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"Look at you, you're already under a spell..." Gravitas has released a new US trailer for Australian mystery thriller The Second, which is arriving in the US this fall after originally opening in Australia back in 2018. It's another story that mixes the intrigue of fiction from an author with reality and her own life. The persona of a celebrated author is threatened when her best friend and muse reveals the dark secret behind her first novel's provenance, igniting an incendiary tale of sex, lies & betrayal. Reviews say "director Mairi Cameron creates an prestige aesthetic that affects a sense of haunting isolation, and writer Stephen Lance's script manipulates time and memory to weave a disturbing tale of creation... What secrets are entangled in this fiction?" The film stars Rachel Blake, Susie Porter, Vince Colosimo, and Martin Sacks. Have a look. Here's the official US trailer (+ poster) for Mairi Cameron's The Second,...

A television adaptation of 2018’s Ladies in Black, a feature film from Bryan Brown, and a television drama from one of the creators of Offspring are among the 21 projects to share in more than $730,000 in development funding from Screen Australia.

Of the projects to receive funding, 10 have been supported through the Generate fund and 11 through the Premium fund.

Screen Australia’s head of content Sally Caplan said the agency was impressed by the “rigorous creativity” of Australian creators as the industry continued to rebound from Covid-19.

“It’s great to see a number of engaging stories set around iconic milestones in Australian history, from the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, to the social change that took place in the 60s or the recession in the 80s, and I look forward to seeing these projects develop further,” she said.

Features:

Premium:

1989

Sewing Pictures Pty Ltd

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family

Writer...

‘Harrow.’

Filming of the third season of Hoodlum Entertainment/the ABC’s Harrow resumed on Monday in Brisbane and South-East Queensland after star Ioan Gruffudd came out of quarantine.

Production of the 10-part series was shut down in March due to Covid-19 with just seven days to go. Gruffudd returned to Los Angeles so producers Tracey Robertson and Nathan Mayfield had to obtain permission from Border Force to bring him back.

Scripted by co-creators Stephen M. Irwin and Leigh McGrath and Michaeley O’Brien, the Screen Queensland-backed show follows Gruffudd’s forensic pathologist Doctor Daniel Harrow as he investigates the death of a young man who claimed to be his son and gets entangled in a dangerous criminal underworld.

Faustina Agolley, who guest starred in the second series, plays Edwina Gharam, Harrow’s new assistant, joining Jolene Anderson (Dr Grace Molyneux), Damien Garvey (Detective Sergeant Bryan Nichols), Darren Gilshenan (Lyle...

‘Relic’.

Stan has swooped on Natalie Erika James’ feature debut Relic, with the film to premiere exclusively on the platform July 10.

The streaming service flagged today that the horror film forms part of series of brand new originals and theatrical releases it will announce over the coming weeks.

Relic marks the third local film to be strapped a Stan Original following Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang and Mairi Cameron’s The Second.

Relic, which bowed at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to strong reviews, tells the story of Edna (Robyn Nevin), an elderly and widowed matriarch who goes missing. Her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) must travel to their remote family home in the Melbourne countryside to find her, and soon after her return, they start to discover a sinister presence haunting the house and taking control of Edna.

James...

Paul Mahoney.

Screenwriter Paul Mahoney was sorely disappointed when pre-production on his first movie Ruby’s Choice was halted two weeks before shooting was due to start – but he is getting plenty of traction on three other features.

Los Angeles-based producer Rosemary Marks (Thirteen) is teaming up with Australian John Tsambazis on Do It Scared, Mahoney’s screenplay based on the true story of Maltese-born Rob Galea’s roller-coaster journey from rebellious, drug-dealing gang member to a teenager with a hit single, priest and X-Factor semi-finalist.

Freshwater Pictures’ Trish Lake has boarded Elvis Town, the saga of a reporter with an Elvis Presley phobia who is reunited with his estranged mother, co-written by Mahoney and Stephen Lance, with Mairi Cameron and Lance set to co-direct.

Alan Arumugam of Ysa Screen Media and Kanesh Mohana Sundaram of Gvkm Elephant Pictures are in late development on action-thriller Ark-13, co-written by Mukund Ramanan and Mahoney,...

