Birth of a new Aussie classic

Aussie actor Ryan Kwanten stars in Not Suitable For Children. Picture: Tim Carrafa Source: The Daily Telegraph

Nick Dent, The Sunday Telegraph, reports

It’s great that Aussie filmmakers are having a go at the toughest film genre there is, romantic comedy, and getting it right in the essential thing: likeable, interesting characters.

Hot on the heels of Any Questions for Ben? comes Not Suitable for Children, another rom-com about a young hedonist obliged to do some soul searching.

Jonah (Ryan Kwanten) has inherited a house in inner-west Sydney and shares it with buddies Gus (Ryan Corr) and Stevie (Sarah Snook).

On Friday nights the house becomes party central, at which Jonah enjoys strings-free sex with a range of admiring girls.

It's during one of these liaisons that Jonah discovers he has a lump. He's got testicular cancer. The treatment won't affect his sex life, but it will render him infertile and his sperm can't be successfully frozen.

The biological alarm clock that Jonah didn't know he possessed starts to clang. He needs to find a woman who will consider having his baby, and fast.

Not Suitable for Children is very accomplished for a debut feature but its director has strong credentials.

Peter Templeman's short film The Saviour was nominated for an Academy Award in 2007. Co-writer Michael Lucas has written episodes of Ten's Offspring and shows understanding about urban Australians and their emotional and sexual peccadilloes.

Kwanten is well suited to the role of a cheerful, impulsive stud: he's been playing one on HBO's True Blood for the last four years.

The film's real revelation, though, is Snook, who impressed in the ABC's Sisters of War but hasn't had a major film role before this. She's like a cross between Cate Blanchett and Emma Stone, both in looks and in her combination of dramatic clout and comedy finesse.

Despite disliking children, Snook's no-nonsense Stevie makes the decision to help Josh find a suitable mother for his child from among both his former conquests and her single colleagues.

To see her gingerly unstrapping Josh's baby nephew from his car seat, you would think she was defusing an incendiary device.

She's funny and unexpectedly touching, and so is the movie.

Sarah reveals a naked ambition for Hollywood

Actress Sarah Snook at the Hilton, Sydney. Picture: Anthony Reginato Source: The Daily Telegraph

Jonathon Moran, The Sunday Telegraph, reports

She’s been dubbed Australia's next Cate Blanchett and narrowly missed out on the lead role in the Hollywood version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

But Sarah Snook is determined to ignore the hype and comparisons and make her own mark.

If that means a career in Hollywood - or not - so be it.

"I'm hoping for as long as possible to keep a foot in each country and if that means the work is here (in Australia) then excellent and if it is there, then excellent," Snook tells Insider at Sydney's Hilton Hotel last week.

"I will go where the work is. If the writing is good, then I'm happy to be a part of a project."

Snook stars in the new Australian film, Not Suitable For Children, playing 20-something Stevie in The Secret Life Of Us-type angsty drama about a young man facing mortality after being diagnosed with testicular cancer. The film also stars Ryan Kwanten and Packed To The Rafters' Ryan Corr.

Snook's real life is not that different to the story told in the film. She's 24 and lives with four flatmates in Sydney's inner suburbs.

"Our house is known as a good party house. It is like a rite of passage that you go through in your 20s, you've got to do the share thing at some point," Snook says.

Her Not Suitable For Children role required some nudity for Snook, who shares several passionate sex scenes with Kwanten.

"It is very personally challenging to do that but everyone on set treats that kind of thing with a lot of respect, a lot of caution and a lot of care so I never felt unsafe at any point," Snook says.

Snook has been pegged as one to watch since graduating from Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Art in 2008. Her first taste of Hollywood came when she was shortlisted for the big budget Daniel Craig film, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (released this year), but missed out to US star, Rooney Mara.

Her red hair and fair complexion - not to mention her talent - has also earned Snook comparisons to fellow NIDA graduate, Blanchett.

Up next for Snook is a starring role in low-budget US horror flick, Jessabelle.

