are definitely sticking by the show and take a lot of positives out of its debut," a Ten spokesman said.

However there is no denying the show, which had been pegged as one the last great ratings hopes for 2012, was a major disappointment for the network which had ploughed a significant amount of time and money into luring three-time silver Logie winner Sheridan over from Seven to host.

Costly, too, was securing the high-profile celebrity cameos on the series - they include Rachael Taylor, Toni Collette Asher Keddie and Magda Szubanski.

It was an investment that failed to translate for Ten on Tuesday night, with Seven's X Factor blitzing the timeslot with its 1.5 million average.

However, Ten were not alone in their misery, with Nine's much-hyped Charlie Sheen comeback show Anger Management pulling in just 643,000 viewers on Tuesday night.

This was significantly down from its debut figure of 1.1 million last week.

Hoff's heading our way, again

David Hasselhoff poses as he arrives at the premiere of his latest film "Keith Lemon: The Film" at London's Leicester Square on August 20, 2012. AFP PHOTO Source: AFP

Amy Harris and Joel Christie, The Daily Telegraph, report 

Mark your calendars. His last attempt at an Aussie tour may have ended in cancellations (due to poor ticket sales) but The Hoff is clearly adamant he has pulling power.  

Celebrity Apprentice drop-out David Hasselhoff is keen to restore his popularity with a series of singing gigs around the nation in 2013 and has pegged February 15 for a Sydney show. 

It's understood Hasselhoff will perform at The Hi-Fi (sales permitting) and on Valentine's Day in Melbourne.

Nicole's Festival honour

 
Nicole Kidman will be honoured in New York. Picture: AP Source: AP

 

Amy Harris and Joel Christie, The Daily Telegraph, report

Nicole Kidman is to be granted one of the great honours in the film industry: she will be feted at a New York Film Festival gala next month.

The Film Society of Lincoln Centre said yesterday that Kidman will be celebrated at the 50th annual New York Film Festival.

The festival will honour its longtime director Richard Pena in a second gala.

Kidman's latest flick, the indie offering The Paperboy, has been added to the festival's slate.

It's directed by Lee Daniels and stars Kidman, Zac Efron, John Cusack and Matthew McConaughey.

The gala for Kidman will take place on October 3, with the Pena event on October 10. The festival runs from September 28 until October 14.

Meanwhile, the 45-year-old yesterday spoke about her heartache over the death of director Tony Scott, who cast her in what was undoubtedly her breakout role, as neurosurgeon Claire Lewicki in Days of Thunder back in 1990.

It was on that set that Kidman hooked up with her first husband, the recently divorced Tom Cruise.

"I'm so so sad. I loved Tony and he was always so good to me. He will be deeply missed by so many of us that knew him," she said in a statement yesterday.

Scott, brother of filmmaker Ridley Scott, jumped to his death from a bridge in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Pledge on film sequel

Cast members Deniz Akdeniz and Caitlin Stasey from the first movie. Source: Supplied

Amy Harris and Joel Christie, The Daily Telegraph, report

New life has been breathed into the sequel to the surprisingly successful Aussie blockbuster Tomorrow When The War Began with producers promising cameras will roll early next year.

Considered dead in the water 12 months ago, Tomorrow When The War Began 2 - based on a series of books by John Marsden - is still searching for a director after the original auteur Stuart Beattie dropped out.

But executive producer Matthew Street said a "great screenplay" exists and that production would eventually begin.

"(The sequel) is certainly not dead," Street said yesterday.

He said Aussie actor Kieran Darcy-Smith had written a "great screenplay" based on Marsden's original book series. The news has come as a surprise to the cast however, with starlet Phoebe Tonkin saying she had not heard about plans for the project.

"I would have loved to have done a sequel but I don't think it's going to happen," she said.

"A bit of time has passed now.

"I don't think there will be one, or at least not with the original cast - which probably is a shame.

"But that could always change, you never know."

Her doubts echoed sentiments shared earlier by co-star Caitlin Stasey, who said she feared the original cast of the movie would be too old to play the teenage characters in the original by the time a sequel came about.

Stories from a dumbed-down land

Colourful character ... Toni Collette in Mental.

David Dale, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports

Producers of local films seem to be settling on a theme for success: our stupidity.

If you arrive at the advertised starting time for a movie in your local multiplex this weekend, you're likely to have an experience that will make you feel embarrassed to be Australian. I'm not talking about The Sapphires, an Oz flick that's a bit clunky and a bit corny but great fun. (Indeed, the audience at my session last Sunday burst into applause at the end, and 200,000 other Australians agreed with them during the week.)