Keli Lee with The Gloaming’s Emma Booth and Ewen Leslie.

Disney Television Studios has axed ABC Studios International, the London-based unit which has a first-look deal with Hoodlum Entertainment and co-commissioned The Gloaming with Stan.

The London-based unit led by Keli Lee, ABC Studios’ managing director, international content and talent, appears to be a victim of Disney’s $US71 billion acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets.

Disney TV Studios, which encompasses ABC Studios/ABC Signature, 20th Century Fox TV and Fox 21 TV Studios, is re-evaluating its UK presence and overall international strategy, according to Variety.

However the move may not have any immediate or even longer term impact in Australia. Hoodlum had renewed its first-look deal with ABC Studios International and Disney Media Distribution will handle sales of The Gloaming.

Produced by the creator/showrunner, Sweet Potato Films’ Vicki Madden, Fiona McConaghy and 2 Jons’ John Molloy and Jon Adgemis,...

Ioan Gruffudd in Harrow season 2.

Ioan Gruffudd is set to make his directing debut on season 3 of the ABC’s Harrow, which starts shooting next month in Brisbane and South-East Queensland.

The Welsh-born actor joins the roster of directors alongside Tony Tilse, Grant Brown, Catherine Millar, Mairi Cameron and Peter Andrikidis.

The new series follows Gruffudd’s forensic pathologist Doctor Daniel Harrow as he investigates the death of a young man who claimed to his son and gets entangled in a dangerous criminal underworld.

Hoodlum’s Tracey Robertson and Nathan Mayfield continue as the producers, with funding from the ABC, Disney’s ABC Studios and Screen Queensland. The 10 episodes are again being written by co-creators Stephen M. Irwin and Leigh McGrath and Michaeley O’Brien.

Faustina Agolley, who guest starred in the second series, joins the cast of regulars with Jolene Anderson (Dr Grace Molyneux), Damien Garvey (Detective Sergeant Bryan Nichols...

Mairi Cameron.

Mairi Cameron will shadow direct an episode of Hoodlum Entertainment’s Harrow with Geoff Bennett as part of the Australian Directors’ Guild’s (Adg) ongoing shadow directing program for female directors.

The initiative was created by the Adg with funding from Screen Australia’s Gender Matters: Brilliant Careers initiative. Other directors to have completed the program are Lucy Gaffy, Lisa Matthews, Darlene Johnson, Jane Eakin and Rebecca O’Brien.

Cameron’s feature debut The Second was released last year in theatres and on streaming service Stan, was nominated for the Aacta Award for Best Indie Film and Best Feature Film at the Screen Producers Australia Awards. Her 1999 short Milk was also selected for Cannes, and was pre-selected for an Academy Award.

The second season of ABC’s Harrow, which is co-produced with Disney’s ABC Studio’s International and stars Ioan Gruffudd, is shooting at the moment around Brisbane.

Nicole Kidman and Joel Edgerton on the set of ‘Boy Erased.’

Joel Edgerton and Simon Baker have scored nominations in the feature film direction and acting categories for Boy Erased and Breath, the first time that’s happened in the same year in AFI | Aacta history.

Edgerton and Baker will compete for four prizes at this year’s awards which will be handed out at an industry luncheon on December 3 and at the ceremony on December 5. Both titles have been nominated for best film and Edgerton and Baker are also in the running for best supporting actor and adapted screenplay.

In total 19 features received nominations, with five vying for best film: Boy Erased, Breath, Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling’s Cargo, Bruce Beresford’s Ladies in Black and Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country.

The five titles competing for the new category of best indie film budgeted under $2 million are the Jacobson brothers’ Sibling Rivalry,...

“This is what happens when you make up stories,” one character says about three-fourths of the way through the confidently ambitious “The Second,” and the line is a succinct summation of the deceptively deep goings-on beneath the film’s faintly sordid surface. The maiden project developed and produced under the Screen Queensland Originals program in partnership with the streaming service Stan (the film is playing commercially now and will commence it’s Stan stand July 20), “The Second” is a sexy and satisfying thriller that toys with time, memory and the provocative side of storytelling.

