Naomi Watts' steamy new film Two Mothers grabs attention at Sundance Film Festival

Two Mothers, which was shot in NSW, features Naomi Watts and Robyn Wright. Picture: Hopscotch Films Source: Supplied

The Daily Telegraph reports

Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts was flanked by her fellow Aussie co-stars James Frecheville and Xavier Samuel in Utah yesterday as their steamy new flick Two Mothers got its big unveiling at the Sundance Film Festival.

Shot at Seal Rocks on the north coast last year the film, about two mothers who have affairs with each other's sons, seems to have attracted some controversy over its racy subject matter.

While Watts said yesterday that: "There is sex in it but it's not really about sex," the Sutherland Institute - a conservative group based in Utah - feels otherwise, and has proposed that state funding for the festival should be cut on the grounds that its content is at odds with the state's "family values".

Blockbuster Aussies making home movies

On set during shooting of the film 'The Great Gatsby' at White Bay in Sydney. Picture: Stephen Cooper Source: The Daily Telegraph

Vicky Roach, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Cashed-up Australian film makers are enticing a growing number of our A-list exports back home to work, according to production figures released yesterday by Screen Australia that reveal a bumper year for the local industry.

Toni Collette, Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Sam Worthington and Xavier Samuel all made $8-$30 million films in Australia in the last financial year.

When the two big studio-funded blockbusters - Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby and Stuart Beattie's I, Frankenstein - are included in the mix, Australian feature production totalled $296 million in 2011/12, the second highest figure on record.

And the trend looks set to continue in 2012/2013 with Rachel Griffiths, Joel Edgerton, Mia Wasikowska and Guy Pearce all confirmed to appear in projects green-lit for the coming months, alongside high profile international imports such as Robert Pattinson and Ewan McGregor.

"This is not a coincidence. This is a pattern," said Screen Australia's chief executive Ruth Harley.

"And it's because the films are of sufficent scale to attract this major talent."

The increased budgets are also luring our established filmmakers back home.

Before shooting Mental with Collette in Queensland last year, PJ Hogan (Peter Pan, Confessions of A Shopaholic) hadn't made a film in Australia since Muriel's Wedding (1994).

And honorary Australian John Curran, who began work on the Robyn Davidson story Tracks in SA earlier this month with Wasikowska in the lead role, hadn't worked here since Praise (1998).

After the international success of his crime thriller Animal Kingdom, director David Michod could have shot his follow up anywhere in the world. He has opted to shoot his futuristic Western The Rover, with Pearce and Pattinson, in SA early next year.

In the past five years, the number of Australian features being made for between $8 and $30 million has more than doubled (to an average of seven per year), according to figures provided by Screen Australia to complement their annual drama report released today (Friday).

This coincides directly with the introduction of the Federal Government's Producer's Offset scheme.

"It's not that everybody is putting more money in their pocket. These are ambitious films," said Harley

The actual number of films (28) produced in 2011/12, however, was significantly down on the five year average (34).

Harley identified this as a shift from quantity to quality.

There were parallels in television where 2011/2102 also saw a strong performance in high-end adult dramas such as Underground: The Julian Assange Story , Howzat and Puberty Blues.

"The trend again is towards higher production values, higher budgets," said Harley.

"There are fewer hours and more money spent. This is resulting in fantastic, quality drama."

Emily Browning and Xavier Samuel - Aussies hang out on screen and off

Xavier Samuel and Emily Browning / Pic: Splash Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

Has on-screen chemistry once again morphed into real-life romance for Aussie actors-on-a-roll Emily Browning and Xavier Samuel?

That's the theory being floated about the co-stars, who are currently working on new sexually charged indie thriller Plush in LA.

Playing up-and-coming rockstars who fall into a downward spiral, the pair were this week seen out together buying CDs at legendary music giant Amoeba on Sunset Boulevard.

And they looked pretty happy together from where Confidential was sitting.

Browning, 23, best known for her roles in Sucker Punch and Sleeping Beauty, broke up with her British boyfriend Max Irons (son of the actor Jeremy Irons) earlier this year. Adelaide's Samuel, 28 - best known for his work on Twilight: Eclipse and A Few Best Men - was last linked to former Miss Europe pageant contestant Shermine Shahrivar.

