Westside story for our Lincoln Lewis

US TV role ... Australian actor Lincoln Lewis / Pic: Sam Ruttyn Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

Lincoln Lewis is growing up fast.

The 25-year-old has gone from Home & Away hunk to Hollywood actor after starting to shoot his first big role in the United States.

The son of rugby league great Wally Lewis was spotted yesterday working on the set of Westside, a modern TV retelling of Romeo and Juliet.

The Brisbane boy, who has been in Tomorrow, When The War Began and Australian dramas SLiDE, Underbelly and Tricky Business since leaving the soap in 2010, plays the lead in the show. It's about two warring families in Venice Beach. Another former Summer Bay resident, Luke Bracey, appears as Lewis' brother.

Although American TV networks commission dozens of pilots at this time of year only to go ahead with a select few, Westside has a lot going for it, including the flamboyant McG, who directed the Charlie's Angels big-screen remakes and Terminator: Salvation.

Lewis will also appear in Will Smith's new flick After Earth, out in June.

Human role mere memory for Phoebe Tonkin

Actress Phoebe Tonkin in Surry Hills. Picture: Anthony Reginato Source: The Sunday Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

She has played a mermaid, a witch and a werewolf so, not surprisingly, Aussie actress Phoebe Tonkin is wondering if she'll ever play a human being again.

Not that it's hurt her career. In fact, the one-time H2O: Just Add Water star is preparing to begin shooting on her new series The Original - a spin-off vehicle for her character from her current US show The Vampire Diaries.

Speaking from Atlanta yesterday - where the vamp series is shot - Tonkin, an up-and-comer who got her start in the US in the bewitching The Secret Circle, admits the new role is a coup.

"It was pretty exciting when they told me. It's basically a whole new show based around my character so I'm honoured to be a part of it," she told Confidential.

Tonkin also hopes to continue seeking film roles, having appeared in the shlock horror shark movie Bait and the successful Aussie flick Tomorrow, When The War Began.

"It's just hard getting back to LA to do auditions while I'm spending most of my time filming in Atlanta," she said.

"But it's something I need to keep doing. You just have to keep at it."

Kath and Kim beat The Expendables 2 at the Australian box office

Kath and Kim and the cast from their movie Kath & Kimbrella. Source: Supplied

Vicky Roach, News Limited Network, reports

Who would have thought? Kath and Kim have more box office muscle than Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham combined.

The long-awaited silver screen debut by those foxy ladies from Fountain Lakes has taken $2.1 million and the No 1 spot in its opening weekend at the Australian box office, ahead of Sly's old school action adventure The Expendables 2.

''I told you I looked great on the big screen mum!'' said Kim.

''Well, I agree with the BIG part of that Kim,'' replied Kath.

But even with a crown prince and a fairytale European holiday at their disposal, TV's favourite comedians couldn't outshine The Sapphires.

The feelgood 60s musical took $2.34 million in its opening weekend, pulling in the biggest crowds for an Australian movie since teen action film Tomorrow When The War Began opened with $3.86 million in September 2010 and beating the $1.78 million debut of last year's success story Red Dog.

And in its fifth week of release, The Sapphires, which tells the story of an indigenous all-girl group that travels to Vietnam to entertain the troops, was holding firm in the No 3 spot at the box office.

A weekend gross of $919,000 took the film’s overall tally to within a whisker of $11 million ($10,952,085.)

Pledge on film sequel

Cast members Deniz Akdeniz and Caitlin Stasey from the first movie. Source: Supplied

Amy Harris and Joel Christie, The Daily Telegraph, report

New life has been breathed into the sequel to the surprisingly successful Aussie blockbuster Tomorrow When The War Began with producers promising cameras will roll early next year.

Considered dead in the water 12 months ago, Tomorrow When The War Began 2 - based on a series of books by John Marsden - is still searching for a director after the original auteur Stuart Beattie dropped out.

But executive producer Matthew Street said a "great screenplay" exists and that production would eventually begin.

"(The sequel) is certainly not dead," Street said yesterday.

