The
epic journey of Robyn Davidson, who walked the Australian desert with four
camels and a dog, is to be recreated in a film. Photo: Edwina Pickles
Linda Morris, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports
After 35 years and a failed attempt by actress Julia Roberts to
bring it to the big screen, the story of solo adventuress Robyn Davidson and
her nine-month trek across Australia's central desert is to be made into a
film.
The ethereal Mia Wasikowska will play the intrepid Davidson, while
Adam Driver, of the HBO series Girls,
will take on the role of Rick Smolan, the brash former National Geographic
photographer who documented Davidson's trek, in a $12 million production that
will begin filming on October 8 in South Australia and the Northern Territory.
In 1977 Davidson, with four camels and her dog, Diggity, set out
to cross Australia's heartland for no better reason than she had wanted to find
herself. She was mystified when her personal odyssey became the stuff of
international headlines. Incorrectly reported as missing, she was pursued by
paparazzi and had to shoot her beloved Diggity when the dog took poison bait.
Tracks is being produced by Emile Sherman and Iain Canning of See-Saw
Films, whose credits include The
King's Speech, Shame,
and Oranges and Sunshine.
It is being co-produced by Julie Ryan, maker of Red Dog and Ten Canoes. The film is to be directed by
John Curran, from The
Painted Veil and Praise,
who also wrote the screenplay with Marion Nelson.
Davidson's journey was one of the great Australian stories that
begged to be adapted for the big screen, Sherman says.
''Robyn, played by Mia Wasikowska, undertakes such an epic
journey, doing what I suspect many of us wish we had the courage to do: to cast
off the shackles of our lives, going as far away as possible from the noise of
civilisation, and to find out how we would manage truly alone.
''At the same time, it's her unique relationship with her camel
companions and her dog, Diggity, that gives the story such warmth and intimacy.
''And of course there is her more complicated relationship with
the charismatic National
Geographic photographer … whose ongoing intrusions she's forced to
accommodate.''
The character of Davidson first drew Roberts, then Helen Hunt to
the role. Disney bought the film rights in 1994. Tracks, Davidson's account of her solo
venture, was an international bestseller and has been re-released by Bloomsbury
for the start of the film's production.
Davidson, who is based in Melbourne and has struggled with public
representations of herself as a romantic figure of the desert, is pleased with
the casting of Wasikowska. The film will not exactly mirror her journey, but
memory is a contentious thing.
''You have all these triggers in the book that allow other people
to imagine and, indeed, allow me to imagine the trip, which is probably
different from actually how it was,'' she says. ''People will think the film
will be a representation of what happened and, of course, it's much further removeIt's
a funny, strange, slippery thing - memory - and you have to make your identity
up in the middle of it all.''
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