"Jessabelle is my first thing in America and if something comes of that, I guess I will be doing more work there," she says.

Snook and Kwanten shine in Not Suitable

Ryan Kwanten as Jonah.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports

True Blood's Ryan Kwanten is the biggest star in Not Suitable for Children, but emerging actress Sarah Snook shines just as brightly in this edgy and fresh Australian romantic comedy.

Before all you guys read "romantic comedy" and sprint directly to your Rambo and The Hangover DVDs, you should know that Not Suitable for Children doesn't really fit into your typical mould.

It's set in Sydney's pulsing inner-west, where the popular party boy Jonah (Kwanten) lives in a share-house with Stevie (Snook) and Gus (Ryan Corr), and survives off the profits from their epic house parties.

This carefree sex, drugs and booze lifestyle is abruptly altered when Jonah discovers he has testicular cancer. What's more, because his swimmers have an issue with the freezing process, the required operation in four weeks' will render him infertile.

It's refreshing to have a movie about a guy's biological clock ticking and Kwanten plays the loveable idiot Jonah so well, it's hard not to feel sorry for him.

With babies on the brain, he tries to track down every woman he's been with, including an ex-girlfriend (Bojana Novakovic), to see if they're keen for parenthood.

Kwanten nails the subtle and often awkward humour, particularly in a scene where he meets with a lesbian couple on his hunt for a willing mother for his child.

As the child-hating Stevie, who decides to help Jonah in his search, Snook is a stand-out. With a natural charm, she just jumps out from the screen and despite having just one other feature film credit (a small part in Sleeping Beauty), she holds her own opposite Kwanten.

Having just missed out on being cast as Lisbeth in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo remake, Snook is definitely one Aussie actress to watch - she's got quite a career ahead of her yet.

Corr doesn't get as much to do as comic support, but he does get laughs, particularly in a scene where all three friends sit at a table and there are noticeable sparks between Stevie and Jonah.

Filled with a youthful energy, Not Suitable for Children is the feature film debut for director Peter Templeman, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2007 for his short film Saviour.

Written by Michael Lucas (TV's Offspring), it's easy to tell where the plot is going, but the dialogue is funny, surprising and touching while still steering clear of sentimental cliches.

Not everyone will be comfortable with the premise, but Not Suitable for Children is a smart Aussie film, that's funny and raunchy, but also tugs at your heartstrings.

Word of advice: don't watch the trailer for this one. As with most "rom-coms", it gives a lot away, and it's far better to go into this and be surprised.

Not Suitable for Children in Australian cinemas now.

A romantic comedy with serious balls

 Australian actor Ryan Kwanten / Pic: Cameron Richardson

Excerpt of an article by Colin Delaney, Encore Magazine

Has an Australian filmmaker finally cracked the rarely attempted romantic comedy genre? Colin Delaney visits the set of Not Suitable for Children to find out if Oscar nominated first time director Peter Templeman’s flick about testicular cancer has the balls to make it big at the box office.

A mismatched collection of twenty somethings loiter in front of a large old house in Eveleigh, south of Sydney’s CBD. Goths, surfers, hipsters and stoners make up the group. Inside it’s shoulder-to-shoulder with revellers filling hallways and stairwells. The event is not just thrown together either – flashing lights and disco balls suggest the members of this household take their parties seriously. And the amount of drugs and alcohol circulating certainly deem the environment unsuitable for children.

Encore is on the set of Oscar-nominated Peter Templeman’s feature film debut Not Suitable For Children, starring Ryan Kwanten (True Blood, Griff the Invisible) as the lazy playboy, Jonah. Never struggling to find a bed-mate, but never settling for just one, Jonah feels his biological clock speed up when he discovers a lump on one of his testicles.

The film follows his quest to find someone to mother his child while there is still time. Helping Jonah with the cause are his flatmates, Gus and Stevie who acts as his ‘womb agent’, setting him up with girls she thinks will be a suitable ‘host’ for his unborn offspring. Producer Jodi Matterson says, “It’s a traditional romantic comedy, but in reverse as Jonah crashes through his ex-girlfriends. We think he is going to end up with the ex who is the love of his life yet we see this friendship with Stevie simmering into a relationship.”

