Actress Isabelle Cornish plans her next move

Australian actress Isabelle Cornish / Pic: Sam Ruttyn Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

Isabelle Cornish has confirmed she won't be starring in Michael Bay's next Transformers instalment.

But she did make the final two auditions.

"I got to the final two, I was taping my audition and the next minute I get a call saying you're flying to LA tomorrow. It's amazing how fast things can happen," she said.

The 18-year-old Puberty Blues star says she doesn't want to just be an actress. She also writes, has plans to direct, and will be a judge at next week's short-film festival, Flickerfest, in Bondi.

Cornish also has plans to create a show with her older (and very famous) actress sister, Abbie.

"We are pretty close but because we live on other sides of the world ... but I called her and said, 'Hey, we are going to do a documentary together,' and she said OK," she explained.

A vegetarian, Cornish is hoping to develop an animal documentary.

Home-grown talent attracts Hollywood backing

Guy Pearce in the Jack Irish telemovies.

Garry Maddox, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports

Boosted by The Great Gatsby and I, Frankenstein, the value of Australian film and TV drama production jumped 25 per cent last financial year.

According to Screen Australia's annual drama report, a sharp decline in foreign production was more than matched by an increase in big-budget films shot by Australian directors with Hollywood backing.

Drama production rose from $497 million in the previous financial year to $623 million, including 28 films worth $296 million. While a healthy output, it was below the record of $739 million in 2009-10.

On the basis they were driven by local creative teams, the report counts as Australian Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, shot in and around Sydney starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan, and Stuart Beattie's I, Frankenstein, shot in Melbourne with Yvonne Strahovski, Aaron Eckhart and Bill Nighy.

Other smaller-scale films produced during the year included The Sapphires, Kath & Kimderella, Mental and the British co-production The Railway Man, starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth.

''It's been a strong year for feature production with a bigger slate overall, boosted by high-budget Australian titles,'' the chief executive of Screen Australia, Ruth Harley, said. She described the health of the sector as ''pretty robust''.

Luhrmann praised the country's producer offset, a 40 per cent tax rebate, for allowing him to shoot a movie here that was set in 1920s New York: ''To work with Australia's skilled film technicians and facilities and to bring large-scale projects like The Great Gatsby to Australia, we can't have our head in the sand about the fact that the country is a long way away.''

While the quality of recent Australian adult TV drama has been impressive, spending fell 13 per cent to $279 million. As hours also dipped, by 6 per cent, there was a shift from series and serials towards mini-series and telemovies.

The report counts House Husbands, Offspring and Puberty Blues as mini-series alongside Howzat! Kerry Packer's War, Underbelly: Badness and the coming British co-production Mrs Biggs - The Untold Story behind the Great Train Robbery.

There has also been a mini boom in telemovies - from five to 10 - including Underground: The Julian Assange Story, Beaconsfield and the Jack Irish films.

While Australia has often been a popular location for foreign movies, the high value of the dollar meant that only three started shooting last financial year.

And instead of huge Hollywood movies, they were lower-budget productions from Japan (Hayabusa, the Long Journey Home), India (From Sydney with Love) and Nepal (Destination Kathmandu).

But incentives brought Hollywood studios to Australia for post-production and digital effects work worth $38 million on such big movies as The Avengers, Ted, Prometheus, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and The Hunger Games.

NSW remained the dominant state for drama with production worth $315 million compared with $212 million in Victoria, $65 million in Queensland and $16 million in South Australia.

Retro TV shows prove ratings gold

Essie Davis in 1920s crime-themed drama Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Picture: Channel 2 (ABC) Source: National Features

Colin Vickery, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Australia is going through a retro drama renaissance.

The imported Downton Abbey may have proved a ratings hit for Channel 7, but audiences also can't get enough of locally produced historical drama.

The two-part Howzat!, set in the late 1970s, turned into a multi-million dollar payday for Channel 9, bowling over three million viewers nationally.

Puberty Blues, also set in the 1970s, is Channel 10's best-rating new show. It comes after the extraordinary ratings for another retro drama, Paper Giants, last year.

Also on the way is a second season of 1920s-themed crime hit Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and Paper Giants: Magazine Wars (about the war waged between women's magazine editors Dulcie Boling and Nene King).

Then there's Hansom Cab (a 19th century mystery starring John Waters), Dangerous Remedy (a true story based on events beginning in 1969, when Dr Bert Wainer uncovered an illegal abortion racket), The Dr Blake Mysteries (Craig McLachlan stars as a police surgeon in Ballarat in 1959), and A Place to Call Home (a 1950s-era drama headed up by Noni Hazlehurst and Brett Climo).

"These shows hark back to a more colourful era when there were big, bold characters; that is entertaining," media analyst Steve Allen says of the retro hits.