In Plush - directed by Little Red Riding Hood's Catherine Hardwicke - Browning portrays a singer who loses her bandmate and brother to a drug overdose.

She seeks solace in the replacement guitarist (Samuel) however after an affair, his dark past starts to come through.

American "it" actor Cam Gigandet (of Easy A and Trespass fame) plays Browning's husband.

Animated films a hit at the box office, but Gold Coast-made Bait slow to lure audiences

Lincoln Lewis stars as a shark-averter in Bait 3D. Picture: Courtesy of Arclight Films Source: news.com.au

Neala Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Sharks in a supermarket thriller Bait has put a dampener on Australia's run of locally-made, widely-released movie hits.

After The Sapphires enjoyed a bonzer $2.3 million opening weekend off 279 screens nationwide in August, Kath & Kimderella followed up earlier this month by topping the box office chart with $2 million off 285 screens.

Bait’s opening weekend has landed it at No.10 with $365,187 off 283 screens, at a lacklustre average of $1290 per screen. (In comparison, new release kids’ title Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Dog Days took an average of $4132 off 236 screens for a total gross of $975,087.)

Bait, shot in 3D on the Gold Coast, stars rising young Aussies Xavier Samuel, Sharni Vinson, Lincoln Lewis and Phoebe Tonkin, all of whom have career heat in Hollywood.

The high-concept movie had some heat of its own, being selected to premiere at the prestigious Venice Film Festival.

Queenslander Lewis was on ground to promote Bait at several pre-release Q&A screenings, but leading man Samuel was unavailable to local distributor Paramount for promotion, busy on set in the US filming Plush with Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke.

The next Aussie film to open wide will be Mental on October 4.

The comedy, which reunites Muriel’s Wedding writer-director PJ Hogan with star Toni Collette, is expected to open on nearly 230 screens.

School holiday flicks ruled this past weekend at the cinemas, with Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted holding on to top spot with $2.6 million and Adam Sandler’s animated comedy Hotel Transylvania opening at No.2 with $1.3 million.

The Sapphires is finally falling after seven weeks of release, down to No.8 with a $441,029 weekend. It has grossed $12.7 million.

Kath & Kimderella also fell, down 49 per cent to take $558,184 on its third weekend, for a total of $4.8 million.

The black cat that stopped momentarily filming of the Anne Fontaine-directed The Grandmothers

Scene stealer ... The black cat comes from nowhere and wanders in to the filming of a scene for "The Grandmothers" with Ben Mendelsohn. Picture: John Grainger Source: The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports

Filming on the Aussie-based romantic drama The Grandmothers was momentarily halted this week when an uninvited visitor strolled into proceedings.

The cast, including Ben Mendelsohn, Naomi Watts and Robin Wright, watched on in bemusement as a black cat wandered on to the Sydney set before scampering away.

But not before animal loving Mendelsohn stopped the traffic to make sure the well-groomed moggie safely negotiated the inner city street.

It temporarily stopped the cameras rolling on the raunchy drama which has been shooting at Seal Rocks for the past three months under the guidance of French director Anne Fontaine, who is making her first foray into English-language filmmaking.

The movie's topic ruffled some feathers. The film, based on the book of the same name, has Watts' and Wright's characters falling in love with each other's sons.

The younger men are played by Australians Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville. Samuel is known from The Twilight Saga series and Frecheville shot to fame in Animal Kingdom.

Naomi Watts and Robin Wright in bikinis frolic with Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville in The Grandmothers at Sea Rocks

Looking sexy ... Naomi Watts (purple bikini) and Robin Wright with Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville finish filming a scene for The Grandmothers at Lighthouse Beach, Seal Rocks. Picture: Robert Mckell Source: The Daily Telegraph

Joel Christie, The Daily Telegraph, reports

For a town known for being little more than a quiet fishing village, Seal Rocks has suddenly got a whole lot steamier.

The picturesque mid-north coast town was again in lights, camera, action mode yesterday amid the second week of shooting for controversial film drama The Grandmothers, with leading ladies Naomi Watts and Forrest Gump actress Robin Wright turning heads during a frolic in the surf with their younger co-stars.

It's the best look yet at a story that is set to polarise - the pair playing best friends who unwittingly start sleeping with each others sons, played by Xavier Samuel (who falls for Wright) and James Frecheville (who falls for Watts).

