On set during shooting of
the film 'The Great Gatsby' at White Bay in Sydney. Picture: Stephen Cooper Source: The Daily Telegraph
Vicky Roach, The Daily Telegraph, reports
Cashed-up Australian film makers are enticing a growing number of our A-list exports back home to work, according to production figures released yesterday by Screen Australia that reveal a bumper year for the local industry.
Toni Collette, Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Sam Worthington and Xavier Samuel all made $8-$30 million films in Australia in the last financial year.
When the two big studio-funded blockbusters - Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby and Stuart Beattie's I, Frankenstein - are included in the mix, Australian feature production totalled $296 million in 2011/12, the second highest figure on record.
And the trend looks set to continue in 2012/2013 with Rachel Griffiths, Joel Edgerton, Mia Wasikowska and Guy Pearce all confirmed to appear in projects green-lit for the coming months, alongside high profile international imports such as Robert Pattinson and Ewan McGregor.
"This is not a coincidence. This is a pattern," said Screen Australia's chief executive Ruth Harley.
"And it's because the films are of sufficent scale to attract this major talent."
The increased budgets are also luring our established filmmakers back home.
Before shooting Mental with Collette in Queensland last year, PJ Hogan (Peter Pan, Confessions of A Shopaholic) hadn't made a film in Australia since Muriel's Wedding (1994).
And honorary Australian John Curran, who began work on the Robyn Davidson story Tracks in SA earlier this month with Wasikowska in the lead role, hadn't worked here since Praise (1998).
After the international success of his crime thriller Animal Kingdom, director David Michod could have shot his follow up anywhere in the world. He has opted to shoot his futuristic Western The Rover, with Pearce and Pattinson, in SA early next year.
In the past five years, the number of Australian features being made for between $8 and $30 million has more than doubled (to an average of seven per year), according to figures provided by Screen Australia to complement their annual drama report released today (Friday).
This coincides directly with the introduction of the Federal Government's Producer's Offset scheme.
"It's not that everybody is putting more money in their pocket. These are ambitious films," said Harley
The actual number of films (28) produced in 2011/12, however, was significantly down on the five year average (34).
Harley identified this as a shift from quantity to quality.
There were parallels in television where 2011/2102 also saw a strong performance in high-end adult dramas such as Underground: The Julian Assange Story , Howzat and Puberty Blues.
"The trend again is towards higher production values, higher budgets," said Harley.
"There are fewer hours and more money spent. This is resulting in fantastic, quality drama."
No comments:
Post a Comment