John
Jarratt is actually a really nice bloke who initially had trouble playing such
an evil man. Now, though, he can turn it on like a tap. Picture: Chris Pavlich Source:
News Limited
Vicky Roach, The Daily Telegraph, reports
Mick Taylor is back. And this time, Crocodile Dundee's psychopathic cousin intends to fool around with your funnybone before he knifes you in the back.
"There will be laughs in the first five minutes of the movie, I guarantee it," said director Greg Mclean this week on the set of Wolf Creek 2 in South Australia.
"The first movie was really just a relentless sledgehammer to the head. It was just splat. End. There are horrifying things in this film, but it has a tonal difference."
It has taken Mclean seven years to get the sequel to his R-rated feature film debut, which took a whopping $28 million at the box office, off the ground.
The delay was partly to do with funding - the cameras were ready to roll three years ago when one of the investors pulled out - and partly with Mclean's determination to get the screenplay right.
"It delves deep into everything that was interesting about the first film ... like why that character connected to Australian audiences," Mclean said during a break from filming at an abandoned homestead on the outskirts of Port Wakefield, an hour and a half's drive out of Adelaide.
"We spend more time with him, because he was definitely one of the more enjoyable parts about (Wolf Creek)."
In spite of the delay, veteran actor John Jarratt, 61, said Taylor's hat and multiple tatts fitted him like a second skin.
"The first time was a bit different because, well, I have got six kids and I had to find a way into the character because he is anathema to me. I had to find a justification for (what he did).
"Now I can turn it on like a tap. He's kinda been sitting on my shoulder (for the past seven years). Because he's such an iconic character, someone comes up to me every second day and asks me to do the laugh."
According to Jarratt, who based the character on his own father, Taylor would actually be a fun bloke to be around, if he wasn't evil.
"If Mick was how you think he is, when you first you meet him, a good humoured larrikin Australian guy, he'd be my dad."
Like the first film, inspired bythe stories of Ivan Milat and Bradley John Murdoch, Wolf Creek 2 is inspired by real events, but Mclean is not saying which ones.
"You'll be able to work it out pretty quickly when you see the film."
Distributor Roadshow films is aiming for a December release for the $7 million film, which stars Packed to the Rafters' Ryan Corr as a British backpacker who makes the unfortunate mistake of straying into Mick Taylor's hunting ground.
The original 2005 low-budget film was shot in five weeks with a small crew and went on to make more than $30 million worldwide.
Jarratt's character is a product of the outback like famed knockabout Mick "Crocodile" Dundee, but this Mick - a Vietnam war veteran and marksman - is a sadistic serial killer who captures and tortures three backpackers in the chilling first film.
The crimes of convicted serial killer Ivan Milat, Falconio murderer Bradley Murdoch and the gruesome Snowtown murders are all said to have influenced the creation of the baddest bad guy in Australian cinema.
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