The experience that will embarrass you will be two trailers you'll glimpse among the forest of commercials before your chosen film. They will make you wonder if the latest answer to the age-old question ''How do we get Australians to see their own stories?'' is: ''Make the movies as stupid as the audience.''

You'll recall that in the early noughties this country generated a number of taxpayer-subsidised films about cancer, suicide, drug addiction and the mistreatment of Aboriginal people. They were critically acclaimed and won awards but rarely sold enough tickets to cover their budgets.

When asked why they didn't like locally made movies, Australians tended to reply: ''Because they are depressing and wanky.''

So, in the past five years, the more commercially minded producers tried other pathways to our hearts and wallets. They played the patriotism card - because, after all, Aussies loved Gallipoli and Phar Lap - but found that the most successful attempts, Beneath Hill 60 and The Cup, made less than $4 million at the local box office.

They tried romantic comedies - because, after all, Aussies loved Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge - but I Love You Too made only $2.4 million, despite the work of the charismatic Peter Dinklage, and Any Questions for Ben? (from the creators of The Dish) made an embarrassing $1.5 million. The film's star, Josh Lawson, went on to be a deep south dilettante in the Will Ferrell comedy The Campaign, suggesting once again that Australian actors do best when they don't play Australians.

The producers tried gritty crime drama - because, after all, we loved three Mad Max films - but the Oscar-nominated Animal Kingdom barely cracked $5 million and Snowtown managed just $1.1 million. They even tried vampires, at the peak of Twilight frenzy, only to find Daybreakers made much more in the US than the $2.4 million it scored in its homeland.

Their biggest successes came from grand spectacle (Australia made $37.5 million), sci-fi (Tomorrow, When the War Began made $13.5 million) and pretending not to be Australian (Mao's Last Dancer made $15.4 million, with Balmain substituting for Houston, Texas).

But the budgets required to try again in those genres are not sustainable in our small market. So, apparently, the producers have arrived at their last resort: complete stupidity.

This year's first manifestation of this desperate logic was A Few Best Men, in which Priscilla director Stephan Elliott persuaded Olivia Newton-John to go way over the top. It made $5.2 million in February this year.

The next two manifestations are now previewing in the multiplexes: Housos vs Authority, written and directed by Paul Fenech, and Mental, written and directed by P.J. Hogan, who gave us Muriel's Wedding.

Fenech is a niche-marketer. His TV shows (Pizza,Swift and Shift Couriers and Housos) are perfectly pitched at partially deaf 13-year-old boys with IQs below 85. His first film, Fat Pizza, made $3.5 million in 2003, which was more than most of the art-house flicks could generate at the time. His financial backers have judged that the time must be ripe for another loud look at suburban stereotypes.

The second trailer presents Toni Collette as a colourful character named Sharon Thornbender, hired to babysit the hysterical offspring of a character named Barry Moochmore. It's good to see the versatile Collette back on home turf, but the trailer suggests the only accent she cannot do convincingly is broad Australian.

Of course, you shouldn't judge a flick by its trailer. We'll wait until we've seen the entire movie before we decide if Hogan thinks Australians want subtle and sophisticated or slapstick and sentimental.

Kerry Packer knocks ‘em for six

Cast members at a preview screening of Howzat! Kerry Packer's War from left, Adam Zwar (Peter McFarline), Lachy Hulme (Kerry Packer), Damon Gameau (Greg Chappell) and Ryan O'Kane (Jeff Thomson) Picture: Derrick Den Hollander Source: HWT Image Library

The Herald Sun reports

In cricketing parlance, part one of Howzat! Kerry Packer's War belted them over the fence and is sitting on a tidy century, not out.

In TV ratings terms, the Channel 9 TV drama hit 'em for six, trending worldwide on Twitter and pulling a five-city metro audience of 2.097 million when it made its debut on Sunday night.

Lead actor Lachy Hulme was singled out for the most plaudits, stunning audiences with his physical transformation as the complex media mogul.

The cast, which included Brendan Cowell, Matt Le Nevez, Abe Forsythe and Clayton Watson, embraced the mo-tastic 1970s and convinced as the rebel guards behind Packer's revolution of the sport.

Tapping into the audience's love of nostalgia, the Howzat! soundtrack yesterday broke into the iTunes top 10 album sales chart -- less than 24 hours after its release.

Cricket fans took to Twitter to praise the show.

