News

Writer-director David Vincent Smith is poised to make his feature debut, with his project Burden awarded $750,000 in production funding via Screenwest’s West Coast Visions initiative.

Burden, produced by No Labels Media, is described as tense family drama about ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances.

The film explores themes of mental health and addiction as it challenges audiences to ponder the question; “How far would you go to save someone you love?”

Smith has worked on swathe of short films and music videos over the last decade, including We Were Here which won four Wa Screen Awards, and is a former recipient of Screenwest’s Feature Navigator program.

His script The Jesus Machine was shortlisted for the Australian Writers’ Guild’s John Hinde Award in 2019.

“I feel incredibly honoured to receive West Coast Visions from Screenwest, who have always been so supportive of my filmmaking. I’m so proud to...

Screenwest will help fund the development of six new features from creatives including Alison James, Roderick MacKay, Zak Hilditch, Ben Young, Martin Wilson and Stephen McCallum.

The projects have been funded via the Brighter Ideas program, which was launched to bolster internationally successful Wa talent who have either returned to, or been confined to the state, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

James said of her new project, A Haven for Strays: “I’m thrilled to be one of the recipients of the Brighter Ideas fund and to now have the opportunity to work with a script editor on this screenplay.

“We’re at a unique point where many mid-level and experienced writer/directors have returned to Perth from overseas due to Covid-19 and for a state that has long suffered from brain drain to the Eastern States and the US, I think it’s a great idea to focus their...

Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt.

Financing feature films is going to be even harder after the pandemic, prompting Truant Pictures’ Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt to offer some practical advice to genre filmmakers.

In a nutshell: Come up with compelling ideas for contained films on low budgets without sacrificing quality. Try to stick to a budget of $3 million, which could be scaled up to $8 million if Netflix or other international players come on board.

The founders of Animal Logic’s genre film and TV production arm surveyed the state of the industry yesterday in an Australians in Film webinar moderated by Krista Carpenter.

The La-based firm is developing 10 features and two TV series and is in the process of financing four of those projects, Nalbandian tells If.

Schmidt, who learned his craft from horror-master Wes Craven and filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan, offered this advice: “Make the most contained, low budget, compelling film you can,...

Screenwest’s re-imagined 2020 West Coast Visions program will fast track more new talent in a two-stage model.

In addition, Sbs acting head of scripted Amanda Duthie and strategic consultant James Hewison from Kinetic will serve as external industry assessors.

Applications are open now and close on Monday May 11 at 5:00pm Awst.

Stage one: Three shortlisted applicants will receive targeted and intensive six-month development and $20,000 in grant development funding.

Stage two: After development, one successful project will be selected to receive production funding of $750,000.

Screenwest talent development manager Eva Di Blasio said: “The new format for the West Coast Visions will enable two additional teams to develop their feature films into market-ready productions.

“The inclusion of Amanda Duthie and James Hewison on the selection panel is a fantastic endorsement of the program and will ensure that three amazing projects go into development and an exceptional, production ready feature is selected as the final recipient.

Truant Pictures development and production executives Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt.

Animal Logic Entertainment’s live-action genre arm Truant Pictures has selected three finalists for its screenplay competition, designed to uncover emerging writing talent in the realms of horror, sci-fi and thriller.

The finalists, chosen from hundreds of submissions, are reported by Truant to “exhibit a unique voice, strong craft and a compelling command of their genre.”

The finalists are:

David Willing & Beth King (Vic) – The Surrogate

When single mother Natalia gives birth despite not being pregnant, she discovers the ghost of a missing child is hell-bent on destroying her family.

Jonathon Green & Anthony O’Connor (Nsw) – Emma After

A ghost girl falls in love with the living boy she’s meant to haunt away.

D.J. McPherson (Vic) – His Name Is Jeremiah

A damaged teen girl from a remote Australian town struggles to adjust when her violent mother is released from jail.

Tania Chambers and Renée Webster.

Writer/director Renée Webster and producers Tania Chambers of Feisty Dame Productions and Judi Levine of Such Much Films are the recipients of Screenwest’s 2019 West Coast Visions initiative.

They will receive $750,000 towards the feature film How To Please A Woman, a heartfelt comedy drama about Gina, an admin worker who starts a company providing women with quality sexual experiences packaged with a houseclean. She soon discovers the boundless nature of not only their desires but also her own.

The project has received development funding from Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Brilliant Stories initiative and Screenwest’s feature development program.