For producer John Edwards, who oversaw Howzat!, Puberty Blues and Paper Giants, the 1970s is the key. It was a time of massive political, social and sexual upheaval. "That period was a turning point in Australian history," he says.

The Sunbury Pop Festival kicked things off. It was Australia's answer to Woodstock and clothing was definitely optional. The early 1970s was also a time of fierce protest against Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War.

The decade saw the rise of feminism - women burning their bras and demanding equal rights.

The 1970s was when the White Australia Policy was abolished, setting the scene for multiculturalism.

Gough Whitlam and Labor swept to power after 23 years of Liberal-Country Party rule. In 1975, the country erupted when Whitlam was dismissed and Opposition Leader Malcolm Fraser was installed as caretaker Prime Minister.

"I've always been interested in the Whitlam era," Edwards says. "I won't do any history drama just for drama's sake."

Nine Melbourne program chief Len Downs says Howzat! succeeded because viewers are fascinated by Kerry Packer. "A lot of people didn't know what he was really like," Mr Downs says.

"He was larger than life as a person. He didn't make a lot of public appearances or do a lot of interviews.

"To be successful, they (history-based TV shows) have got to be about people or events back in time that have notoriety. World Series Cricket created a lot of press at the time. Viewers are intrigued about what really did happen."

A scan of the ratings shows Aussie TV viewers are fascinated by much more than the 1970s.

Downton Abbey, set in the early 1900s, has been a massive success for Channel 7. The ABC struck gold with Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, which is set in the 1920s.

Last year's Underbelly: Razor centred on 1920s Sydney. The ABC's latest hit drama, Call the Midwife, is set in London in the 1950s.

Miss Fisher producers Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger say that making historical dramas is more affordable than it used to be - and that makes them attractive to TV networks. In the past, trying to replicate historical periods was expensive. The digital effects revolution has changed all that.

"I trained on shows like The Sullivans and Carson's Law," Cox says. "Those shows were very set-bound - because there weren't a lot of (suitable) exterior locations.

"Now, if you're clever, you can use CGI (computer generated imagery) strategically to have a much bigger canvas.

"We didn't want to look at the past as a novelty - though people do love the dresses and the cars.

"We wanted to look at a time in the past that had connections to the present.

"Phryne Fisher is a very modern woman. She is looking at women's rights at a time when they were not taken for granted.

"Australia's past hasn't been enshrined enough in our TV. We have our own history. This current crop of dramas are a celebration of that."

Biggest ratings battle to date starts Sunday night

Nine will be in big trouble if Big Brother doesn't work, says media analyst, Steve Allen. Picture: Channel Nine Source: news.com.au

Colin Vickery, The Daily Telegraph, reports

TV audiences will be spoilt for prime time viewing choices in a $100 million TV war that begins Sunday night.

That is when Channel 10 will unleash Sarah Murdoch-hosted talent show Everybody Dance Now.

Dance is the start of a mammoth roll-out by Ten that includes I Will Survive, Puberty Blues, Don’t Tell the Bride and Can of Worms with new host Chrissie Swan.

Nine is firing back with a swag of new shows including Underbelly: Badness, Big Brother, Howzat!, House Husbands, The Farmer Wants a Wife, Charlie Sheen’s Anger Management and Dallas.

Seven has The X Factor, US drama GCB, and Beauty & The Geek ready to roll.

This is the fiercest ratings battle yet and viewers will be spoiled for choice.

Media analyst Steve Allen says Ten is taking a big chance by coming out of the gates first.

Ten is relying on local shows to boost its ratings fortunes after a being swamped by Seven and Nine in the first half of the year.

“This is a huge roll of the dice (for Ten) and it is Aussie, Aussie, Aussie,” Allen says.

One of the big questions is whether three talent shows – Dance, Survive and X Factor – can all flourish at the same time.

Ten is putting Dance up against the Olympics. It poached Packed to the Rafters star Hugh Sheridan for Survive.

Allen doubts they can all be hits.

“You can’t double or triple a genre,” Allen says. “The overall audience goes up but the averages fall.”

Big Brother is Nine’s most crucial show. The reality show, hosted by Sonia Kruger, is set to run for three months.

A strong ratings performance by Big Brother will boost all of Nine’s other shows.

“If Big Brother doesn’t get up, Nine will have a lot of problems,” Allen says.

Seven and Nine are in a neck-and-neck battle for 2012 ratings supremacy.

Seven scored first blood with My Kitchen Rules but Nine hit back with The Block and The Voice.

Seven is taking a punt on Kath & Kim repeats and programs that have already screened on Foxtel – Smash and Killing Time.