"Every cricketer today should be so thankful for what Kerry Packer and the players did in the 70's . . . especially Ian Chappell and Richie (Benaud). PS don't forget what John Cornell and Austin Robertson did too . . . All I can say is thank you to everyone concerned for what you did. In finishing, thank you Kerry we all miss you very much," spin king Shane Warne tweeted.

On a comic note, impersonator Billy Birmingham tweeted: "I'm f---ing lovin this. Kerry f---in Packer is f---in great. F---in Richie is not f---in bad in the f---in looks dept. but the f---in voice?"

Part two of Howzat! Kerry Packer's War airs on Nine on Sunday.

Hard act to follow as Hugh returns Jackman to school

Wolverine star Hugh Jackman shares the love with Sydney's Knox Grammar Year 12 drama students and head of drama Michael Griffiths. Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

What do you do when you're a super-famous movie star with a few hours to kill?

If you're Hugh Jackman you visit your old high school and give the next generation of thespians a pre-HSC pep talk.

The Wolverine's headliner, resplendent in full Marvel mutton-chops, made his way to his high school stomping ground at Knox Grammar over the weekend to help motivate the current batch of senior drama students who began their final exams yesterday.

It's understood the class of 2012 put on an impromptu performance for the Aussie superstar and we're told the action hero was "suitably impressed".

"The feedback we received from Hugh was really positive," said a rep for the super-exclusive boys school.

"He watched the performance, which the class composed themselves, and then offered them some advice in the lead-up to their exams."

Confidential hears Jackman, who was the Knox captain back in 1986, also took a wander through the John Williams Hall, the venue where he played the lead role of Henry Higgins in the 1985 Knox production of My Fair Lady.

"He showed great interest in our current dance and drama programs and also the sports that we now have available," said Knox principal John Weeks.

"He also very generously donated his old Knox blazer to the school, which will be housed in our archives."

And spies say Jackman was not alone in his trip down memory lane, with the actor's visit filmed on Saturday by a visiting US TV camera crew.

Bana returns to life of crime in Deadfall

Will Deadfall be the scariest performance of Eric Bana's career? Picture: Magnolia Pictures Source: Supplied

William Colvin, News.com.au, reports

He’s played everything from Delta Force operatives to big green monsters, but it looks like Australian actor Eric Bana is returning to the kind of role that put him on the map: the hardened criminal.

Most famous for his gritty portrayal of infamous Aussie crim Mark 'Chopper' Reed, the first trailer for Bana’s new film Deadfall has just hit the web, in which he plays a psychotic criminal on the run after a robbery gone wrong.

The film’s subject matter and star studded cast, which includes Olivia Wilde and Kris Kristofferson, could make it a must-see, despite the mixed reviews it received at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.

The trailer gives us a hint at what to expect with plenty of murder, car-crashes and calm yet highly sinister hyperbole from Bana’s character. At the very least it can’t be worse than the 1993 film of the same name, in which Nicholas Cage gave what was widely believed to be the worst performance of his career.

LaPaglia dumps Tarantino for Assange

Anthony LaPaglia has pulled out of Quentin Tarantino's new film after it conflicted with shooting for the Julian Assange biopic Underground. Source: AdelaideNow

Neala Johnson, News Limited Network, reports

Aussie actor Anthony LaPaglia has dumped heavyweight director Quentin Tarantino for an Australian TV movie.

LA-based LaPaglia, home to launch his new Australian film Mental, was to play a small part in Tarantino's upcoming film Django Unchained, which stars Jamie Foxx as a freed slave-turned-bounty hunter.

But when his one day of shooting with Tarantino was continually pushed back, threatening his commitment to local production Underground, about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, LaPaglia faced a "tough decision''.

"For me to pull out of Underground would have hurt it,'' LaPaglia said in Melbourne yesterday. "They'd raised the money partially on me and Rachel Griffiths (being involved). They were about to start shooting and it would have created mayhem and may have shut the film down.

"The people at Django, their attitude more or less was, 'Just dump the other film', but I couldn't do it out of respect to (director) Rob Connolly, out of respect to the material, out of respect to the commitment I'd made.''

Following speculation in Hollywood that Tarantino may not complete Django Unchained in time for its Christmas Day release in the US, LaPaglia, 53, wondered if he could have had the best of both worlds.

"The (Django) production was just out of control, over-budget it was everywhere. I had to formally withdraw. They recast it and they still haven't shot anything. I could have said nothing and just hung out I could be there shooting it now.''

A producer on Django posted online that the film finished shooting on July 26.