"It's a confronting story but something a lot of women will be able to relate to, even if that's just on an extremely tiny level," a set source said.

"It's that classic case of giving in to your emotions."

The first English-language film by French director Anne Fontaine, who is renowned for Hollywood hit Coco avant Chanel, the flick is scheduled to continue filming for the next six weeks in a production estimated to inject over $1 million into the local economy.

Grannies with real glamour star in new Hollwood flick The Grandmothers

All-stars: Naomi Watts features in The Grandmothers Source: Getty Images

 

The Daily Telegraph reports

A ROLL-call of Aussie stars has been announced for the next locally-based Hollywood flick The Grandmothers.

Ben Mendelsohn and Gary Sweet are to join Naomi Watts and Robin Wright-Penn in The Grandmothers, which began filming on the mid-north coast this weekend.

With the Sydney production of The Great Gatsby wrapping up, The Grandmothers is set to be the next big Tinseltown production in town.

Watts and Wright-Penn will be joined by Aussie up-and-comers James Frecheville and Xavier Samuel who play their unlikely paramours.

Mendelsohn and Sweet lead the supporting cast and are joined by Sophie Lowe (Beautiful Kate, The Slap) and Jessica Tovey, making her feature film debut.

The eight-week shoot will begin in Seal Rocks and move to central Sydney.

It will be directed by Anne Fontaine, who had a major Hollywood hit with Coco avant Chanel.

Both French and Australian producers are also behind the flick, which is expected to inject thousands into the local economy and continue a strong run of Aussie-based productions putting Australia back on the film map.

Based on the Nobel Prize for Literature winner, The Grandmothers is described as a "heart-wrenching story of two lifelong friends who fall in love with each other's teenaged sons".

Frecheville, who found fame in his feature debut Animal Kingdom, will play the love interest of Wright-Penn and told Confidential this week that he is in good company.

"We have a very good team. It's going to be a great experience," he said.

The film's production begins as The Great Gatsby -- which has filmed in Sydney since last August -- finally wraps up.

Lawfully wedded strife

Friends Graham (Kevin Bishop), Luke (Tim Draxl) and Tom (Kris Marshall) struggle to get it together for groom David (Xavier Samuel).

Giles Hardie, The Age, reports

The stars of A Few Best Men have experienced their own real-life disasters on the big day, writes Giles Hardie.

The high drama of a wedding can lead to farce but also makes the event a perfect subject for comedy.

Realising this, director Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) thought it was about time Australia had a wedding farce to call its own. So he teamed up with Death at a Funeral writer Dean Craig to create A Few Best Men, the tale of David (Xavier Samuel), an English lad set to marry Australian girl Mia (Laura Brent).

The nuptials take place in the Blue Mountains at the house of Mia's father, Jim, the local federal MP and proud husband to Barbara (Olivia Newton-John), less-proud father of Daphne (Rebel Wilson) and somewhat perversely proud owner of Ramsey the prize-winning merino sheep.

When David and his three best men - Tom, Luke and Graham (Kris Marshall, Tim Draxl and Kevin Bishop) - arrive from Britain, the mandatory mayhem ensues. From naked drug dealers to intoxicated speeches, anything that can go wrong does.

Yet no matter the skill or imagination of a film's writer, real weddings are forever stranger than fiction, as these tales from the four eponymous best men demonstrate.

KEVIN BISHOP (Graham)

''I did go to one wedding where the guy who was the best man used to build cars with the groom and his whole speech was telling us how to take the carburettor out of a car and then replace the inlet manifold. It was really quite incredible. It went on for an hour-and-a-half. No one interrupted, because there was that morbid curiosity between everybody thinking at some point there was going to be a punchline. And in the end it was just, 'Wow, there's nothing coming.' He just talked to the point where the groom stood up and said, 'That's enough, Dave. I think, seriously mate, that's enough.'

''The first thing I did as soon as I got home was replace my carburettor. I had to do it straight away as it was fresh in my mind.''

TIM DRAXL (Luke)

''I've only ever been to one wedding. I was about 13 or 14 and it was at a mental asylum. The only other wedding I was supposed to go to was one of my best friend's weddings, in Greece. But I missed my flight. I'm notoriously late. I wasn't in the bridal party, thank god, and my friends were fine about it. They knew it was just me. I do try not to be late, I really do, but it always happens. My nickname on set was Look-who-decided-to-turn-up Draxl.