Screenwest head of production and development Matt Horrocks said the film’s DNA was strong and its underlying themes were universal, observing: “The ideas explored in the film will touch audiences worldwide and I’m very excited to see another Western Australian feature film creating...

Grant Sputore.

After making his feature directing debut on I Am Mother Grant Sputore has no qualms about making the significant leap to directing the science-fiction thriller Augmented for Warner Bros.

“I feel excited and ready to tackle it,” Sputore tells If as he collaborates with his I Am Mother screenwriter Michael Lloyd Green, who is reworking a spec script by Mark Townend.

WB optioned Townend’s script in 2017 and announced it would be produced by Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment. But the project stalled until Robbie hired Sputore and Green, who pitched their vision to studio executives.

Townend’s script was set in a future where people are enhancing their lives with smart technology implants. The plot followed a female criminal defence attorney whose body is hijacked and forced to commit proxy murders.

“We are doing a drastic retooling which is very different, although the technology and how it...

Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt.

Animal Logic Entertainment’s live action genre arm Truant Pictures today launched a screenplay competition designed to discover new talent.

The call-out is for any writers who are Australian citizens or permanent residents and who earned no more than $30,000 from fiction screenwriting in the past 12 months.

The scripts must be in the genres of horror, science fiction and/or thriller.

The winner will receive $5,000 cash, a hot desk for one week at Truant Pictures’ Sydney office and mentorship from Truant’s development and production executives Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt.

Two finalists will each receive $1,000 cash and all three will be read and given notes from one of the three judges: Stuart Beattie, Yolanda Ramke (Cargo) and Zak Hilditch, plus written feedback from La-based ex-pat Aussie script consultant Tim Schildberger.

Entries opened today and can be submitted until September 2, with the winners announced in November.

A violent power struggle threatens to tear a motorcycle gang apart, in a gritty crime thriller featuring the stars of Wolf Creek 2 and The Neon Demon, from the makers of Black Mass and Ill Manors. Sons of Anarchy meets Macbeth in Stephen McCallum’s directorial debut, about leadership tussles in an outlaw motorcycle club down …

The post Outlaws is released on DVD and Digital on 18th February 2019 by Altitude Film Entertainment appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.

Stars: Ryan Corr, Abbey Lee, Simone Kessell, Josh McConville, Matt Nable, Aaron Pederson | Written by Matt Nable | Directed by Stephen McCallum

The debut feature from Australian director Stephen McCallum, this gritty biker gang thriller achieves a certain level of sweaty intensity and largely pulls off its Shakespearean parallels, though there are a few wobbles along the way.

Set in present-day Australia, the film centres on biker gang member Paddo (Ryan Corr), who has taken over leadership of the Copperheads Motorcycle Club during club president Knuck’s (screenwriter Matt Nable) three year stint in jail. When Paddo’s learning disabled brother Skink (Josh McConville) steals heroin from rival gang the Devils, Paddo brokers a mutually beneficial agreement with gang leader Sugar (Aaron Pederson) in return for his brother’s life.

However, when Knuck gets out of jail, he refuses to honour the deal, putting both Skink and Paddo’s lives in danger.

To celebrate the home entertainment release of Outlaws, available on DVD 18th February 2019, we have a copy of the DVD up for grabs, courtesy of Altitude Entertainment. A violent power struggle threatens to tear a motorcycle gang apart, in a gritty crime thriller featuring the stars of Wolf Creek 2 and The Neon Demon, from the makers of Black Mass and Ill Manors.

Sons of Anarchy meets Macbeth in Stephen McCallum’s directorial debut, about leadership tussles in an outlaw motorcycle club down under. Following the bleak, unforgiving path of recent Australian crime classics Animal Kingdom and Snowtown and Chopper, Outlaws (previously known as 1%) is a brash and brutal crime thriller about loyalty and revenge. Ryan Corr, who was put through hell in Wolf Creek 2, is plunged into another maelstrom here as would-be biker king Paddo. A bulked-up Matt Nable (Ra’s al Ghul from the TV series Arrow), who also co-wrote the film,...

I told myself not to mention Sons of Anarchy in my review for Outlaws before sitting down to watch. My reasoning came out of a desire to judge Stephen McCallum’s film on its own merits without trying to compare to something as zeitgeist-y as Kurt Sutter’s tragic downfall of a “good” man forced to do bad things in order to achieve salvation. What’s ironic, though, is that you don’t have to get too far into Matt Nable’s script to wonder if he was hoping we’d make the comparison. With his “should-be” leader Paddo (Ryan Corr) trying to take his Copperheads Motorcycle Club legit against Knuck’s (Nable himself) actual president returning from jail with violence and bloodlust in his veins, the underlying core conflict is almost identical.

