Weaving's back in drag, but it's no Priscilla

Cloud Atlas stars Hugo Weaving and Susan Sarandon, pictured at the Toronto International Film Festival. Photo: Getty Images

 

Ed Gibbs, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports

The world premiere of Cloud Atlas met with a mixed reception, but its star Hugo Weaving isn't fazed.

It was greeted with a lengthy standing ovation, then just as quickly slammed by critics, following its world premiere at the Toronto International Festival on Sunday night.

Cloud Atlas - the Booker-shortlisted, multi-layered novel that many believed impossible to turn into a film - even has Hugo Weaving donning a women's fat suit.

Yet the controversial film - a sprawling, multi-story tale of karmic repercussions throughout time and space - also offers its all-star cast, including Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, the chance to have fun and ''play dress-ups'', as actor Jim Broadbent puts it, with its cast playing multiple characters that bizarrely jump gender, race and age.

For Hugo Weaving, Cloud Atlas offered the chance to re-team with two of the film's three directors, the Wachowski brothers: the duo responsible for The Matrix movies that made him a star. Ten years on, much has changed, though - notably Larry Wachowski, who has since become Lana.

''I don't think it's ironic at all,'' Weaving says, of the gender-swapping roles the film's cast has to perform. ''I think there are certain things that Larry - now Lana - is interested in. A lot of them connect up with his - now her - journey. This feeling of being trapped inside a body since the age of nine, feeling like, 'I'm not this person, I'm actually that person', I guess whoever we are, there are certain things that we want to express.

''When I first worked with them, in The Matrix days, they'd finish each other's sentences, or talk together. They're incredibly tight-knit. Now, they're more individual, I guess.''

Their new film, co-directed with Run Lola Run's Tom Tykwer, takes the viewer on a lengthy, troubled journey, from the South Pacific of the 18th century through to a post-apocalyptic future rife with warring factions and cannibalism. Weaving's other characters in the film include a Machiavellian figure named Georgie and Bill Smoke, an authority figure reminiscent of his Agent Smith character in The Matrix. Playing a nurse, though, was more extreme than even he could have imagined.

''The prosthetics came in at a very late stage, so I spent a lot of time in my fat suit just trying to get used to it,'' Weaving says of Nurse Noakes, a fearsomely full figure far removed from Mitzi Del Bra, his drag persona in Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert. ''Whenever I look at it, I'm still uneasy about it.''

Weaving joins a substantial number of Australians in Toronto, where local cinema has been enjoying its biggest showing in years. The event - the single largest gateway to the lucrative US market - has premiered Cate Shortland's Lore and Tony Krawitz's Dead Europe to great acclaim, in addition to Wayne Blair's musical smash The Sapphires, the big-wave documentary Storm Surfers 3D and Robert Connolly's Julian Assange biopic Underground. Catriona McKenzie's indigenous drama Satellite Boy has rounded out what festival programmer Jane Schoettle describes as Australia's ''splashiest'' showing to date at the event, now in its 37th year and second only to Cannes for market dominance and star-pulling power.

Cloud Atlas, meanwhile, will have a release in Australia early next year, and joins a string of films that have generated Oscar buzz at the festival - an event that provides early indicators for award favourites. Among the most notable is Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines, which stars Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper as a pair of troubled fathers, and features an excellent performance by Australia's Ben Mendelsohn.

The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival runs until September 16.

Picture of the month: August

The Imperial Hotel, Erskineville – The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

From drags to riches

I Will Survive judges (from left) Jason Donovan, Toni Collette and Stephan Elliott, and host Hugh Sheridan.

Hopefuls follow the trail blazed by the Priscilla bus reports The Sydney Morning Herald’s Michael Idato.

In 1994, director Stephan Elliott breathed life into a small Australian film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. It would become a cultural touchstone, blending Australia's cosmopolitan gay capital with its mystical, ancient heart.

Its plot - three city-bred drag queens embark on a coming of (middle) age journey from Sydney to Alice Springs in a bus nicknamed Priscilla - resonated powerfully. It was adapted as a stage musical in 2006 and has conquered Broadway and London's West End.

Eighteen years later, it has been turned into a television talent quest, in which host Hugh Sheridan and two judges - Elliott and actor Jason Donovan, who starred in the musical in London - search for the perfect musical theatre ''triple threat'': a singer-dancer-actor.

Elliott describes Priscilla as ''the old bus and chain'', touching gently on the unbreakable connection he has to it. He has affection in his voice, but when he talks about the ups and downs of the 18 intervening years, it is clear that connection has not always been easy to live with.

