News

Niki Aken at Charlie’s in La

Like the rest of the crew and cast, Niki Aken was gutted when the production of the ABC comedy Why Are You Like This was shut down with two weeks filming to go.

Aken is the script producer on the six-part show created and written by Naomi Higgins, Humyara Mahbub and Aunty Donna’s Mark Samual Bonanno, produced by Sarah Freeman for the directors Jessie Oldfield and Adam Murfet’s production company Ckol.

A spin-off of the pilot funded by the Screen Australia/ABC Fresh Blood initiative, the series follows best friends Mia (Olivia Junkeer) and Penny (Higgins) and Penny’s aloof housemate Austin (Wil King).

“Obviously it was the the right call, but gutting for the cast and crew,” Niki says. “It was a normal, human response to an unprecedented situation.

“I am one of the lucky ones as an in-demand writer...

Madeleine Gottlieb.

Madeleine Gottlieb is co-developing a seven-part online series which will give female and non-binary perspectives on contemporary masculinity as well as writing a feature for Revlover Films’ Martha Coleman and Lauren Edwards.

Screen Australia is funding the development of Masc (working title), which she co-created with Easy Tiger’s Laura Nagy.

Her co-collaborators are Nagy, Renée Marie Petropoulos, Hyun Lee, Imogen McCluskey, Shari Sebbens and Cloudy Rhodes. Each segment will focus on a different man at his particular stage of life.

“I am really interested in exploring the sensitive, more gentle, non-hyper masc side of masculinity,” Gottlieb tells If.

The feature is Panyee, which is set on the man-made floating island of Koh Panyee in Thailand, to be directed by Matt Devine, inspired by his short Panyee Fc.

The narrative will follow a group of young Thai boys who build a rickety football pitch in their floating village,...

‘Diary of an Uber Driver.’

New German streaming service Joyn has commissioned a local version of RevLover Films’ ABC dramedy Diary of an Uber Driver.

It’s the first international remake of the format based on Ben Phillips’ popular blog and e-book which was scripted by Thomas Ward and directed by Matthew Moore.

International distributor all3Media’s production label Bon Voyage Films will produce the remake, to be shot in Hamburg. Kostja Ullmann will play the lead.

A joint venture between Discovery and German broadcaster ProSiebenSat1, Joyn aims to become the largest free-tv service in Germany with live streams of more than 50 channels plus an on-demand section with original productions.

All3Media International is shopping the ABC series and format at Mipcom in Cannes this week.

Produced by Martha Coleman and Lauren Edwards and co-funded by Create Nsw, the series starred Sam Cotton as Uber driver Ben with Zahra Newman as Beck,...

Sarah Lambert on the set of ‘Lambs of God.’

While Foxtel’s Lambs of God may well represent the pinnacle of Sarah Lambert’s 20-year career, the screenwriter/producer’s workload and reputation are set to reach new heights over the next two years.

The prolific Lambert is juggling four high-profile international TV series and two other projects. If they all get up, she may well have to clone herself.

First off, she has written the pilot of Traces, an 8-part drama based on a true crime case in Italy that has been transplanted to Australia. An examination of a miscarriage of justice, it’s being developed as a co-production between RevLover Films’ Martha Coleman and Lauren Edwards and Porchlight Films’ Vincent Sheehan and Liz Watts.

Currently she is tackling the pilot for The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (working title) for Made Up Stories’ Bruna Papandrea, Jodi Matterson and Steve Hutensky.

Sam Cotton in ‘Diary of an Uber Driver.’

When Sam Cotton landed the title role in the ABC/RevLover Films’ dramedy Diary of an Uber Driver, he approached the job with some trepidation.

It was his first lead after playing Bruce, the nemesis of Luke McGregor’s Daniel in the ABC’s Rosehaven, and son-in-law Wayne in Sbs’s The Family Law.

He plays Uber driver Ben, whose life had always been in cruise control until his newish girlfriend Beck (Zahra Newman) gets pregnant in the six-parter scripted by Tom Ward, based on Ben Phillips’ blog.

He got the gig after doing a self-tape when he lived in Brisbane (he is now based in Sydney), followed by a call back in Sydney a few weeks later.

“At the outset I was kind of terrified but the director Matt Moore did so much to make me comfortable,” he tells If. “He...

Zahra Newman, Thomas Ward and Sam Cotton.

After Josh Thomas’ Please Like Me ended after four seasons on the ABC, his co-writer and co-star Thomas Ward realised there was something lacking in his career.

Having spent the best part of six years in that “bubble,” Ward worried that he did not know any other producers.