In keeping with the mysterious spirit of the proceedings, shhh — no names, please: riding the crest of her well-received and best-selling erotic thriller, the Writer (Rachael Blake) is off to her family’s sprawling and regally laid-out country estate for a sex-fueled working weekend with her boyfriend the Publisher (Vince Colosimo). Soon after they settle in,...

A calm menace pervades Mairi Cameron’s unconventional debut feature where shady secrets hide in broad daylight

There’s a good reason thrillers tend to take place mostly at night, and it doesn’t take a PhD in cinema studies to guess what that could be: darkness is scarier than daylight. In that sense director Mairi Cameron’s steamy debut feature The Second – the first original film to be produced by Australian streaming platform Stan – is an unconventional spooky movie, eschewing shadows and gloom for a mostly sunny aesthetic. I regularly found myself asking: who turned the lights on?

Cinematographer Mark Wareham conjures bright and burnished images, while the story – about a bestselling author who, fending off writer’s block, draws inspiration from her own life – ventures to dark places. The film’s most interesting themes explore the nature of authorship in general and the “write what you know” dictum in particular,...

Denmark-based LevelK has acquired international sales rights to Australian filmmaker Mairi Cameron’s sexy psychological thriller, ”The Second” which recently world premiered at Gold Coast Film Festival.

“The Second,” which marks the first Original feature ordered by streaming service Stan, stars Rachel Blake (“Sleeping Beauty”), Susie Porter (“Hounds of Love”) and Vince Colosimo (“Chopper”).

“The Second” follows a successful author riding high on the international acclaim of her first book, a sexually explicit autobiography. While preparing her second novel, the author’s best friend and muse reappears in her life and threatens to reveal the dark secret behind the memoir’s provenance, sparking an incendiary tale of sex, lies and betrayal.

Ordered by streaming service Stan, “The Second” was produced by Leanne Tonkes and writer/producer Stephen Lance at Australian company Sense and Centsability and Dust Bunny Productions. Screen Queensland, Mind Blowing World, and The Post Lounge co-financed the film.

Rachael Blake and Mairi Cameron on the set of 'The Second'. (Photo: Stephen Lance.)

Production kicked off last week in south east Queensland on Stan.s first feature, The Second..

The psychological thriller, first announced early last year, is being directed by Mairi Cameron and produced by Leanne Tonkes and writer Stephen Lance. Tonkes and Lance have previously worked together on the 2014 feature My Mistress.

Shooting will take place in Brisbane and through the Western Downs region including Dalby.s Jimbour House, Jandowae and Lake Broadwater..

.Stephen Lance and I are delighted to be launching Mairi.s feature career and to be working with Amy Hobby and Anne Hubbell of Tangerine Entertainment — two wonderful advocates of female filmmakers," said Tonkes..

The Second.follows two female friends whose lives entwine in the pages of an elusive second novel. Cast includes Rachael Blake, Susie Porter, Vince Colosimo, Martin Sacks and Susan Prior.

Rachael Blake and Mairi Cameron on the set of "The Second. (Photo: Stephen Lance.)

Production kicked off last week in south east Queensland on Stan.s first feature, The Second..

The psychological thriller, first announced early last year, is being directed by Mairi Cameron and produced by Leanne Tonkes and writer Stephen Lance. Tonkes and Lance have previously worked together on the 2014 feature My Mistress.

Shooting will take place in Brisbane and through the Western Downs region including Dalby.s Jimbour House, Jandowae and Lake Broadwater..

.Stephen Lance and I are delighted to be launching Mairi.s feature career and to be working with Amy Hobby and Anne Hubbell of Tangerine Entertainment — two wonderful advocates of female filmmakers," said Tonkes..

The Second.follows two female friends whose lives entwine in the pages of an elusive second novel. Cast includes Rachael Blake, Susie Porter, Vince Colosimo, Martin Sacks and Susan Prior.

Stan is getting into the feature film game with The Second, a thriller fully funded to the tune of $1 million by Screen Queensland.