"I'm just happy I got it,'' said LaPaglia, who had rehearsed his part with Tarantino and Foxx. "I had as much fun being a part of the film, probably more fun, than even shooting it. Quentin is brilliant and I love him. That's just the way it goes.''

Underground will screen on Channel 10 later this year. Django is scheduled to open in Australia on January 24.

Fangs for role but don't typecast me

Phoebe Tonkin. Picture: Supplied by Warner Bros. Source: Supplied

Elle Halliwell, The Sunday Telegraph, reports

She’s played a mermaid, a witch and now she has landed a role to really get her teeth into - a blood-thirsty vampire.

But Phoebe Tonkin hopes this latest supernatural role is her last. "I think I'm getting typecast a little bit, in the mythological world," she said. "I'm probably going to be a fairy next."

Fangs and scaly tails aside, the 23-year-old Australian actor has become hot property in Hollywood, landing a role on the fourth season of hit teen Fox8 series The Vampire Diaries following a stint playing a teen witch in supernatural drama The Secret Circle.

"They're really fun shows," she said.

"You get to play these ordinary characters put into these extraordinary situations, and The Secret Circle and The Vampire Diaries - they're about high school kids thrown into this unique crazy mythological world."

Tonkin, whose role in local drama Tomorrow When The World Began landed her an IFA nomination, said it was unlikely the sequels to the teen book adaptation would go ahead.

"A lot of time has passed and I don't think we all really look 16 anymore," said Sydney-born Tonkin.

But a part in another Australian feature film is on Tonkin's wish list.

"There are a lot of good opportunities back home and I don't need any persuading to come back and see my family and do something back there," she said.

Poachers pursue Keith Urban

Reports suggest Keith Urban is being wooed by American Idol. Source: Supplied

The Daily Telegraph reports

Could The Voice be about to lose one of their favourite judges? Reports out of the US at the weekend suggest the hit Channel 9 show could be set for a panel reshuffle, with Keith Urban being wooed to join the cast of American Idol.

The country music superstar - who recently plonked down a bundle on a second apartment in Milson's Point with wife Nicole Kidman - is thought to be at the top of the NBC wish list following the departure of Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler.

Idol producers recently signed Mariah Carey as the new "head" judge and the diva is rumoured to have "first approval" over the choice of her new co-stars.

TV sources say Urban is a prime candidate following his success on The Voice.

Joe Jonas is also being looked at to fill a "pop star" role and a Latino performer is also being sought after.

Country favourite Reba McEntire was originally offered the job but turned it down. Channel 9 are currently re-negotiating with Urban, Seal, Joel Madden and Delta Goodrem for a second season of the sing-off show.

There was no confirmation yesterday on what stage the negotiations are at.

Baz Luhrmann needs more bucks to finish The Great Gatsby

Baz Luhrmann (with hat) on the set of The Great Gatsby during filming at an abandoned Rozelle Power Station in Sydney. Picture: Brad Hunter Source: The Daily Telegraph

Annette Sharp, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Baz Luhrmann is rumoured to be embarking on a private capital-raising venture in the hope of finding a shortfall in cash for The Great Gatsby.

A source this week claimed Luhrmann's studio, Warner Bros, has declined the director's request for more money for the already overdue and over-budget project.

Warner has invested $127 million but, true to form, Luhrmann needs more to finish his masterpiece.

Yesterday neither Luhrmann's rep nor his production company Bazmark were responding to Confidential's calls on the subject.

With the film's release date already pushed back six months, Luhrmann has bought himself some time to chase prospective investors - not that it's such a terrific time to be going cap in hand to the market.

Luhrmann is said to have already recalled members of the cast for reshoots, Tobey Maguire among them, with a planned return to Australia imminent.

Studio execs have said Luhrmann continues to "fine-tune the music and visual effects" but insiders claim the studio has written the film off as an award winner and are now just hoping to capitalise on big summer audiences.

Cruise Jr in for a spin

Connor Cruise deejaying in Los Angeles. Picture: JMo Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

Connor Cruise, the adopted son of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, is set to return to Australia to perform a string of DJ gigs.

The 17-year-old mix-master (pictured) is slated for a handful of DJ appearances, including a possible slot at the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival, with muso Grant Smillie expected to bring him Down Under via his PR group 360 Agency.

It's yet to be determined if Cruise will make any Sydney club appearances and if his under-age status will be a factor.

Picture of the month: August

The Imperial Hotel, Erskineville – The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

From drags to riches

I Will Survive judges (from left) Jason Donovan, Toni Collette and Stephan Elliott, and host Hugh Sheridan.