''That could explain why I've only been invited to two weddings.''

KRIS MARSHALL (Tom)

''I was at a very traditional wedding, with the top table and about eight circular tables facing it. During the father of the bride's speech, this old guy sat at one of the tables with his back to the father, he literally expires.

''The speech carries on, because people aren't really noticing; they're trying to get into the spirit of the thing. Then people started to notice. He was slumped over. He'd gone stone-slab grey. Yet the father of the bride is stabbing on. Finally, he gets interrupted when no one could take it any longer. Then they try to lift this guy out of the chair but he's too heavy. So these four guys grab a leg of his chair each and run out with this expired old man in a chair.

''The father of the bride was shaken but, in true stoic style, carried on with the speech. It was painful. Everyone was just thinking, 'What happened to that guy? Is he dead?' Amazingly, he didn't die. I don't know what the paramedics gave him but I saw him dancing the funky chicken about 10 o'clock that evening looking fine.''

XAVIER SAMUEL (David)

''My father got married a couple of years ago in Melbourne and I was in the bridal party. At the start of the ceremony, I was supposed to be standing up there with my brother and a couple of others. Instead, they were all there biting their fingernails and asking, 'Where is he?' I was in the city, running around looking for a pair of black shoes. I'd flown down from Sydney and forgot to pack any. I didn't know how hard it was to get a simple pair of black shoes. Every store you go into, they're like fancy in different ways. I almost had to wear a pair of Dunlop Volleys to my dad's wedding. I was like, 'This is not going to work!'''

A FEW BEST MEN

GENRE Comedy.

BUZZ Australian does wedding comedy.

STARS Xavier Samuel, Kevin Bishop, Tim Draxl, Kris Marshall, Laura Brent, Rebel Wilson, Olivia Newton-John.

DIRECTOR Stephan Elliott.

RATED MA15+.

RELEASE Now screening.

A Few Best Men Australian Premiere in Sydney

Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images AsiaPac

Cel Sydney Photography reports

Last night, Event Cinemas Bondi Junction was the stage for the premiere of Australian film director and screenwriter Stephan Elliott’s latest movie A Few Best Men.

A very grassy red carpet was rolled out for a lot of stars from the film to parade on. Although most premieres only have one or two stars attending, there were plenty around tonight as no less than 8 actors and the director came out to Sydney to promote the film.

Olivia Newton-John, who plays the mother of the bride in the film, definitely was the main star on the red carpet. Unfortunately she didn’t spend much time signing for the fans that showed up to see her and was rushed past them to the media and photographers. On top of that, it was unfortunate to see that some of the media abused their powers and got to pose with some of the actors rather than being professional and give the fans their time with actors.

On a good note, some of the actors, especially Xavier Samuel (Twilight: Eclipse, Bait, Anonymous) and director Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Easy Virtue, Eye of the Beholder) spend a lot of time with the fans and Xavier even returned back to those who’d missed out on him earlier when he was done with the media. The other boys, Kris Marshall (Death at a Funeral, Love Actually), Kevin Bishop (The Kevin Bishop Show, Muppet Treasure Island) and Tim Draxl (Tangle 2, The Shark Net, Swimming Upstream) also had a great time with everyone that showed up to see them, laughing, posing and signing lots of autographs.

Laura Brent (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) was full of smiles on the red carpet and also enjoying her time with fans.

Other guests that walked the red carpet tonight included Home and Away’s Jessica Tovey & Conrad Coleby, Nathaniel Dean (Wild Boys), Jessica McNamee (Packet to the Rafters), Tottie Goldsmith, Tahyna Tozzi and Malcolm Turnbull.

Olivia Newton-John and Stephan Elliott arriving at the premiere / Photo by Bauer Griffin

Films to watch in 2012

Lynden Barber, The Australian, reports

MAKING hard and fast predictions about the films coming out in the year ahead is a mug's game.

Many of the highlights are yet to be unfurled at film festivals like January’s Sundance, February’s Berlin and May’s Cannes, followed by Toronto and Venice in September.