Channel 10:

Everybody Dance Now
Dance talent show hosted by Sarah Murdoch. Kelly Rowland and Jason Derulo are in charge of 88 dance acts chasing the $250,000 first prize.
Starts: August 12

I Will Survive
Talent show looks for singer/dancer/actor to be in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert stage show. Hosted by Packed to the Rafters star Hugh Sheridan.
Starts: August 22

Puberty Blues
TV reboot of classic Aussie novel by Gabrielle Cary and Kathy Lette. Cast includes Claudia Karvan.
Starts: August 15

Don’t Tell the Bride
Reality show where grooms plan weddings. Hosted by Kate Ritchie.
Starts: August 21

Can of Worms
Chrissie Swan replaces Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson for show that asks curly moral questions.
Starts: August 20

Channel 9:

Underbelly Badness
Latest in crime franchise stars Jonathan LaPaglia as Sydney underworld figure Anthony “Badness” Perish.
Starts: August 13

The Farmer Wants a Wife – Love Bites
Six farmers go on 200 speed dates in the latest edition of Nine’s romance series.
Starts: August 15

Big Brother
Family-friendly version of famed reality show on a new network. Hosted by Sonia Kruger.
Starts: August 13

Howzat!
Lachy Hulme stars as media mogul Kerry Packer in this two-part drama about World Series Cricket.
Starts: August 19

Anger Management
Charlie Sheen returns to sitcoms after getting fired from Two and a Half Men.
Starts: August 14

House Husbands
Aussie drama about men who raise kids. Gary Sweet, Rhys Muldoon, Gyton Grantley and Firass Dirani play title roles.
Starts: August/September

Dallas
Original Dallas cast including Larry Hagman, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy return for soap opera about wealthy Dallas oil and cattle-ranching family.
Starts: August/September

Channel 7:

The X Factor
Same judges – Ronan Keating, Guy Sebastian, Natalie Bassingthwaite, Mel B – new talent including Bella Ferraro and boyband What About Tonight.
Starts: August 20

GCB
US drama from Sex and the City creator Darren Starr. Kristin Chenoweth and Leslie Bibb play southern belles.
Starts: August/September

Kath & Kim: The Souvenir Editions
Repackaged episodes of Kath & Kim with new introductions by Gina Riley and Jane Turner.
Starts: August/September

Smash
Broadway drama starring Debra Messing and Anjelica Huston. Think of it as a grown-up Glee.
Starts: August/September

Killing Time
David Wenham stars in acclaimed mini-series about disgraced lawyer Andrew Fraser.
Starts: August/September

Aussie teens have come a long way

Puberty Blues starts on Ten on August 15…Source: Supplied

Helen Parker, The Punch News Limited Network, reports

When the 1981 film Puberty Blues hit the big screens, parents across Australia recoiled each asking their teens with wide-eyed alarm.

“Is this really what goes on?” Somehow teenagers of the ‘70s and ‘80s whose parents had survived World War II and Vietnam had been left to fend for themselves.

It was only when the youthful Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey penned their brutally honest account in their book Puberty Blues of what it was actually like to be a teenage girl in Australia that modern society sat up and noticed.

Deborra-Lee Furness starred in a film in the 1980s called Shame that depicted the practice in rural Australia of using girls as “training” for sex. It was basically about the accepted ritual of gang rape. Girls in so many ways were at the mercy of young men. Young adult males ruled supreme. It was the task of young girls to ingratiate themselves into the inner circle.

I grew up in an eclectic country town. When Puberty Blues, the book, hit the shelves that was shocking enough. I distinctly remember reading a review in a broadsheet paper. I was about 15 years-old away on a holiday camp when the film came out and the lead counsellor, an admired, affable Christian fellow, asked me, with sincere concern; what did I think about Puberty Blues? Is it accurate?

I looked at him and said “it’s a documentary”. It seemed to me no adult had a clue what was going on and finally a light was being shone on it.

As I grew older and travelled Australia I quickly came to observe that whether you lived in Cronulla, Toorak or in a tiny country town, the treatment of young women didn’t alter much.

Australia was a far more simple place then, more brutal but simple… at high school boys got the cane - and girls, on so many levels, were fair game.

Yet the transformation within a generation has been immense and is rarely recognised. For all the headlines about brutish behaviour of football players, street violence and bullying, the reality in the suburbs and in the country is refreshing and very human.

I was recently at a rodeo in rural Queensland and watched as friends teenagers arrived en masse. The boys were tactile, responsive and affectionate towards the arriving platonic girlfriends.

Back in the city I have, time and time again, witnessed the same. I started a family at a young age, and have raised three children to adulthood, attended more parties, rugby matches and teenage social gatherings, with other parents and watched with pride and relief at the turnaround in young adult Australian males and their attitudes towards their female mates.

And that’s the difference between this young generation and my Puberty Blues generation: mateship. Sure we’ve lost much of the Australian lingo and bluntness, but it has been replaced by putting a value on girls beyond sexual conquest: they’re your mates and should be looked after.

