Haven't we all at some point in time fantasized about stepping through a cinema/TV screen and into the world of our favourite movies and television shows? I certainly have!

With its modern, urban setting and stunning harbour, it is easy to see why Sydney leads the way as an ideal and versatile shooting destination. Movies shot here have been set in New York (Godzilla: Final Wars, Kangaroo Jack), Chicago (The Matrix and sequels), London (Birthday Girl), Seville (Mission Impossible 2), Bombay (Holy Smoke), Darwin (Australia), Myanmar (Stealth), Mars (Red Planet) and the fictitious city of Metropolis (Superman Returns, Babe: Pig in the City).

Whether popular landmarks or off the beaten track locations that are often hard to find, you can now explore Sydney in a fun and unique way with the SYDNEY ON SCREEN walking guides. Catering to Sydneysiders as much as visitors, the guides have something to offer everyone, from history, architecture and movie buffs to nature lovers.

See where productions such as Superman Returns, The Matrix and sequels, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Candy, Mission Impossible 2, Mao's Last Dancer, Babe: Pig in the City, Kangaroo Jack, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Muriel's Wedding, The Bold and the Beautiful, Oprah's Ultimate Australian Adventure and many more were filmed.

Maps and up-to-date information on Sydney's attractions are provided to help you plan your walk. Pick and choose from the suggested itinerary to see as little or as much of the city as you like.

So, come and discover the landscapes and locations that draw filmmakers to magical Sydney, and walk in the footsteps of the stars!

A GREAT ALTERNATIVE TO EXPENSIVE TOURS, YOU CAN NOW ENJOY EXPLORING SYDNEY FOR UNDER $10 WITH THE SYDNEY ON SCREEN WALKING GUIDES. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT US AT SYDNEYONSCREEN@HOTMAIL.COM

Subscribe to the blog and keep up with all the latest Aussie film and entertainment news. Read about what the stars are up to, who's in town, what movies are currently filming or being promoted. Locate us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sydneyonscreen and "like" our page!

Sydney on Screen walking guides now on sale!

Click on the picture above to see a preview of all four walking guides and on the picture below to see larger stills of Sydney movie and television locations featured in the slideshow!

Copyright © 2011 by Luke Brighty / Unless otherwise specified, all photographs on this blog copyright © 2011 by Luke Brighty


Sydney on Screen guides are now available for purchase at the following outlets:

Travel Concierge, Sydney International Airport, Terminal 1 Arrivals Hall (between gates A/B and C/D), Mascot - Ph: 1300 40 20 60

The Museum of Sydney shop, corner of Bridge & Phillip Streets, Sydney - Ph: (02) 9251 4678

The Justice & Police Museum shop, corner of Albert & Phillip Streets, Sydney - Ph: (02) 9252 1144

The Mint shop, 10 Macquarie Street, Sydney - Ph: (02) 8239 2416

Hyde Park Barracks shop, Queen Square, Sydney - Ph: (02) 8239 2311

Travel Up! (travel counter) c/o Wake Up Sydney Central, 509 Pitt Street, Sydney - Ph (02) 9288 7888

The Shangri-La Hotel (concierge desk), 176 Cumberland Street, The Rocks, Sydney - Ph: (02) 9250 6018

The Sebel Pier One (concierge desk), 11 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay, Sydney - Ph: (02) 8298 9901

The Radisson Plaza Hotel Sydney (concierge desk), 27 O'Connell Street, Sydney - Ph: (02) 8214 0000

The Sydney Marriott Circular Quay (concierge desk), 30 Pitt Street, Sydney - Ph: (02) 9259 7000

Boobook on Owen, 1/68 Owen Street, Huskisson - Ph: (02) 4441 8585


NSW, interstate and international customers can order copies of Sydney on Screen using PayPal. Contact us at sydneyonscreen@hotmail.com to inquire about cost and shipping fees.


All four volumes of Sydney on Screen are available to download onto your PC or Kindle at:
Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.es and Amazon.it


Mia Wasikowska stars in film of Robyn Davidson's book 'Tracks', about camel journey across Australia

Mia Wasikowska in Tracks. Picture: Supplied
Mia Wasikowska in new film Tracks, based on Robyn Davidson's 3200-kilometre trek across Australia. Picture: Supplied
 


The Daily Telegraph reports

Robyn Davidson's 3200-kilometre foot journey across Australia accompanied by four camels and a black dog has never really ended.

Her 1977 trek catapulted Davidson into an unexpected media storm, from which came a book deal a few years later and a career as a writer and traveler. More than 30 years on, her book recounting the journey, Tracks, has been turned into a film starring Australian actor Mia Wasikowska and directed by John Curran.

"I think even writing the book all those years ago changed the journey," Davidson, now 62, said in an interview before the world premiere of the Tracks in competition at the Venice Film Festival. While writing it in "this horrible, pokey flat in London" two years after the fact, Davidson said she experienced an incredible feat of memory.

"I swear I remembered every single campsite over a period of nine months. As soon as the book was finished, it was gone. It was as if the book ate the memory," she said. "I wonder now if the film is going to copy the book in some sort of way, so people, and even I, remember it in some weird confused way."

The book, which was translated in to 18 languages and has been part of the Australian school curriculum, had been optioned many times for films that were never made.

Davidson said she is "delighted" other filmmakers didn't get to make their versions of the film and that it went to Curran, an American who has lived in Australia, saying his film "is the good one." Her only condition was that she wanted Wasikowska, a fellow Aussie, to play her.

The two women met on a trip to the desert so Davidson could show the young actress a few things about camels.

"I thought, 'Oh, she is she is so tiny and frail. How is she going to muster the sort of earthiness?'" Davidson recalled.

"The next time I saw her was at a shoot at Ayers Rock, and she was transformed. She was wearing my clothes, she had hairy legs. She was a little toughie. It was amazing."

Tiny and frail is exactly how many viewed Davidson when she showed up in Alice Springs in 1975 to prepare for the trek eastward to the Indian Ocean. She spent more some two years scraping together money and learning to train the camels that would accompany her. Eventually she sought sponsorship from National Geographic, which set a condition that a photographer would capture images at intervals.

Along the way, Davidson had to face down charging feral camel bulls, track down her own camels when they went missing, suffered the loss of her faithful dog, and eventually faced a growing media circus as word of her feat spread.

She also was befriended by Aborigines, including one elder, Mr. Eddy, who accompanied her through sacred lands, and was taken in for brief respites by the few white settlers living in the outback.

Davidson also developed an enduring friendship with National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan, played in the film by Adam Driver, despite her initial resentment at his periodic intrusions.

She still is at a loss to explain why she undertook the journey.

"I suppose the most I can say is I had a kind of instinctive understanding I needed to do something very demanding of my life in order to make an individual of myself, in order to pull all these rather unprepossessing bits together, and forge a person."

Davidson went on to become a prolific writer and lived two years with nomads in India, which she said, was "the most extreme and difficult" thing she has ever done. "That made this look like a cakewalk," she said.

The bonds she forged with those she met on her on her trans-Australian journey, including the camels, remained strong. Mr Eddy, she said, made her an honorary wife.

And the camels retained their loyalty years after. She visited them once in western Australia. After playing and cuddling them for an hour, she turned to walk back 16 kilometres to the homestead.

"They fell in line behind me, following me all the way," she said.

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