Kath, Kim and Baz to rejuvenate box office after slow year

Great Aussie hope ... The Kath & Kim Filum. Photo: RTP Films

Garry Maddox, The Age, reports

WITH at least three potential hits, last year's underwhelming box office for Australian films - except for Red Dog - is expected to improve this year.

Figures released by Screen Australia show last year's Australian releases took just $42.9 million - 3.9 per cent of the annual box office. But commercial prospects look bright for The Kath & Kim Filum, the romantic comedy Any Questions for Ben?, the Working Dog team's return to filmmaking after The Castle and The Dish, and Baz Luhrmann's star-powered The Great Gatsby.

Last year's results, dominated by Red Dog's exceptional $21.3 million, were down on the previous year's 4.5 per cent but still well above the record low of 1.3 per cent in 2004.

The acting chief executive of Screen Australia, Fiona Cameron, believes the wedding comedy A Few Best Men, shark attack horror film Bait 3D, musical The Sapphires and Ronan Keating comedy Goddess are also potential hits.

Other prospects include the Toni Collette comic drama Mental and the Sundance selection Wish You Were Here.

While Cameron expects the slate to top the 4 per cent mark this year, she won't predict a figure, citing Screen Australia's investment in culturally significant films whose impact often transcends box office results.

The Australian share of the box office has cracked 10 per cent only five times in the past 35 years, with Crocodile Dundee driving the record 23.5 per cent in 1986.

In a year when the total annual box office dipped 3 per cent to $1.094 billion, Screen Australia is citing other measures of success for Australian film, including sales to 19 territories for the sexually charged drama Sleeping Beauty after its world premiere at Cannes and 12 territories for the Tasmanian drama The Hunter after its Toronto festival debut.

The 3D cave-diving thriller Sanctum also grossed more than $100 million worldwide.

Also, the federal government agency claims 72.7 million ''downstream'' viewings for Australian films on DVD, online, pay TV and free-to-air TV, although cinema box office and international sales still largely determine financial success.

The challenge for small-scale Australian films with modest marketing budgets has only increased as the cinema business has polarised into ''events'' at both ends of the spectrum - blockbuster franchises in multiplexes and acclaimed films in arthouses.

But Red Dog's success shows how much audiences respond to even low-profile Australian films when they work creatively and are marketed strongly.

''They put together a warm, friendly, accessible script,'' Cameron says.

''Accessibility shouldn't be a dirty word.''

Magda on a silver screen roll

Magda Szubanski will appear in the new Australian film Goddess, as well as Santa's Apprentice and The Kath and Kim Filum. Source: Herald Sun

Vicky Roach, The Herald Sun, reports

EVEN Magda Szubanski is surprised by the direction her career has taken.

"I never thought I would still be putting on silly wigs and voices at this stage in my life," says the comedian, who turned 50 this year. "But as long as people want to watch me, I'll keep doing it. Besides, I'd be pretty useless at anything else."

While popular wisdom suggests that good roles become scarcer for women as they age, Szubanski says her career has never been better.

"In some ways, things are opening up for me more," she says from the set of The Kath and Kim Filum, now shooting in Melbourne.

Szubanski reprises her role as dedicated netballer Sharon Strzelecki in the feature-length adaptation of the popular television series, during which she accompanies the foxy ladies from Fountain Lakes on a whirlwind trip to Italy.

"It has been lots of fun," she says. "We have all the old tribe back together again."

This year Szubanski joined Ronan Keating and English actor Laura Michelle Kelly on the Sydney set of the musical romantic comedy Goddess, in which she plays an advertising executive. And this month sees the US premiere of Happy Feet Two, in which Szubanski again gives voice to Miss Viola, and the Australian release of Santa's Apprentice, where she plays the big man's efficient secretary.

Szubanski might have dropped several dress sizes since fronting Jenny Craig, but she still has a soft spot for cuddly characters such as Beatrice Lovejoy.

"I love playing those warm, homey characters," says Szubanski, who played Farmer Hoggett's wife in the two Babe films. She is a sucker for good family films, too. "Santa's Apprentice is like doing a version of Babe or Happy Feet. These films become part of family folklore. I absolutely love doing that kind of thing - it's so joyous."

Santa's Apprentice is now showing; Happy Feet Two opens on Boxing Day; Goddess is scheduled for a 2012 release.

Here's a filum they hope will kill 'em in the aisles

Gina Riley sports her unmistakeable Kim pout alongside British co-star Richard E. Grant on the set of The Kath & Kim Filum at Montsalvat.

Karl Quinn, The Age, reports

It's a beautiful day at Montsalvat, but rain is on the way, so Rick McKenna, executive producer of The Kath & Kim Filum, is juggling things to beat the weather. Trouble is, there's a lot more things to juggle than in his usual realm, television.

''I'm having to come to terms with the Rubik's cube of filmmaking,'' says McKenna, whose wife, Gina Riley, is at this very moment into her second hour of lying in a bed in the Great Hall - which doubles as a room in a castle in Italy - for a scene in which her character, Kim, says not a word.

''In TV, you can make little decisions without it really affecting anything,'' McKenna says. ''But the size of the machine here, if you make one small decision you drive everyone bonkers.''

But a little craziness is a small price to pay if the foxy ladies from Fountain Gate can successfully leap from small screen to big.

McKenna, Riley and Jane Turner, who plays Kath Day-Knight, are so convinced they can they have put the lion's share of the money into the movie.

''Is it a gamble?'' McKenna asks. ''Absolutely. But it's a considered one.''

The last fresh material from the team was in 2007, but the website still attracts 30,000 unique visitors a month. Among the show's fans is actor Richard E. Grant, known on set simply as ''Reg'', who was offered a part after meeting McKenna at the launch of Bill Granger's restaurant in London.

''I play the page who works for the king of Papilloma, this invented principality on the bottom of Italy,'' he says.

Magda Szubanski's Sharon falls for him. ''And the more disdainful and cruel my character is to her, the more she interprets it as a sign of true love. She's hilarious.''

Is it a class comedy? ''In a way I think it is,'' Grant says in his most impeccably plummy voice. But, he adds, ''the suburban foxy ladies win out, at all costs''.

Filming is due to wrap next week, and the movie should be released in the middle of 2012.

Screen Australia announces feature production expenditure dropped in 2010-11

From the Encore Magazine website

Australia saw a 33 per cent drop in drama production expenditure in 2010-11 from the previous financial year.

A report by Screen Australia that makes the announcement, and looks at both film and TV.

Australian feature production sat at 18 per cent ($89m) with 17 features made in 2010-11. This was a drop from around $300m the previous year.

However, with Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby and Alex Proya’s Paradise Lost starting production in the second half of 2011, the current financial year is already looking more promising.

Screen Australia estimates around $350m for 2011-12, with the agency contributing around $100m of that for films Drift, Mental, The Sapphires and the Kath & Kim Filum.

With a total drama slate of $495m, the agency placed foreign activity at 17 per cent ($85m). This was down from $180m last year when two high-budget films were made here, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

In better news, TV drama made up 65 per cent ($322m), a 12 per cent increase from last year. 2010-11 also had the highest level of expenditure for adult programming in over a decade. Expenditure also rose for children’s drama however it has not completely returned to the strong results of 2007-2009.

Overall, 82 per cent of Australian films and 85 per cent of TV drama accessed the producer offset.