Directed by Mairi Cameron, the film will head to the streaming service after a theatrical run..

Stephen Lance wrote the script, about "two female friends whose lives entwine in the pages of an elusive second novel", and produces alongside Leanne Tonkes.

Lance and Tonkes previously worked together on the 2014 feature My Mistress.

.The success of No Activity and Wolf Creek have shown the audience demand for high quality Australian productions and we are excited to be working with the best creative talent in the country to bring more Stan Originals to the screen,. Stan.s Chief Content Officer Nick Forward said.

The project was developed as part of the Qld Originals Fully Funded Features with Stan initiative, in which four Queensland teams developed a feature project with...

Screen Queensland and streaming service Stan have selected four teams to go to the second stage in the Queensland Originals: Fully Funded Features program.

Queensland Originals offers a Queensland producer and creative team (comprising writer, director or writer-director, and producer) the unique opportunity to develop and finance a $1 million feature film. The four successful teams will be given support to further develop their feature films from concept to draft with workshops convened by New York-based independent producers Amy Hobby and Anne Hubbell, alongside feedback on concepts and guidance through the workshop from Stan. The four projects are: Contact Lost Producer/Writer: Jade van der Lei Writer/Director: Josh Tanner A supernatural horror set during the Vietnam War. The Kingdom of Me Producers: Lucas Thyer and Jeff Tseng Writer/Director: Sean Gilligan A pre-apocalyptic comedy about a jaded, burnt out activist and his misguided attempt to impress a girl. The Second...

Co-directors Stephen Lance and Mairi Cameron are just back after spending 10 days in the Us polishing the screenplay of The Secrets Lives of Dresses with the Brooklyn-based writer, Aussie Emma Vuletic.

Lance and Cameron also spent a few days in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to soak up the atmosphere in the town where the source material, Erin McKean.s novel, is set.

Producer Leanne Tonkes and Lance are exploring the idea of co-producing the film with heavyweight Us producer Grant Curtis, who produced all three Spider-Man movies and executive-produced Sam Raimi's Oz the Great and Powerful. Curtis and his producing partner Jeremy Wheeler wanted to buy the film rights and contacted Tonkes and Lance after discovering they optioned the novel in 2011.

Tonkes and Lance tell If they will .aim high. in casting the lead roles but will ensure there is significant Australian content to qualify for the 40% producer offset.

The protagonist is Dora,...

Producer Bec Dakin, scriptwriter Karl Mather and direct Zenon Kohler have won the Chauvel Award script adaptation as part of the Brisbane International Film Festival.

The competition, worth $40,000, aims to encourage the work of producers and writers at an early stage in a project’s life.

Dakin, Mather and Kohler have won for the adaptation of the John Birmingham novel, the Tasmanian Babes Fiasco.

The support will also see the team work closely with Screen Queensland.

Tasmanian Babes Fiasco is about a house full of misfits and a catastrophic week of adventure. It is the sequel to He Died with a Felafel in his Hand which was adapted in 2001 by Richard Lowenstein and starred Noah Taylor and Sophie Lee.

Receiving $25,000 is Brisbane scriptwriter Vicki Englund as development support of the adaptation of Painted Love Letters, based on the young adult fiction by Catherine Bateson.

Stephen Lance, Mairi Cameron and Leanne Tonkes...

The 17th annual Slamdance Film Festival is all set to run for eight days and nights Jan. 21-27. The festival is featuring a bold theme this year of “All Is Not Lost” where — due to the current devastating economic climate — Slamdance will donate 10% of ticket proceeds back to the filmmakers.

The fest is screening 14 feature films — 10 of which are in competition — and 8 feature documentaries, all of which are in competition. In addition, there will be 56 short films screening.

Plus, there are a couple of special screenings, including the Straight 8 event where anybody can register to receive a single roll of Super-8 film that they can use to direct their own in-camera edited mini-masterpiece. Also, on the 26th, there will be a special retrospective of the works of renegade ’60s filmmaker J.X. Williams.

The full film lineup is below, but for more information on the site please visit the official Slamdance website.