DAVID Michod’s second feature, The Rover, has fizzled at the Australian box office, earning $80,000 in its second weekend for a total $344,000.
At this rate, the apocalyptic revenge thriller starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson is unlikely to rank even among the top five Australian films of the year with The Railway Man’s 2014 take ($5.53m), Wolf Creek 2 ($4.73m), Tracks ($2.4m), Healing($420,000) and I, Frankenstein ($390,000) already in the bank and a few more Australian releases still hopeful of strong audiences this year. That said, the draw of the Twilight star Pattinson will give the film legs internationally. Michod’s follow-up toAnimal Kingdom (which earned more than $4 million here) opened in the US on the weekend, earning an impressive US$481,214 on 608 screens.
PHILLIP Noyce’s long-held plans to film Philip Roth’s novel, American Pastoral, appear — finally — close to fruition. The Hollywood Reporter reports Noyce has cast Ewan McGregor in the film scheduled to shoot in Pittsburgh in March. The epic book’s adapted screenplay is written by The Lincoln Lawyer’s John Romano.American Pastoral has been on Noyce’s dance card as long as his adaptation of Tim Winton’s Dirt Music. The director of Salt, Rabbit-Proof Fence and Newsfront will release The Giver, a sci-fi fantasy starring Alexander Skarsgard, Aussie Brenton Thwaites and Meryl Streep, later this year. He has also directed a number of US TV episodes, including Revenge, Luck and the pilot of Crisis, starring Rachael Taylor and Gillian Anderson.
POSITIVE comments by the arts minister, Senator George Brandis, last week supporting an increase in the Australian Screen Production Incentives (or producer offsets) have passed without notice. Previously Senator Brandis has reiterated his election promise to keep the levels of the offsets under review. The weight of industry backing is behind bringing the TV offset to parity with the film offset of 40 per cent, or at the very least 30 per cent, to stimulate production. But speaking at the Screen Producer Australia’s annual Screen Stories breakfast in Canberra last week, Senator Brandis acknowledged: “There is a great enthusiasm in the industry to see the levels of the offset made more generous and that is what I would like to see subject to the overall budget health.”
The “overall budget health” is the caveat though and seemingly the hand brake on any rises in the federal expenditure (or offsets) in the short term. But the minister’s comments are a start.
THE National Film and Sound Archive has confirmed the timing of its “feedback” sessions on its new strategic plan and cuts to funding and staff. The NFSA will make redundant 28 staff members and refocus its activities within a new three-year strategic plan. Reel Time is not sure 90 minute information sessions will cover it though. NFSA chief executive Michael Loebenstein’s restructure will also reduce its screening program and the number of events at its Arc cinema in hometown Canberra.
The strategic plan, which was released last week, is available at nfsa.gov.au. It says: “If not addressed the NFSA’s financial position will become increasingly unsustainable, and the organisation will run the risk of underperforming on a range of expectations and not being able to deliver to our audiences what they are entitled to expect.” The report adds further cuts will be necessary “unless we are able to generate and/or secure an increase in revenue or successfully bid for new policy funding.”
Furthermore, at current in-house rates, it estimates its collection of more than two million items won’t be fully digitised for 67 years for audio or 93 years for its moving image collection. The information sessions will be held in Sydney (July 1 at Australian Film, Television and Radio School), Melbourne (July 4, Australian Centre for the Moving Image), Canberra (July 7, NFSA Theatrette), Brisbane (July 15, Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Fortitude Valley), Adelaide (July 18, South Australian Film Corporation) and Perth (July 29 ScreenWest).
AUSTRALIA’S national screen arts and broadcast school, AFTRS, will offer a new three-year Bachelor of Arts in Screen course from 2015. It claims the BA “will be the most in-depth and creatively comprehensive screen degree in the world”.
The new course will be platform agnostic and “fuse deep scholarly engagement with the art of storytelling”.
Two core subjects, Story & Writing and The History of Film, will run for three years with elective specialist subjects. AFTRS chief executive Sandra Levy says in a statement the course was designed to “future-proof’ graduates for a changing and dynamic world post tertiary studies”.
“Conceptually driven, the new BA in Screen is all about critical thinking, creative engagement and preparing those with the best minds to be future creative leaders in their fields,” she says. Entry is via a merits election process which includes the completion of course-specific tasks as well as evidence of their creative work. AFTRS will hold a dedicated Bachelor of Arts (Screen) Information Day on June 28. The AFTRS 2014 Open Day will be held on September 6.
APROPOS of nothing in particular, the Women and Hollywood organisation released some figures this week showing how many women had directed feature films released by major studios in the last five years. Would you believe it was only 4.7 per cent, or 22 of the 466 features? Only one woman directed two features in 2009-13: Anne Fletcher, who did The Proposal and The Guilt Trip.
ON Monday the Tasmanian Breath of Fresh Air Film Festival will open entries for the BOFA Devil Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit 2014. The award recognises the work of an individual in the Tasmanian screen industry who has shown outstanding entrepreneurial spirit in getting screen projects off the ground, developing their screen business, forming collaborative partnerships, and actively working to create a sustainable and viable screen industry in Tasmania. The winner will receive $1,000 and a unique hand-blown glass BOFA Award, created by Tasmanian craftsman James Dodson.
**AND WE SAY BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
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