Hopefuls follow the trail blazed by the Priscilla bus reports The Sydney Morning Herald’s Michael Idato.

In 1994, director Stephan Elliott breathed life into a small Australian film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. It would become a cultural touchstone, blending Australia's cosmopolitan gay capital with its mystical, ancient heart.

Its plot - three city-bred drag queens embark on a coming of (middle) age journey from Sydney to Alice Springs in a bus nicknamed Priscilla - resonated powerfully. It was adapted as a stage musical in 2006 and has conquered Broadway and London's West End.

Eighteen years later, it has been turned into a television talent quest, in which host Hugh Sheridan and two judges - Elliott and actor Jason Donovan, who starred in the musical in London - search for the perfect musical theatre ''triple threat'': a singer-dancer-actor.

Elliott describes Priscilla as ''the old bus and chain'', touching gently on the unbreakable connection he has to it. He has affection in his voice, but when he talks about the ups and downs of the 18 intervening years, it is clear that connection has not always been easy to live with.

''When we were making it, I thought it was never going to work,'' he says. ''I thought none of us would ever work again and that level of freedom, which I have never had since, somehow made its way onto the film.

''When it erupted, did I see it coming? No, I didn't. Did I get rich out of it? No, I didn't. There was a bitterness that came with it after that, which was realising how many people got rich off it and I was still basically struggling just to pay rent.

''That took about a decade to get a handle on and there was a period there where I was ready to murder anyone who said 'Priscilla'.''

A television series had been suggested by the film's production studio, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. Elliott wrote six or seven hours of it, but it did not eventuate.

Adapting Priscilla as a talent show, in the style of British programs that have searched for leads for musicals such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (in the show Any Dream Will Do) and The Sound of Music (How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?), was raised many times. When the discussion was opened again this year, Elliott says, ''the time felt right''.

''The one thing I remembered, which I was reminded of when I went to the premiere of the [stage] show in Sydney, is what joy it brings people.

''That crowd went bananas. They were just so happy. And that's what it was like doing the film. It was a really fun experience. I felt that if we could encapsulate the same sense of freedom in the TV series, it would work.''

Elliott is front and centre with I Will Survive, he says, to protect the integrity of his original work. ''I don't want to be an actor, and I don't want to be in front of the camera. I'm happier behind a camera, but the only way to do it is to be a judge,'' he says. ''That puts me right in the front line to protect the integrity.''

The shoot - an actual road trip from Sydney to Alice Springs, retracing the film journey, with some side treks built in - has been ''complete chaos'', Elliott says.

''We have 10 cameras running in all different directions, stuff going wrong, but it is very funny.

''Some days we can't get off the ground from laughing so hard. Everybody gets the joke and that's what the brand brings with it.''

The series begins with auditions, takes its top-12 performers on the road trip and, returning to Sydney, takes its finalists to the US, finally arriving on Broadway. Though the Priscilla musical has closed on Broadway, the prize includes $250,000 cash and US representation.

Sheridan signed on after parting ways with Channel Seven's top-rating drama Packed to the Rafters. Though known mostly as an actor, he is a legitimate ''triple threat''; that is, an actor-dancer-singer, though he concedes it is something he hasn't always felt comfortable with. ''Once people are established in musical theatre, it's hard for people to take them seriously as an actor,'' Sheridan says. ''I'm lucky because Rafters allowed people to see me as an actor.''

What I Will Survive is setting out to do, he says, is explain how ''these days it is important to be able to do everything regardless; each discipline as good as the next''.

Sheridan says he was struck most by the transformational aspect of the road trip. ''Most shows use the word 'journey'; we use it, but we can because we're on an actual journey.

''The scenery is breathtaking, the locations are extraordinary … The stage show is not real, the movie is not real; this is real.''

The advantage of filming in Alice Springs and not in a television studio? ''You can't measure it,'' Sheridan says.

Most importantly, Elliott adds, I Will Survive does not stray far from the simple message in the original Priscilla film.

''Priscilla has a simple message of tolerance,'' he says. ''That's the heart of drag: an average kid, who isn't good-looking, who isn't famous, but for one fabulous night they can become this fabulous creation and be the centre of attention.

''The Rocky Horror Show was the same, about the misfits and the losers. And Glee has turned it into an industry. There are a lot of people out there who don't get a shot. And that is the real heart of Priscilla.''

I Will Survive airs on Wednesday on Channel Ten at 7pm.