''When we were making it, I thought it was never going to work,'' he says. ''I thought none of us would ever work again and that level of freedom, which I have never had since, somehow made its way onto the film.

''When it erupted, did I see it coming? No, I didn't. Did I get rich out of it? No, I didn't. There was a bitterness that came with it after that, which was realising how many people got rich off it and I was still basically struggling just to pay rent.

''That took about a decade to get a handle on and there was a period there where I was ready to murder anyone who said 'Priscilla'.''

A television series had been suggested by the film's production studio, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. Elliott wrote six or seven hours of it, but it did not eventuate.

Adapting Priscilla as a talent show, in the style of British programs that have searched for leads for musicals such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (in the show Any Dream Will Do) and The Sound of Music (How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?), was raised many times. When the discussion was opened again this year, Elliott says, ''the time felt right''.

''The one thing I remembered, which I was reminded of when I went to the premiere of the [stage] show in Sydney, is what joy it brings people.

''That crowd went bananas. They were just so happy. And that's what it was like doing the film. It was a really fun experience. I felt that if we could encapsulate the same sense of freedom in the TV series, it would work.''

Elliott is front and centre with I Will Survive, he says, to protect the integrity of his original work. ''I don't want to be an actor, and I don't want to be in front of the camera. I'm happier behind a camera, but the only way to do it is to be a judge,'' he says. ''That puts me right in the front line to protect the integrity.''

The shoot - an actual road trip from Sydney to Alice Springs, retracing the film journey, with some side treks built in - has been ''complete chaos'', Elliott says.

''We have 10 cameras running in all different directions, stuff going wrong, but it is very funny.

''Some days we can't get off the ground from laughing so hard. Everybody gets the joke and that's what the brand brings with it.''

The series begins with auditions, takes its top-12 performers on the road trip and, returning to Sydney, takes its finalists to the US, finally arriving on Broadway. Though the Priscilla musical has closed on Broadway, the prize includes $250,000 cash and US representation.

Sheridan signed on after parting ways with Channel Seven's top-rating drama Packed to the Rafters. Though known mostly as an actor, he is a legitimate ''triple threat''; that is, an actor-dancer-singer, though he concedes it is something he hasn't always felt comfortable with. ''Once people are established in musical theatre, it's hard for people to take them seriously as an actor,'' Sheridan says. ''I'm lucky because Rafters allowed people to see me as an actor.''

What I Will Survive is setting out to do, he says, is explain how ''these days it is important to be able to do everything regardless; each discipline as good as the next''.

Sheridan says he was struck most by the transformational aspect of the road trip. ''Most shows use the word 'journey'; we use it, but we can because we're on an actual journey.

''The scenery is breathtaking, the locations are extraordinary … The stage show is not real, the movie is not real; this is real.''

The advantage of filming in Alice Springs and not in a television studio? ''You can't measure it,'' Sheridan says.

Most importantly, Elliott adds, I Will Survive does not stray far from the simple message in the original Priscilla film.

''Priscilla has a simple message of tolerance,'' he says. ''That's the heart of drag: an average kid, who isn't good-looking, who isn't famous, but for one fabulous night they can become this fabulous creation and be the centre of attention.

''The Rocky Horror Show was the same, about the misfits and the losers. And Glee has turned it into an industry. There are a lot of people out there who don't get a shot. And that is the real heart of Priscilla.''

I Will Survive airs on Wednesday on Channel Ten at 7pm.

Queer Sydney’s cinema locations

The Imperial Hotel in Erskineville, filming location for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Here is an article I wrote for The Star Observer that was published yesterday (26 April 2012)

Although gay Australians are generally aware of local queer cinema, few Aussies, not to mention inbound travellers, realise just how often Sydney has appeared as a backdrop on the little and big screens.

From Number 96, The Sum of Us and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to Muriel’s Wedding and Strictly Ballroom, the city is teeming with locations featured in gay or camp movies and television shows.

Australian gay cinema truly began with director Frank Brittain’s drama The Set. Shot in Sydney in 1970, the cult classic was the first movie to tackle homosexuality as a main theme.

Another trailblazer was television’s Number 96, the first soap opera to feature a regular gay character. Launched in the early 1970s, the series’ opening credits were filmed at Moncur Flats, 83 Moncur St, Paddington.