So he introduced himself to a number of producers including – fortuitously for him – RevLover Films’ Martha Coleman. She told him she had optioned Ben Phillips’ blog and e-book Diary of an Uber Driver.

After reading the blog he says: “I really liked the idea of doing a show that explores a community, the intimacy that comes with Uber rides and the fact that the protagonist was the same age as me and from a similar background.”

So he prepared a pitch outlining how he would turn the blog into a half hour series and work-shopped...

(L-r) Peta Astbury-Bulsara, Que Minh Luu and Warren Clarke (Photo credit: Bohdan Warchomij).

The ABC had greenlit the development of The Heights when Que Minh Luu, who co-created the drama serial with Warren Clarke, was alerted to a job vacancy at the public broadcaster.

Sally Riley, the ABC’s head of drama, comedy and Indigenous, suggested Luu apply for the role of an executive producer.

That presented a dilemma for the Matchbox Pictures development executive. “On one hand I was keen to see the show through to completion,” she tells If. “On the other hand I wanted to get into producing, jobs like that are rare and I may not have had the opportunity again.”

So she applied, got the position and continued to oversee the 30-episode production from Matchbox and Peta Astbury-Bulsara’s For Pete’s Sake Productions as an Ep.

Clarke and Luu had set up the writers...

‘Diary of an Uber Driver’. (Photo credit: Tony Mott)

Ben Phillips’ blog and e-book ‘Diary of an Uber Driver’ has been turned into six-part drama series for the ABC, with production currently underway in Sydney.

Produced by RevLover Films with the support of all3media international and Create Nsw, Diary of an Uber Driver is written by Thomas Ward (Please Like Me) and follows Uber driver Ben as he tries to work out what he should be doing while helping others to get where they are going. Against the ticking clock of impending fatherhood Ben must decipher what being ‘relevant’ looks like in a relationship that seems to think he’s surplus to requirements.

Sam Cotton (Rosehaven) plays Ben, while Zahra Newman plays Beck, the mother of his unborn child. The series will also star John Bell, Caroline Brazier, Ed Oxenbould, Julian Maroun and Emily Barclay.

Matthew Moore (Offspring) is directing the series,...

Storm Boy.

Screen Australia has unveiled the recipients of its last production investment funding round of 2016. $15 million is shared between seven films and eight television projects, including anticipated titles such as Fred Schepisi.s Andorra and the Shawn Seet remake of Storm Boy..

.We are delighted to be supporting TV projects from so many of the major players all in one round including Foxtel, Channel Seven, Network Ten, the ABC and Sbs," CEO Graeme Mason said. "And in film we look forward to seeing the latest from acclaimed talents Fred Schepisi, Jonathan Teplitzky and John Maynard."

The successful feature film projects are:.

– A contemporary re-imagining of 1976 classic Storm Boy from writer Justin Monjo (The Secret Daughter, Spear), director Shawn Seet (Deep Water, The Code) and Ambience Entertainment producers Michael Boughen and Matthew Street (Tomorrow When the War Began). This time around we meet Mike .Storm Boy. Kingley as a grandfather...

Eddie Perfect is to write and star in The Future is Expensive, the pilot for a half-hour comedy series for ABC-tv.

Matthew Saville is set to direct the pilot in Melbourne in the second week of November, produced by Goalpost Pictures. Lauren Edwards, Rosemary Blight and Perfect.

The brief synopsis is: Unpacking what it means to be married with young kids in urban Australia.

Further casting is to be announced. Screen Nsw put up development funding for the project last year. Perfect.s acting credits include Offspring and It.s a Date.

The aim is to go into production in 2016 if the ABC is happy with the pilot. .

Red Arrow International and SundanceTV have stuck a deal to distribute Australian production Cleverman internationally.

The epic genre series, to be shot in Sydney, will feature an ensemble cast led by Scottish actor Iain Glen (Game of Thrones), Golden Globe nominee Frances O.Connor (The Missing), Deborah Mailman (The Sapphires), Hunter Page-Lochard (The Sapphires), Rob Collins (The Lion King) and Stef Dawson (The Hunger Games).

Cleverman, (6 x 1 hour) is produced by Goalpost Pictures Australia and New Zealand.s Pukeko Pictures for ABC TV Australia in co-production with SundanceTV and Red Arrow International, with the assistance of Screen Australia, Screen Nsw and the New Zealand Screen Production Grant.

Red Arrow International is distributing the drama worldwide and the show will have its market launch at Mipcom in October.

AMC and SundanceTV president of orgiginal programming and development, Joel Stillerman, said SundanceTV was becoming the Us home to some of the most...

Game of Thrones. Iain Glen, Frances O.Connor, Deborah Mailman, Hunter Page-Lochard, Rob Collins and Ryan Corr are shooting Cleverman, an innovative six-part futuristic action drama for ABC-tv.