The television show obviously has an advantage with its expanded breadth to flesh out characters, cement motivations,...

Heath Davis (L) on the set of ‘Locusts.’

Seventy Australian filmmakers have joined a co-operative aimed at supporting each other’s work and fostering awareness of Aussie films.

The initiative is the brainchild of writer-director Heath Davis, who made his debut with Broke, followed by Book Week and, due to open later this year, suspense drama Locusts.

The group started coalescing before Christmas and rapidly gained members among established directors as well as those with one or two features under their belt. The working title is Cinegar Bar (a play on a cigar bar that Davis used to frequent in Vancouver).

He had the idea after talking to veteran cinematographer John Seale, who told him that when he started out, all the DPs knew and supported each other and formed lasting friendships.

Davis contrasted that camaraderie with the current environment for writers-directors, where it is largely a case of ‘every...

A24 has released the trailer for an Australian biker gang film called Outlaws, which was formerly known as 1%. If you’re a fan of shows like Sons of Anarchy and Mayans M.C., this is a movie that you’ll probably enjoy because it deals with the same kind of biker gang drama.

The story is set within the primal underworld of outlaw motorcycle club gangs, and this is the synopsis:

When an Australian motorcycle gang leader is released from prison, he finds his former deputy on the cusp of giving control of their lucrative drug trade to a rival gang. When the deal goes south, the ensuing violence threatens to spin out of control as the gangs must contend with external threats and subversion within their own ranks — culminating in a deadly face-off between the heavily-armed crews in this epic and action-packed biker thriller. Outlaws,

The film comes from director Stephen McCallum,...

After playing the Toronto International Film Festival back in 2017, the Australian biker gang drama formerly known as 1% is finally coming to theaters, but with a new title and an early 2019 release date. The film from director Stephen McCallum is now known as Outlaws, and it follows Matt Nable as the Copperheads motorcycle […]

The post ‘Outlaws’ Trailer: A24 Dives into the World of Australian Biker Gangs appeared first on /Film.

Aaron Pedersen as Jay Swan.

While many actors may fret or obsess about where their next role is coming from, Aaron Pedersen has a simple, unfussed approach.

“I take the despair out by believing you get the jobs you deserve to get,” he says after receiving his second Aacta nomination – best lead actor in a TV drama for Mystery Road.

“Your career is about longevity. I am forever grateful for being able to do the things I want to do.”

It’s a philosophy which has sustained the 48-year-old through a career spanning 25 years. It’s his second nomination following a nod for best lead actor in The Circuit in 2010.

Bunya Productions’ Mystery Road is vying for the best drama prize with Easy Tiger Productions’ Jack Irish, Jungle Entertainment/Blue –Tongue Films’ Mr Inbetween, Easy Tiger’s Rake and FremantleMedia’s Wentworth.

Pedersen’s Jay Swan was the pivotal character...

‘A Star is Born.’ (Photo: Warner Bros)

While Hollywood films usually open day-and-date in Australia, staggering the release here can a smart tactic, and so it proved last weekend for A Star is Born.

Warner Bros’ musical romance took $42.9 million in its first weekend in the Us three weeks ago, an impressive figure that was dwarfed by Sony’s unforeseen blockbuster Venom, which grabbed $80 million.

Avoiding that head-to-head confrontation in Oz paid off handsomely as the Bradley Cooper-Lady Gaga movie had a stellar debut, WB’s biggest of the year so far.

Meanwhile romantic comedy Badaai Ho drew plenty of Bollywood fans and Lorna Tucker’s biopic Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist and Ukrainian dark comedy Donbass failed to cut through.

Stephen McCallum’s crime drama 1% had a modest start but is already a big success commercially, with sales to the Us and more than a dozen major markets,...

‘1%’

First-time feature director Stephen McCallum’s 1% is a classic case of a film whose commercial impact cannot be judged by its first weekend in Australian cinemas.

Released by Icon, the hard-hitting biker gang drama rang up $56,000 on 58 screens and $82,000 including festival screenings and previews.

While that’s a modest debut, the producer Michael Pontin, who heads See Pictures’ low budget label Ticket to Ride, hails the film as a huge commercial success thanks to pre-sales to the Us and more than a dozen other major markets.

