David
Wenham (right) will play journalist CEW Bean.
Garry Maddox, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports
A roll call of Australia's leading actors is falling in line for a
new film on the well-known story about Simpson and his donkey to coincide with
the centenary of the Gallipoli landing.
The producer, Danny Mackay, is hoping to shoot the $14.5 million
film early next year with a cast that includes David Wenham, Bryan Brown, Sam
Neill and Don Hany.
Yet to be cast is an actor to play the young stretcher bearer who
has become famous for bravely ferrying wounded soldiers by donkey in one of the
enduring stories from the Gallipoli campaign that has taken on mythological status.
In the three weeks before he was killed by enemy fire, John
Simpson Kirkpatrick courageously brought many injured soldiers from the
frontline to the beach for evacuation.
Mackay said the filmmakers were establishing ''a solid ensemble''
of actors while finalising the last $5 million of fund-raising.
Simpson is to be directed by Peter Andrikidis, best known for The Wog Boy sequel, The Kings of Mykonos, and
the TV dramas Underbelly
and Bikie Wars,
with a script by Sam Meikle, who has written for Home and Away, Neighbours and Wild Boys.
''It seems to be the story that symbolises the invasion,'' said
Mackay. ''If Simpson had been an American, you would have had six versions by
now … We just haven't had the chance to do it yet.''
Wenham will play the journalist C. E. W. Bean, with Bryan Brown as
Major-General William Bridges, who commanded the 1st Australian Division at
Gallipoli, Sam Neill as the field hospital's Captain Buchanan and Hany as the
Turkish commander Ataturk.
While Mackay concedes there are gaps in what is known about
Simpson's life, the script has drawn on research from the many books on the
Gallipoli landing and the army's history unit.
Two TV projects are also planned for the conflict's centenary in
2015 - a Gallipoli mini-series for Nine and a Foxtel mini-series on the
journalists who covered the landing.
Turkish commander Ataturk (left) will be played by Don Hany.
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