Based on an original concept by Ryan Griffen, the plot follows a group of non-humans who are battling for survival in a world where humans feel increasingly inferior and want to silence, exploit and kill them.

The protagonists are two estranged Indigenous brothers (Page-Lochard and Collins), who are forced together to fight for their own survival. Otherworldly dreaming creatures also emerge into this .real world. dystopian landscape.

Commissioned by ABC-tv's Indigenous department, the series is an Australian/New Zealand co-production between Goalpost Pictures and Pukeko Pictures.

The Sapphires. Wayne Blair is lead director with Leah Purcell also directing. Blair recently completed Us thriller Septembers of Shiraz, which tells the true story of a secular Jewish family caught in the Islamic revolution in Iran,...

The Nsw Government is investing $2.77 million. in 17 new film, TV and documentary productions via Screen Nsw.

That will trigger more than $50 million in production expenditure to the State and create 2,746 jobs, according to Arts Minister Troy Grant.

The projects include a Blinky Bill feature,. TV drama The Principal from Essential Media and Entertainment starring Alex Dimitriades, and a new collaboration between Blackfella Films and Werner Film Productions.

The funding is provided through Screen Nsw.s Production Investment and Regional Filming funds. .This is a great return on investment for the Government. For every dollar invested, more than $18 will be spent in Nsw, building capacity and sustainability in our world-class film and television industry,. Grant said. .This fantastic range of film and television programs will be produced here in Nsw, and not just in Sydney, but across many regional areas where the significant economic benefits of screen production will make a real impact in the community.

The ailing screen production sector is set to get a major boost with more than $80 million worth of films, TV dramas and a documentary receiving funding from Screen Australia.

The agency is investing more than $12 million in four features, four adult dramas, two children.s dramas and a theatrical doc. In addition Scroz is providing completion funding to sex comedy The Little Deaths, writer-director Josh Lawson.s feature debut.

The projects include a Blinky Bill animated movie, a comedy set during the Cronulla race riots, the long-mooted Molly Meldrum TV drama and The Principal, the first drama commissioned by Sbs since Better Man.

.We have backed some of our great contemporary writers, directors and producers, alongside some exciting new voices, . said Screen Australia head of production Sally Caplan.

.The projects target audiences as diverse as Australia is today, with projects which are ambitious, risk-taking and culturally important, revealing we have...

Australian film The Rocket has won the Best First Feature Award and Best Feature in the children's-focused Generation Kplus program at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The film, about a boy in Laos who builds a giant rocket to enter the Rocket Festival,.was up against entrants from several sections including Competition, Panorama, Forum, Generation and Perspektive Deutsches Kino. Director Kim Mordaunt and producer Sylvia Wilczynski shared the €50,000 prize ($64,851).

The film was also awarded the Crystal Bear for the Best Film in the Generation Kplus section (which is devoted to young people) and the Amnesty International Film Prize. (View The Rocket trailer here.)

Short film The Amber Amulet also picked up a Crystal Bear award in the Generation Kplus section for the Best Short Film while indigenous feature Satellite Boy received a Special Mention from both the Generation Kplus children.s and international juries.

"An exciting film, shot in magnificent...

Four Australian short films have been selected to the Berlin International Film Festival.

The films are: You Like it, I Love It by writer director James Vaughan, The Amber Amulet written by Matthew Moore and Genevieve Hegney, directed by Moore; Summer Suit by director/producer Rebecca Peniston-Bird and writer Francesca Sciacca and Yardbird directed by Michael Spiccia and written by Julius Avery. Yardbird was accepted into Cannes last year.

The announcement:

Australian short films will have a strong presence at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, with four films selected to screen in the Generation program, a section devoted to children and young people.

The films selected will include the world premiere of The Amber Amulet in Generation Kplus, the story of a superhero, a beagle, an amulet made of amber, and the potential that is locked inside all of us. The film is directed by Matthew Moore and co-written...

Films & Casting Temple’s Anupam Sharma, Lauren Edwards of Goalpost Pictures and Robyn Kershaw are among 10 producers heading to India for the Goa Film Bazaar to help create tighter links between the Australian and Indian film industries. The delegation is lead by Screen Australia and the screen Producers Association of Australia.

The announcement:

Screen Australia and the Screen Producers Association of Australia (Spaa) will lead a delegation of Australian producers to the Goa Film Bazaar to develop new and reinforce existing screen industry partnerships in India.