The 2012 comedy, A Few Best Men, takes a lighter, more tongue-in-cheek approach to homosexuality. The script describes Daphne (Rebel Wilson) as being 13 percent lesbian.

Director Stephan Elliott’s movie tells the story of a young English lad’s unusual wedding in Australia that goes from bad to worse thanks to his unruly mates. Much of the action takes place at the Yester Grange estate in the Blue Mountains.

In the 1990s, Elliott directed worldwide hit The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Two drag queens and a transsexual cross the Outback in a bus on their way to a cabaret gig.

Elliott’s ‘road movie in a frock’ kicks off with a tragedy when Bernadette (Terence Stamp) loses her partner, Trumpet, to peroxide fumes — he asphyxiates while dyeing his hair!

Trumpet’s funeral scene was filmed in Camperdown Cemetery on Church St, Newtown.

A stone’s throw from Camperdown, at 35 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville, is the Imperial Hotel, the setting for the send-off scene in Priscilla. This is where Adam (Guy Pearce) christens the bus ‘Priscilla’ by smashing a bottle of champagne over the roo bar, before he, Bernadette and Tick (Hugo Weaving) set off for Alice Springs.

The blow-up doll tied to a kite you see crashing in China at the end of the movie was filmed at the Chinese Garden of Friendship in Darling Harbour.

The date scene in The Sum of Us where Harry (Jack Thompson) proposes to Joyce (Deborah Kennedy) was shot near Darling Harbour’s Harbourside Shopping Centre.

The Sum of Us depicts a father and son’s close bond and their individual struggles to find love. The movie filmed in Rushcutters Bay Park, the setting of the footy game, and in the Royal Botanic Gardens. Jeff and his father, Harry, live on Campbell St, Balmain.

Although much of P J Hogan’s colourful ABBA campfest, Muriel’s Wedding, is set in Queensland, principal photography was done in New South Wales. After leaving Porpoise Spit, Muriel (Toni Collette) gets a job at Videodrama, a video store that originally operated at 135 Oxford St, Darlinghurst. Her roommate, Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths), works at Euro Star Dry Cleaning & Laundry opposite, at 100 Oxford St.

The scenes featuring Muriel trying on wedding dresses were shot at the House of Jean Fox at 48 Macquarie St, Parramatta. The store has since moved.

Grotta Capri, at 97-101 Anzac Pde, Kensington, is the restaurant where Muriel slurps her Orgasm cocktail while her bitchy friends reveal plans to holiday without her on Hibiscus Island. 

The Sea World Resort on the Gold Coast stood in as Hibiscus Island though some scenes were filmed in Sydney at Le Beach Hut, 179 Russell Ave, Dolls Point.

One of the highlights of Muriel’s Wedding is, of course, the wedding. This took place in St Mark’s Anglican Church at the corner of Darling Point Rd and Greenoaks Ave, Darling Point.

Another ‘camp as Christmas’ hit of the 1990s is Baz Luhrmann’s glittery dance comedy and directorial debut, Strictly Ballroom. The movie looks at the backstage backstabbing that occurs in the world of competitive ballroom dancing.

The dance sequences were shot in venues including the Kogarah RSL Club, 254 Railway Pde, Kogarah, and Petersham Town Hall, 107 Crystal St, Petersham.

The dance school run by Les Kendall (Peter Whitford) was a set built on a soundstage in Mentmore Studios, Rosebery. The rooftop sequence featuring Scott (Paul Mercurio) and Fran (Tara Morice) dancing to Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time was filmed above a business at the corner of Victoria and Marrickville Rds, Marrickville.

The scene where Fran’s family teaches Scott how to dance the paso doble was shot near the railway tracks in the Pyrmont Goods Yard. The tracks and sets were torn up shortly after filming was completed, making way for the Star Casino complex.

On the night the paso doble number was filmed, two government officials showed up for an inspection.

One of them pointed towards the milk licence vendor number painted on the milk bar set and said accusingly, “That vendor number doesn’t exist!”

“Neither does the milk bar,” a crew member replied glibly.

By LUKE BRIGHTY

INFO: www.sydneyonscreen.blogspot.com

Priscilla director calls on celebrities not Canberra for marriage equality

Stephan Elliott, director of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, is calling on celebrities to join the push for marriage equality. Photo: Getty Images.

Jenna Clarke, The Age, reports

Celebrities need to be more outspoken than politicians in order to legalise gay marriage in Australia, according to one of the country's most successful film directors, Stephan Elliott.