And the film starring Matt Nable, Ryan Corr, Josh McConville, Aaron Pedersen, Abbey Lee and Simone Kessell is already proving to be a significant career catalyst for the director.

McCallum tells If he has had offers to direct two Us films, subject to financing, and he next hopes to make Paradise, a love story between an Afghan refugee and an Australian guard at a detention camp.

‘Ladies in Black.’

The Australian titles released in cinemas this year including holdovers will overtake the calendar 2017 total in the next week or so, boosted by Bruce Beresford’s Ladies in Black.

Through the end of September the Oz films and feature docs had grossed $47.8 million, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (Mpdaa), within spitting distance of last year’s $49.4 million.

After a second weekend drop of just 10 per cent Ladies in Black’s takings have increased by nearly $800,000 to $5.97 million, including $361,000 on Tuesday, so the 1950s-set comedy-drama distributed by Sony is on course to surpass $12 million.

Distributed by Universal Pictures as an alternate content release, Mark Joffe’s biopic Jimmy Barnes: Working Class Boy rang up $823,000, ranking as the year’s second biggest feature doc behind Paul Damian Williams’ Gurrumul, which made $984,000.

Among the other September debutantes, Mark Grentell’s The Merger collected $405,000 and Benjamin Gilmour...

Sharon Strickland.

Finally confirmed as CEO of the Dendy Icon group, Sharon Strickland is keen to continue the company’s growth in exhibition and distribution.

Ticket sales at the 43-screen Dendy circuit are up 26 per cent this year after the opening of the 10-screen Coorparoo cinema in Brisbane last December and the expansion of the Dendy Canberra location from 9 to 15 screens in June 2017.

“We have a very loyal community who value our differentiated movie offering,” says Strickland, formerly the chief operating officer who has been running the company since CEO Greg Hughes departed last December.

The first Dendy Cinema on the Gold Coast will be part of the new Queen Street Village development.

Bruce Davey, Dendy Icon chairman and co-owner with Mel Gibson said: “Sharon has been a tremendous asset to our business over the last eight years and I’m delighted to appoint her to the leadership position to...

Ryan Corr and Rachael Taylor in ‘Ladies in Black.’ (Photo: Ben King)

Ryan Corr played a lot of comedic roles earlier in his career before telling his agent, “I don’t want to play the clown all the time.”

Bruce Beresford’s Ladies in Black enabled the actor to show his comedy chops after a raft of dramatic roles in such movies as Stephen McCallum’s upcoming 1%, Mary Magdalene, Hacksaw Ridge, Holding the Man and TV shows Cleverman, Wanted and Love Child.

He plays Rudi, a debonair, cultured immigrant with a dark past from Hungary who is keen to date Australian women and sets his sights on department store worker Fay (Rachael Taylor) in the 1959-set comedy/drama which opens on Thursday.

Rudi has a lot of amusing lines but there is an edge to the character: Beresford wants audiences to question Rudi’s intentions and whether he is trustworthy until late in the narrative.

Zak Hilditch and Justin Monjo project “The Haunting of Mary Todd” is among four genre film efforts to be set up at Truant Pictures. Truant is the new genre-specialist production arm of Animal Logic, the Australian digital effects firm.

Truant will “primarily develop and produce the films in collaboration with emerging and established Australian talent. Wherever possible the films will be produced in Australia for a worldwide market,” Animal Logic announced on Tuesday.

Truant Pictures will be headquartered at Animal Logic’s Sydney-based studios and will also operate out of its Los Angeles offices alongside sister company Animal Logic Entertainment, producer of Sony’s recent “Peter Rabbit.” Animal Logic CEO Zareh Nalbandian will produce. Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt will serve as VPs of development and production.

Other projects on Truant’s debut slate include: “Biohackers,” with Stephen McCallum and Michael Kratochvil; “The Galvanist,” with Shayne Armstrong and S.P. Krause; and “The Gooynboon,...

Animal Logic has launched Truant Pictures, a new production company that will act as a subsidiary of the successful Aussie animation outfit with a focus on live-action genre films for the Australian market. Truant will be headquartered at Animal Logic’s Sydney-based studios and also operate out of its Los Angeles offices alongside Animal Logic Entertainment. The plan is to develop and produce the films in collaboration with emerging and established Australian talent, to be produced wherever possible in Australia for a worldwide market.