India is now Australia’s third biggest export market and the two countries have a strong and growing bilateral relationship. With a population of 1.2 billion, a prolific film industry and millions of passionate cinema-goers, India has many potential opportunities for Australian screen content. Australian producers have a growing interest in developing projects with Indian partners and an official co-production treaty is in negotiation.

Organised...

A new Australian short film, Love Untitled, produced by The Sapphires associate producer Lauren Edwards, and written and directed by Maia Horniak is set to have its international premiere on Portable.tv.

Horniack won the MTV One80 Project in 2010 with The Sellers. Edwards produced Nash Edgerton’s Bear. The pair are working towards their first feature project Mixtape, with The Sapphire’s producer Rosemary Blight for Goalpost Pictures.

The film had its world premiere at St Kilda Film Festival.

The announcement:

The short film Love Untitled, by Australian director Maia Horniak, will premiere internationally tomorrow on Portable.tv, the New York-based on-line culture platform.

Portable curates beautiful and ground breaking video across fashion, film, music, art and culture. The platform also acts as an expansive archive of video from some of the world’s most influential directors, producers, photographers and designers.

Love Untitled, written, directed and edited by Maia Horniak...

A film set during the 1974 Turkish innovation of Cyprus has won Flickerfest’s Best Australian Short Film.

It marked a successful day for the film, which also won best screenplay for a short film, and best fiction short film at the Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts (AACTAs) earlier in the day.

The Palace, written and directed by Anthony Maras and produced by Maras, Kate Croser, and Andros Achilleos won took out the local competition at the Festival, now in its 21 year.

In The Palace a Cypriot family takes refuge in an abandoned Ottoman era palace as the Turkish forces advance. A young Turkish conscript games face to face with the family and confronted with the brutality of war.

The film has previously won best short film at both the Melbourne and Sydney Film Festivals and the audience award at Adelaide Film Festival.

The special Jury Award went to the film Julian,...

Nash Edgerton’s short film Bear is to screen at Sundance Film Festival.

The film, which had its world premiere at Cannes this year will have its North American premiere at the Utah independent film festival, 19-29 January, in the international narrative short film division.

Bear is the follow up to short film Spider and is Edgerton’s fifth short film to be selected to Sundance in his 15 year career.

Edgerton follows fellow Blue-Tongue Films’ member Kieran Darcy-Smith to Sundance where his debut feature film Wish You Were Here is set premiere on the festival’s opening night.

Edgerton said: “It’s a huge honour that Bear has been selected to screen at Sundance but especially meaningful because Kieran Darcy-Smith, with whom I made my very first short film Loaded and who started Blue-Tongue Films with Joel and I back in the day, will be at Sundance too with his...

AFI-nominated director Nash Edgerton will join a fellow Blue-Tongue Films. co-founder, Kieran Darcy-Smith, at next year.s Sundance Film Festival after his latest short film.made the cut. Bear, his.follow-up to 2007 multi-award winning short film Spider,.was co-written by Animal Kingdom.s David Michôd.and will have its North American premiere at the Us. largest independent film festival. It marks Edgerton.s fifth short to be selected.for the renowned festival. Bear, which was nominated earlier this year for the Palme d.Or for Best Short Film at the Cannes International Film Festival, was produced by Lauren Edwards and John Polson and stars Edgerton (brother of Joel) alongside Teresa Palmer and director Warwick Thornton....

Lauren Edwards has joined the team at Goalpost Pictures, the production company currently filming The Sapphires, directed by Wayne Blair in Sydney, which Edwards is Associate Producer on.

Edwards was producer on the Nash Edgerton directed, Edgerton/David Michod written short film, Bear which screened in competition at the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival.

Goalpost’s Rosemary Blight said in a statement, “Goalpost is very committed to identifying, mentoring and working with the most dynamic and creative talent in the country – whether writers, directors, producers, actors or technicians. In Lauren we see an exceptional talent and we believe she will have a stellar career as a producer. We are delighted that she has joined the Goalpost team and very much look forward to working alongside her as her first feature film as Producer, Mixtape, becomes a reality.”

Mixtape, which will be Maia Horniak’s feature film debut, is a rom-com that connects music and love.

Lauren Edwards has joined Goalpost Pictures Australia's.team of producers. The producer joins Rosemary Blight, Ben Grant, Kylie du Fresne and Cass O'Connor at the company, which is currently producing musical feature The Sapphires. Edwards, who is also an associate producer on The Sapphires, has previously produced Nash Edgerton and David Michód's short film Bear, which was selected in competition at the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival. She is currently developing romantic-comedy feature Mixtape, written by Josh Wakely and to be directed by Maia Horniak. Goalpost Pictures'.Rosemary Blight said the company is committed to identifying, mentoring and working with the most dynamic and creative talent in the country. "In Lauren...