Writer Michael Lucas began working on the script while studying at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) and the story is based loosely on his personal experience. After discovering a suspicious lump, Lucas made a Friday afternoon visit to the doctor.

“Over the weekend he became incredibly anxious thinking ‘what if I have testicular cancer?’ and ‘what would happen if I couldn’t have a baby?’ and he was flicking through his phone book thinking ‘who of my girlfriends would join this pact with me?’” Matterson explains. “Fortunately he found out on Monday that he was fine but the idea stuck with him.” The concept of a lead male character desperate to have a baby also struck a cord with Matterson who was interested in the role reversal within the romantic comedy formula.

While Australian filmmakers have long demonstrated a solid grasp of dramas, the rom-com is a genre yet to be cracked – with a few notable exceptions. The 90s saw the highly successful Muriel’s Wedding and more recently, Peter Helliar’s I Love You Too showed box office promise in 2010 but few other directors have attempted the format since. Matterson believes that while local filmmakers are often wary of the style, it falls well within their capabilities. “It’s very hard to make a romantic comedy in Australia because we don’t have the $40-50m budget and romantic comedy stable of stars. It comes down to script and requires real passion for the genre.” A passion Matterson says “romantic comedy junkie” Lucas has in spades.


Cast and crew

When Michael Lucas’s agent approached Matterson with the script, the plan was for Darren Ashton to direct as Matterson and Ashton had previously worked together on feature films Razzle Dazzle and Thunderstruck. Upon reading the script, they felt another director would be more suited and Ashton took on the role of executive producer instead. Matterson interviewed numerous directors before selecting up and coming Peter Templeman who cut his teeth on the set of acclaimed children’s series Lockie Leonard. Having won 38 major festival slots with a number of well-received short films and an Oscar nomination for the 2007 short The Saviour, Templeman was ready to tackle his first feature.

“The way Peter looks at the world and the sensibility he brings to it has an edge,” Matterson explains. “Matched with Michael’s script, which is quite a traditional romantic comedy, it makes for an interesting combination.” The creative team locked in, casting was the next major consideration. With established TV actors taking on their first feature roles – Ryan Corr (Packed to the Rafters) who plays Gus, and Sarah Snook (Spirited) in the part of Stevie – securing Kwanten was a major coup.

“We were very keen to get Ryan purely on a creative level,” Matterson says. “Often the realities of film financing mean thinking about names first and then asking if they are right for the role second. We were incredibly blessed that in this situation we had someone we really wanted that also ticked all the right boxes.”

The original working title of the film was The Twentysomething Survival Guide and in the earliest drafts of the script the main characters Jonah, Gus and Stevie ran a self-help website of the same name.

“A couple of drafts in, we got rid of the website but kept the title,” says Matterson. In the website’s place, layabouts Jonah and Gus turned to throwing parties at the share house charging guests an entry fee to keep them in the lifestyle to which they are accustomed. While the basic premise remained the same, the evolution of the script called for a new name.

“We had been looking for a title for about six months when halfway through pre-production Michael came up with Not Suitable For Children. It was the first title we could all agree on,” Matterson says. With a working list comprising hundreds of titles, she admits they considered some interesting options.

The worst, Matterson says, “probably had something to do with testicles. There was a lot of Get The Ball Rolling and Balls Out”.

The project is currently in the final stages of post and while a release date is yet to be set, the picture is due to be locked off by the end of February. With the wait to see if they have nailed it almost over, Matterson is realistic about the film’s chances.

“You can make a really great film and for whatever reason it doesn’t find an audience or you can make an average film and it’s in the right place in the right time,” she says. “We’ve had a very definite audience in mind the whole time and we’re doing everything we can to give that core demographic a film they would enjoy. We can only hope it reaches that audience, makes its money back, and beyond.”