According to the screenwriter of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Australia is at risk of becoming a backward society due to immature politicians who are scared to speak up and support marriage equality.

"Come on guys, grow up. Pretty much the rest of the western world has gotten there, let's not go backwards," he told WAtoday.com.au.

"When you think about what Priscilla did about moving forward 18 years ago, I've now realised since that time we've gone backwards."

The 1994 film won an Academy Award for it's eleborate costumes and gained international acclaim and praise for Australian cinema due to its positive portrayal of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans community.

Elliott admitted that the Priscilla script and subsequent stage show were not political statements and it wasn’t until a near-death skiing accident in 2004 that inspired him to take action for a social issue close to his heart and home.

The traumatic ordeal left him with a broken neck, back, pelvis and legs and he wasn't expected to survive the fateful ambulance ride that changed his life.

"I was told I was going to die and my partner of 20 years wasn't allowed in the back of the ambulance with me because he wasn't considered family and that has really grated on me ever since," he said in Perth while promoting his new film A Few Best Men.

"I've never been politically motivated and I've been a little bit selfish, but when I saw this issue of marriage equality erupting over here while the rest of the world was getting on with it, it finally made me stand up and fight this one," the European based screen writer and director added.

Elliott, along with his friend Hugh Jackman and film critic David Stratton, have recently signed a statement supporting the Australian Marriage Equality's call for same sex marriage and will be a guest of honour at the AME's Equality Dinner in Sydney next week.

"Everybody is just too frightened and once you've got well known names and well known married names coming out and simply saying 'We support this', it makes people feel a lot more comfortable."

"In North America the first person to actually speak up in support of it was Brad Pitt which started a trigger effect and that's what needs to happen in Australia," he added.

Perhaps another ride around the desert atop Priscilla could help gain support?

"Well the sequel is written and it's there," he said.

"I think there's been enough distance now to know that I can possibly go back there."

While the first film was shot on location in New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory, Elliott believes its WA's turn to shine in the spotlight, maybe even with sequins and drag queens as the support cast.

"Well you never know! I've got a very good script for WA waiting and I’ve got one good desert film left in me which I've actually already written."

A Few Best Men opens in cinemas on January 26.

Grease star Olivia Newton-John is back in leather 33 years after her starring role in famous film

Hell for leather: Olivia Newton-John attends the premiere of A Few Best Men at the International Rome Film Festival

Article in the UK Daily Mail

In 1978 Olivia Newton-John had admirers around the globe lusting after her thanks to her role in Grease.

Fast forward 33 years and she's wearing leather again, just like her character Sandy Olsen did after her transformation.

However, the leather dress she wore at the premiere of A Few Best Men at the 6th International Rome Film Festival didn't quite capture the youthful allure of her biker jacket in the hit musical film.

Olivia, 63, wore the number as part of an all-black ensemble for her red carpet appearance at the premiere of the new comedy film in which she plays a character named Barbara.

And she wore the dress well, matching it with a sheer cardigan, boots and a handbag.

A perfect ensemble for one of her age, a demure cut in a slightly daring material.

The actress was accompanied by her husband John Easterling at the premiere.

John, founder of the Amazon Herb Company, wore a simple yet sharp black suit with a grey scarf for his appearance in Rome alongside his wife.

Earlier in the day Olivia wore a slight different, though equally black, outfit for a photocall ahead of the premiere.

She wore a blazer, white shirt, black leggings, boots and a tie for the event and looked great.

Earlier this week the couple were awarded the Stroud Award of Freshwater Excellence by the Stroud Water Research Center at its annual Water's Edge gala at Longwood Gardens in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

The Stroud Award of Freshwater Excellence(TM), also known as the SAFE Water Award(TM), is awarded for outstanding achievement to those who contribute broadly to the conservation and protection of fresh water.

Olivia and her husband, also known as Amazon John, are both staunch supporters of rainforest conservation and known for work in conserving the Amazon River watershed -- the largest in the world.

A Few Best Men is a comedy about a groom and his three best men who travel to the Australian outback for a wedding.

The film is directed by Stephan Elliott, best known for directing The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert back in 1994.

 
Smart casual: The actress is looking great for 63

A Few Best Men - Stephan Elliott's new movie hits the screens in 2012

From the writer and producers of Death at a Funeral and the director of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert comes this hilarious new comedy, A Few Best Men. The movie starring Aussies Olivia Newton-John and Rebel Wilson premieres in Sydney on Australia Day (26 January 2012).

See YouTube for more trailers