He said Aussie actor Kieran Darcy-Smith had written a "great screenplay" based on Marsden's original book series. The news has come as a surprise to the cast however, with starlet Phoebe Tonkin saying she had not heard about plans for the project.

"I would have loved to have done a sequel but I don't think it's going to happen," she said.

"A bit of time has passed now.

"I don't think there will be one, or at least not with the original cast - which probably is a shame.

"But that could always change, you never know."

Her doubts echoed sentiments shared earlier by co-star Caitlin Stasey, who said she feared the original cast of the movie would be too old to play the teenage characters in the original by the time a sequel came about.

Fangs for role but don't typecast me

Phoebe Tonkin. Picture: Supplied by Warner Bros. Source: Supplied

Elle Halliwell, The Sunday Telegraph, reports

She’s played a mermaid, a witch and now she has landed a role to really get her teeth into - a blood-thirsty vampire.

But Phoebe Tonkin hopes this latest supernatural role is her last. "I think I'm getting typecast a little bit, in the mythological world," she said. "I'm probably going to be a fairy next."

Fangs and scaly tails aside, the 23-year-old Australian actor has become hot property in Hollywood, landing a role on the fourth season of hit teen Fox8 series The Vampire Diaries following a stint playing a teen witch in supernatural drama The Secret Circle.

"They're really fun shows," she said.

"You get to play these ordinary characters put into these extraordinary situations, and The Secret Circle and The Vampire Diaries - they're about high school kids thrown into this unique crazy mythological world."

Tonkin, whose role in local drama Tomorrow When The World Began landed her an IFA nomination, said it was unlikely the sequels to the teen book adaptation would go ahead.

"A lot of time has passed and I don't think we all really look 16 anymore," said Sydney-born Tonkin.

But a part in another Australian feature film is on Tonkin's wish list.

"There are a lot of good opportunities back home and I don't need any persuading to come back and see my family and do something back there," she said.

The Sapphires a box office smash hit on opening weekend

Aussie flick The Sapphires has been a big success on opening. Picture: Hopscotch Source: Supplied

Neala Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, reports

The Sapphires has enjoyed the best opening for an Australian movie in almost two years, taking $2.32 million at the box office last weekend.

The feel-good musical drama about an all-girl Aboriginal singing group sent off to Vietnam to entertain the troops has put a sparkle into an otherwise dull 2012 at the local box office, pulling in the biggest crowds since teen action film Tomorrow When the War Began opened with $3.86 million in September 2010 and beating the $1.78 million debut of last year’s runaway success story Red Dog.

The Sapphires’ total gross now sits at $2.59 million, with distributor Hopscotch/eOne expecting it to reach $3.4 million by the end of the week.

“The reports we’ve been getting from cinemas is people applauding after each session,” said Troy Lum, managing director of Hopscotch/eOne. “Word of mouth seems to be very strong, so we hope the film is going to have really good legs.”

The performance puts the film at No.2 on the weekend chart behind The Dark Knight Rises with $2.74 million. Lum believes Batman can be defeated: “We might catch it by the end of the week,” he predicted.

“Batman is showing on more screens (500-plus) than we are, but we’re pleased as punch. It’s very difficult in this very studio-driven environment to get a result like this. When you’re punching above your weight the way The Sapphires is, it’s really heartening.”

The Aussie flick has benefitted from advance interest overseas, with a well-received premiere at Cannes, Hollywood heavyweights the Weinstein Company buying the rights for a US release and star Jessica Mauboy catching the eye of American Idol impresario Simon Cowell.

Such “international approval” can do wonders for a film locally – as happened when Melbourne crime drama Animal Kingdom picked up US awards buzz – but Lum believes Australian audiences make up their own minds.
“I don’t think Australians buy into that stuff unless they see it and they think it’s good. While it’s helpful the film played well at Cannes, if Australian audiences didn’t take to it, it wouldn’t have generated the kind of result it did on the weekend.