Ultimately it is probably, definitely also about sex; young men have finally figured out if they’re actually decent to girls then copulation is much easier and much more fulfilling than the thuggish ‘treat ‘em mean and keep ‘em keen” generation.

I have two stunning daughters, and not for a nanosecond would they tolerate the attitudes portrayed in Puberty Blues. When I walk in my neighbourhood I’m amazed how many young folk still call me “Mrs Parker”. This is modern Sydney we’re talking about. Young people deserve a lot more credit than we in the media give them.

Recently my eldest daughter and I were out in Darwin. Unknown to me a feral, sly camp-dog of a stockman was leering at me and making inappropriate comments. My daughter sensing danger motioned to leave “come on mum, don’t you know what some men are like?”

Thankfully she’s been raised well. We don’t hear it enough: a generation has evolved.

Isabelle Cornish to follow older sister actress Abbie Cornish by signing with US talent agency United

Heading to the US as demand for Australian actors reaches new heights ... Actress Isabelle Cornish, younger sister of Abbie. Picture: Sam Ruttyn Source: The Daily Telegraph

 
The Daily Telegraph reports

The little sister of Australian acting star Abbie Cornish, is set to follow in the well-heeled footsteps of her older sibling by signing with US talent powerhouse UTA (United Talent Agency).

The 17-year-old Sydney up-and-comer Isabelle Cornish - who got her first big break on Home and Away - recently wrapped a major role in Ten's Puberty Blues and is heading overseas to audition for US film and TV projects.

Cornish has also filmed small roles in Rescue: Special Ops and the kids TV series Dance Academy.

The coup comes as the demand for Aussie actors reaches new heights in the US with a swathe of talent recently following the same path from Australian agent to major US representation.

They include WAAPA grad Ben O'Toole (who signed with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment) and NIDA grad Ross Langley (UTA) as well as established actors Sullivan Stapleton (WME), Callan Mulvey (Creative Artists Agency) Rodger Corser (WME) and Ben Mendel- sohn who signed with CAA.

Stapleton, who nabbed his break-out role in Animal Kingdom, recently wrapped the action series Strike Back and is set to travel to Bulgaria to begin shooting the sword and sandal 300 sequel Battle Of Artemisia.

"It's a great time for Australian actors because the relationships between Australian talent agencies and the US agents is a lot stronger," says United Management's Natasha Harrison, an Aussie-based agent who has helped bridge the gap with American talent stables."It used to be that agents would come out here a couple of times a year and sign one or two NIDA or WAAPA graduates.

"Local agents would be wary of them because they would be worried about losing actors.

"But now we're working together really well."

Rodger Corser to keep that huge American deal on hold

The US deal could see Rodger Corser's career heading in the same direction as Simon Baker's. Source: Supplied

The Daily Telegraph reports

It was a scoop blurted out by Jacki Weaver as she and Rodger Corser took to the Logies stage together on Sunday night.

The former Rush star, shooting Puberty Blues in Sydney for Channel 10, has inked a "holding deal" with US broadcast powerhouse ABC - a similar deal to that which helped launch the US careers of Simon Baker and Alex O'Loughlin.

Weaver mentioned the coup briefly during the Logies broadcast on Sunday night and Corser's Aussie rep confirmed the news yesterday, saying Corser cracked the deal late last year and that the ABC is looking for the right project for the Aussie hunk.

The "holding deal" contract means Corser cannot work for a rival network while the ABC hunts down the right project.

Corser, who squeezed his Puberty Blues commitments into a brief suspension of the contract, is fielding scripts from the US and plans to return to Los Angeles once Puberty Blues filming wraps in late July.

It's understood his former co-star on the short-lived Channel 7 drama Last Man Standing, Matt Passmore, also began his US acting career with a similar deal.

Lara Bingle's Being Lara Bingle, The Shire teen reality show and the TV version of Puberty Blues all filmed in Sutherland

The shire's natural beauty ...And one of its most famous inhabitants Lara Bingle will soon feature prominently on TV. Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

It has found itself in the centre of a TV scandal but the attention is only set to get more intense for Sutherland Shire, with no fewer than three major TV projects to be based out of the beachside hamlet in 2012.

With cameras set to roll on the controversial weeknight series The Shire next Wednesday, the area will also serve as the backdrop for the fly-on-the-wall Lara Bingle vehicle Being Lara Bingle and the coming TV version of the iconic Aussie book-turned-film Puberty Blues.

It's understood Being Lara Bingle has already begun filming, with the show to air on Channel 10 mid-year.

Puberty Blues remains in the casting stage and is expected to hit screens in the later half of the year.

The Shire, meanwhile, is believed to be a "long-term project" for Channel 10 and its production partner Shine Australia, which had pitched the series to Sutherland Shire councillors as a "six or seven" year undertaking intended to be sold internationally.

"We've been told it will be a weeknight show, airing at 7pm, and will air overseas," one said.