It already has projects in development including The Haunting of Mary Todd with Zak Hilditch and Justin Monjo, Biohackers with Stephen McCallum and Michael Kratochvil, The Galvanist with Shayne Armstrong and S.P. Krause, and The Gooynboon with Jub Clerc. It now is looking to boost that slate.

Animal Logic’s animation credits include the Lego movie franchise and this year’s Peter Rabbit. The news comes...

Review by Matthew Turner

Stars: Ryan Corr, Abbey Lee, Simone Kessell, Josh McConville, Matt Nable, Aaron Pederson | Written by Matt Nable | Directed by Stephen McCallum

The debut feature from Australian director Stephen McCallum, this gritty biker gang thriller achieves a certain level of sweaty intensity and largely pulls off its Shakespearean parallels, though there are a few wobbles along the way.

Set in present-day Australia, the film centres on biker gang member Paddo (Ryan Corr), who has taken over leadership of the Copperheads Motorcycle Club during club president Knuck’s (screenwriter Matt Nable) three year stint in jail. When Paddo’s learning disabled brother Skink (Josh McConville) steals heroin from rival gang the Devils, Paddo brokers a mutually beneficial agreement with gang leader Sugar (Aaron Pederson) in return for his brother’s life.

However, when Knuck gets out of jail, he refuses to honour the deal, putting both Skink and Paddo’s lives in danger.

A24 and DirecTV have acquired North American rights to the Australian crime thriller 1%, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively. A 2018 release is planned in theaters and on DirecTV.

Stephen McCallum made his feature directorial debut with the film, featuring a script by Matt Nable. It is set in the dangerous world of outlaw motorcycle gangs and centers on two men who grapple with fraternity, loyalty and betrayal to control the crime-ridden scene. Ryan Corr, Abbey Lee, Simone Kessell, Josh McConville, Aaron Pederson and Nable are among the cast.

See Pictures' James Hilton and Michael Pontin produced 1%, with Josh Pomeranz,...

“When I first read the pitch document for this film, it said, 'I want this to be a cinematic kick in the teeth,” Australian actor Ryan Corr (Hacksaw Ridge) recalls, speaking to director Stephen McCallum’s crime drama 1%, bowing here at Tiff. “I remember that standing out so strong—it's pulling no punches.” This is certainly an apt description for McCallum’s directorial debut of Shakespearean proportions, which explores a seedy Australian underbelly of motorcycle gangs…...

Sometimes movies disappoint us by failing to live up to our expectations for them. Others, they disappoint us through sheer badness alone. Stephen McCallum’s “1%” disappoints us through wasted promise, threatening to take an interesting angle on biker gang film tropes before totally chickening out and playing the hits instead. If you’ve ever seen a season of “Sons of Anarchy,” you more or less know what you’re going to get out of “1%,” and if “Sons of Anarchy” is your cup of vodka and orange juice, then you’ll probably enjoy McCallum’s work on its own terms.

Continue reading ‘1%’: Biker Gang Drama Tries To Breathe Life Into The Outlaw Genre [Tiff Review] at The Playlist.

The phrase “outlaw motorcycle gang” has a remarkable ability to distill a gritty movie sub-genre down to its essential features: tough-guy bikers, loud customized machines, rampant lawlessness and unquestioning group loyalty. Australian director Stephen McCallum’s casually violent feature 1% exhibits all of these requisite elements, but in proportions more characteristic of melodrama than crime drama. Still, the subject matter alone is almost enough to assure viewer interest, making continued festival play and even commercial release on some scale appear inevitable.

Despite the obvious opportunity, McCallum doesn’t set out to make an exploitation film in elaborating Matt Nable’s script, concentrating instead...

In the exclusive new teaser trailer of Stephen McCallum’s 1%, we are treated to some seriously gritty motorcycle gang action and drama. The Australian crime thriller marks the directorial debut for McCallum and is set to make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of its Discovery program. McCallum tells Deadline, “1% is about brotherhood, loyalty, and betrayal set within the primal underworld of outlaw motorcycle gangs This clip gives you…...

International sales, production and financing company Celluloid Dreams has hired former Mongrel Media and eOne exec Charlotte Mickie as VP as it gears up for the Toronto International Film Festival. Mickie’s first acquisition for sales on behalf of Celluloid is 1%, director Stephen McCallum’s Aussie feature about brotherhood, loyalty and betrayal in the primal underworld of outlaw biker gangs that will have its world premiere at Toronto next month. The company is handling…...