“My feeling with Aussie films is that people need that personal recommendation. People need to be told, ‘Yes, this is a good movie, you should go and see it’. That has happened with this film – we screened it a lot beforehand, really got it out there and people are talking about it. That’s the best advertisement for a movie.

“The unknown variable for us was whether the film was going to play in the suburban and regional areas. There’s always the danger that you get a really strong result out of the urban areas and not so much anywhere else. But the most heartening thing about the result for us is it is spread out all over Australia. It’s not just playing to upmarket audiences, it’s been embraced by middle-Australia.”

By capturing suburban and regional audiences, The Sapphires has maximised its chances of reaching Red Dog-levels of success.

“We’ve always had pretty high expectations, so I don’t think we could raise them any more,” Lum said. “When you see it and feel it, it’s hard to dampen those expectations. If you see this movie, you feel compelled to tell other people about it.

“No matter how much money you spend on advertising or marketing, that’s really the key.”

The Sapphires opened on 275 screens, slightly wider than recent local hits Mao’s Last Dancer ($2.75 million off 266 screens in 2009) and Red Dog (which at its height was showing on 268 screens).

Red Dog opened on the same August weekend last year with $1.78 million, then increased its takings the following two weekends. It went on to gross $21.3 million, just scraping into the Top 10 of overall box-office takings in 2011 and becoming the eighth highest-grossing Australian film of all time.

However, Red Dog was well ahead of the pack; the next best-performed Australian films of 2011 being 3D cave-diving thriller Sanctum ($3.9 million) and child-migration drama Oranges and Sunshine ($3.8 million). Sanctum, backed by Avatar maestro James Cameron, travelled best, taking $103 million worldwide.

Australian films last year accounted for 3.9 per cent of total box office of $1.09 billion. That was down on the 4.5 per cent of total box office in 2010, when nine Australian films grossed over $2 million, led by Tomorrow When the War Began, Bran Nue Dae, Animal Kingdom and The Kings of Mykonos.

So far in 2012, wedding comedy A Few Best Men (a co-production with the UK team behind Death at a Funeral) leads the way, its $1.8 million opening weekend in January leading to a total gross of more than $5 million.
The Joel Edgerton-starring drama Wish You Were Here is next best with $1.46 million, followed by Any Questions for Ben?, the disappointing comeback from the makers of The Castle, which took $1.43 million.
Animated sequel Happy Feet Two was released last Boxing Day, but took the bulk of its $10.4 million this year.

The Australian movie industry still has some tricks left up its sleeve for 2012.

September 6 sees the release of Kath & Kimderella and Bait.

The former, the movie debut for TV’s beloved foxy morons Kath & Kim, should be able to ride its built-in audience and heavy nation-wide promotion to a strong opening weekend. Bait, a 3D thriller in which Xavier Samuel and Julian McMahon are trapped in a supermarket with a killer Great White shark, is likely to follow in the footsteps of Sanctum and do impressive business internationally. It will have its world premiere on September 1 at the Venice Film Festival.

Mental, which reunites Muriel’s Wedding pair PJ Hogan and Toni Collette, will close the Melbourne International Film Festival on Saturday and open the Australian International Movie Convention on the Gold Coast on Sunday. A convention for distributors and exhibitors, AIMC last year built up plenty of advance buzz for A Few Best Men.

Mental opens nationally on October 4.

With Baz Luhrmann’s Warner Bros-backed The Great Gatsby moving to mid-year, local cricket-tour comedy Save Your Legs! (out January 24) appears set to have summer to itself.

The Sapphires also opened in France last weekend (box office results not yet available), with Britain and US releases to follow from November.