Here there are bound to be surprises that no-one has predicted; if we’re lucky, one or two movies will arrive like a starburst and dazzle everyone who sees it - witness the French silent movie tribute The Artist at Cannes in 2011.

While some of these new discoveries will be released in the year ahead, a few will be held back for the following year, as is the case with The Artist, finally due for Australian release in February.

Conversely, highly anticipated films - ones from respected directors, featuring beloved stars, or part of a popular “franchise” - can all too easily turn out to be bombs; years in the making and destined to be forgotten in an instant.

Of course some of the bigger Hollywood movies will never see light of day at festivals and instead be kept under close wraps ready for their mega-marketed launches - though websites devoted to leaks from audience test screenings such as Ain’t It Cool News will do their darnedest to spoil any shocks.

Looking ahead is not all guess work though. Since the date of the Academy Awards was brought forward a few years ago, critics and other entertainment media tend to be shown many of the big-ticket items due for release in the first couple of months of the year.

You can add to that the number of independent and foreign language releases that gain premieres on Australia’s own film festival circuit - a testing ground for many film distributors, who use it to gauge audience reaction and spread the word on their top films.

As a result, I’m fortunate enough to have seen eight out of the upcoming 10 films listed here (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/gallery-e6frg8pf-1226225658544) and can say with confidence that if 2012 also brings the release of some other great titles it will be a rewarding year for cinema lovers.



A Few Best Men
Sure, it’s tasteless in the Hollywood grossout manner. But Stephan Elliott's best chance at a hit since The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is also very funny, thanks in part to Olivia Newton John’s priceless turn as a coke-crazed mother-of-the-bride. Pictured is Tim Draxl, Kevin Bishop, Kris Marshall and Xavier Samuel.

Sydney preview of A Few Best Men

Director Stephan Elliott introducing A Few Best Men at Westfield

Bondi Junction Event Cinemas – Wednesday 29 November

Variety may have called it an “oafish, bottom-feeding yuckfest, leaning heavily on gay-panic humor and finding its metier in scatological jokes and verbal diarrhea” (Jeez, thank God reviewer Dennis Harvey enjoyed the movie!), but A Few Best Men delivers far more than toilet humour. Yes, it’s certainly not War & Peace, but then it doesn’t pretend to be. The movie is 91 minutes of sheer fun and entertainment.

A Few Best Men sees English groom-to-be David (Xavier Samuel) breaking the surprise news to his mates that he is not only getting married, but that the wedding is taking place in Australia. David and his best men fly from London to Sydney where fiancée Mia (Laura Brent) and her wealthy and influential family await. What follows is a wedding day filled with chaos, culture clashes, a runaway floral arrangement, a paranoid drug dealer out for revenge and a puzzled Merino sheep dressed in drag.

Olivia Newton-John plays Barbara Ramme, mother of the bride and frustrated wife of Senator Jim Ramme (Jonathan Biggins). Olivia literally steals the show as the proper matriarch who becomes a consummate party girl after liquoring herself up and snorting enough cocaine to keep South America on the map. One almost expects Jane Lynch to pop up next to Barbara during the YMCA routine to help her lead the pack through a drug-induced dream sequence involving headbands and a gleeful remix of Physical.

The only downfall of the movie is the absence of pathos to offset the over-the-top humour. The characters tend to be caricatures and you wish the actors were given a chance to stretch themselves with a serious or touching scene. Self-pitying Luke (Tim Draxl) spends most of the movie moping around or drunk as a skunk. At times, it’s hard to resist the urge to reach through the screen, grab the character and slap some sense into him. Rebel Wilson is amusing and touching as Mia’s sister Daphne and Kevin Bishop does a great job as bumbling best man Graham.

The jokes, a combination of English and Australian humour, come thick and fast, taking the viewer on a rollercoaster ride of fun and derision. If you need a good laugh and don’t mind outrageous humour, then this is the movie to see. My only regret was not being part of the cast. They were obviously having a great time shooting the movie and one can only hope that the special features will contain outtakes and a gag reel when the movie is released onto DVD.

John Farrar, who penned many of Olivia Newton-John’s hits over the years, co-wrote the movie’s theme song, Weightless, with his son Max. The track, performed by Olivia during the end credits, is hopefully a prelude to her forthcoming dance and remixes album.

A Few Best Men hits Aussie screens on 26 January 2012.