Best Australian movie opening weekends of the last three years

1. Tomorrow When the War Began – $3.86 million – Sept 2010
2. Mao’s Last Dancer – $2.75 million – Oct 2009
3. The Sapphires – $2.32 million – Aug 2012
4. Happy Feet Two – $2.21 million – Dec 2011
5. A Few Best Men – $1.83 million – Jan 2012
6. The Kings of Mykonos: Wog Boy 2 – $1.83 million – May 2010
7. Red Dog – $1.78 million – Aug 2011
8. Bran Nue Dae – $1.61 million – Jan 2010
9. Sanctum – $1.6 million – Feb 2011
10. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole – $1.36 million – Sept 2010
11. Daybreakers – $1.06 million – Feb 2010
12. I Love You Too – $874,533 – May 2010
13. Oranges and Sunshine – $681,018 – June 2011
14. Animal Kingdom – $604,319 – June 2010
15. Beneath Hill 60 – $548,371 – April 2010

No Tomorrow, When the War Began sequel for star Caitlin Stasey

Actor Caitlin Stasey (front) in scene from hit film Tomorrow When The War Began. Picture: Image.net Source: Supplied

Vicky Roach, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Tomorrow, When the War Began star Caitlin Stasey doubts she will reprise the lead role of Ellie Linton in any sequel.

Although production company Omnilab remains committed to filming the second book in John Marsden’s best-selling teen franchise, the 21-year-old actress fears the original cast members will be too old to play the teenage characters by the time it finally goes into production.

"You always hear things, you always hear that someone's writing it, that someone's putting it together," Stasey told IF magazine.

"Nothing has happened until it happens. Unfortunately for the Tomorrow series, I feel that for the actors that were in the first film, maybe our commitment to it is done."

The apocalyptic action adventure, about a bunch of teenagers who turn into rebel fighters when their country is invaded by a foreign army, was the highest-grossing Australian film of 2010, taking $13.48 million at the box office. But it failed to secure a US distributor.

A sequel was to start filming in February last year, with Tomorrow When The War Began writer-director Stuart Beattie at the helm.

But the project was shelved when he signed on to write and direct a film adaptation of the graphic novel adaptation I, Frankenstein, now shooting in Melbourne with Aaron Eckhart in the lead role.

Stuart Beattie’s I, Frankenstein begins in Australia in January

From the Encore Magazine website

Australia is to be the location for director Stuart Beattie’s production of feature I, Frankenstein which starts filming in January, co-producer Hopscotch Features today announced.

Beattie directed Tomorrow When The War began as well as writing, Australia, Pirates of the Caribbean, Collateral and G.I Joe. For the latest project, he has adapted the script from the graphic novel of the same name by Kevin Grevioux, co-creator of the Underworld franchise.

The project is a co-production with Lakeshore Entertainment. It features Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight, Rabbit Hole) as the monster, Adam Frankenstein.

Beattie said: “Mary’s Shelley’s story is about the creation of the first human being. This is the story is about that being becoming human.”

Lionsgate Films will distribute the film in the United States, Lakeshore will handle international sales and E1/Hopscotch will distribute in Australia

In the announcement, the film is described as “A modern-day epic: Frankenstein’s creature, Adam, has survived into the present day due to a genetic quirk in his creation. Making his way to a dark, gothic metropolis, he finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans.”

Troy Lum of Hopscotch said: “We have wanted to work with Stuart on a big film in Australia and when we had the opportunity earlier this year to expand our relationship with Lakeshore on the creation of a potential franchise, it all came together.”

Tom Rosenberg of Lakeshore said: “We’ve tremendously enjoyed making our Underworld franchise films and we are looking forward to working with Stuart and our partners at Hopscotch and Lionsgate to create a new world for a legendary character.”

Beattie was due to start filming the sequel to Tomorrow, When the War Began last month for Omnilab but a spokesman for the production company said that Tomorrow 2 is still a live project, but with no announcement as yet for a production date.

Rumours on the web had Underworld 3 director Patrick Tatopoulos to helm the production in 2010 when Lakeshore first acquired the rights. At the time, Grevioux said to expect, “Any number of vampires, werewolves, Dracula, zombies, ghosts, goblins. Regardless of saying that, it’s going to be totally serious. It’s going to take itself seriously, but not take itself too seriously and it’s going to be cool. It’s basically one of the things that horror fans, like myself, have been wanting to see for a long time.”