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For Robert Rabiah, Queensland’s Mission Beach is more than just the location where he is filming fish-out-of-water drama Irreverent – it’s also where he began his career.

The actor’s first professional job was appearing alongside Craig McLachlan, Nadine Garner, and Antonio Sabato Jr. in George Miller’s action/adventure mini-series Tribe, which was also based in the coastal town.

Speaking to If, Rabiah said his role in the Matchbox Pictures/NBCUniversal International Studios’ series more than two decades later was a case of his journey coming full circle.

“To come back after all these years feels nostalgic and satisfying,” he said.

In Irreverent, Rabiah plays Farah, a menacing hitman sent by the Chicago Mob to settle the ledger with a criminal mediator (Colin Donnell) who has taken refuge in Far North Queensland and assumed the identity of a church reverend.

Created by Paddy Macrae, the 10-part series also...

Exclusive: Line-up includes Australian thriller The Suicide Theory and Us crime film Criticsized.

Genre specialist Devilworks has revealed its slate for the forthcoming American Film Market (Nov 2-9).

The line-up includes Australian thriller The Suicide Theory, which the company is repping for international sales following its release on Netflix Us.

Directed by Dru Brown, the film follows a man who, after failing to commit suicide, pays a hitman to kill him. When that endeavour fails, the man learns that he is cursed with immortality. Steve Mouzakis (who recently completed filming 20th Century Fox’s Prison Break: Sequel) stars in the lead role.

Also on the company’s slate is Us crime thriller Criticsized, which marks the feature debut of director Carl T. Evans. Starring Willie C. Carpenter (Men In Black), Kerr Smith (My Bloody Valentine) and Callum Blue (Colombiana), the film follows an La detective hunting down a serial killer who live streams his crimes online.

Devilworks...

Director of The Suicide Theory, a black comedy thriller made in Queensland, hopes Us success will help to secure distribution deal in Australia

Earlier this month a bizarrely compelling new Australian film blitzed into American cinemas. Brisbane film-maker Dru Brown’s micro-budget directorial debut, The Suicide Theory (he has made one other feature but regards it as a hobby project), generated a windfall of head-turning reviews – the kind that seem to have been written by critics who’ve just picked their jaws up from the floor.

If the response to Brown’s darkly comic and shrewdly orchestrated thriller could be summarised with a single line, it would be something like: “What the hell was that?” Not necessarily in a bad way. In fact, generally speaking, in a good way.

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Guilt, grief, and forgiveness get wrapped up in a Twilight Zone-ish shroud of fate in this downbeat trifle of a crime drama. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Percival (Leon Cain) wants to die, and he just can’t manage to do the job himself. It’s not a matter of him being unable to summon the nerve to kill himself: he has tried, many times. But he always survives, in seemingly miraculous ways. In ways that have doctors shaking their heads in wonder and marveling, “You’re lucky to be alive” (and not noticing that this upsets their patient). So Percival hires professional killer Steve (Steve Mouzakis: I, Frankenstein) to take care of the chore. Still Percival won’t die… and now Percival is convinced there’s a reason for this that...

Steve Mouzakis in The Suicide Theory.

An Australian micro-budgeted thriller about a tortured hit man and his willing target was released in 10 cinemas and online in the Us last week, garnering positive reviews, but is yet to secure distribution at home.

Freestyle Releasing bought the Us rights to The Suicide Theory, the second film from director Dru Brown (his first was 2012 horror-thriller Sleeper), after it won the grand jury prize at the Dances With Film festival in La and the audience award at the Austin Film Festival.

Scripted by Michael J. Kospiah and shot in Brisbane, it stars Steve Mouzakis as Steven, a professional assassin who is asked by a prospective client named Percival (Leon Cain) to take him out.

Percival had tried to bump himself off numerous times without success, sustaining more bodily damage with every attempt, and Steven seems unable to finish the job.

Variety.s Justin Chang...

Freestyle Releasing Picks Up Aussie Thriller The Suicide Theory

Freestyle Releasing and Freestyle Digital Media (Fdm) announced today that they have acquired North American theatrical and VOD rights to the award-winning Australian thriller The Suicide Theory, which was directed by Dru Brown. The film stars Steve Mouzakis and Leon Cain and was produced by Brown, Christian McCarty, Jacob McCarty, Dan MacArthur and Melanie Poole. ...

Hnn | Horrornews.net - Official News Site...

Taking the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival, and the Grand Jury Prize at the Dances With Films Festival, "The Suicide Theory" is a success that has caught the eye of Freestyle Releasing. The independent distributor behind the smash hit "God's Not Dead" has acquired the Australian thriller for a summer release and today we have an exclusive clip from the film. Read More: 5 Australian Directors Of Australian New Cinema Directed by Dru Brown, and starring Steve Mouzakis and Leon Cain, the genre pic brings with it a twisty premise: A despondent man hires a demented killer to assist him in suicide, but for some reason, miraculously survives each attempt on his life. And as you'll see in the scene below it's an eerie situation. “The Suicide Theory is one of those special films that comes along,” said Mark Borde, President of Freestyle. “With outstanding performances and an incredible script,...

To what length would a desperate and grief-stricken person go to end their life? Several failed attempts at suicide drive Percival (Leon Cain) to hire a professional hitman to kill him in The Suicide Theory, an Australian thriller written by Michael Kospiah and directed by Dru Brown.

Steven Ray (Steve Mouzakis) is dealing with his own personal tragedy -- his pregnant wife Annie (Zoe de Plevitz) was killed in a hit-and-run accident while crossing the street. He's developed such a phobia that he is stricken with seizures any time he attempts to step off a street curb, to the extent of taking cabs just to cross the block. The two men meet when Percival literally jumps from a building and lands on a cab that Steven is in, casing his next victim. What appears to be a chance meeting to Steven is fate to Percival, who appears to be delusional.

The theme for this year’s Melbourne Underground Film Festival is “Evolve Or Die,” so thank God that after 15 years, the fest has decided to evolve rather than kick the proverbial bucket.

What does “evolution” look like for Muff? For starters, this year is a much more stripped down festival. It runs Sept. 12 – 19 at a single location — The Backlot Studios.

Muff usually features a healthy retrospective section, but they decided to spin that off into a separate event that will run in a month or two. Instead, Muff 15 is all about new cinema, with an even stronger focus on Down Under cinema.

Opening Night: Start Options Exit was originally conceived by local co-directors Chris Mitchell and Yoav Lester as a web series, but was subsequently edited together as this outrageous comedy about a pair of degenerates stumbling through the seedy underbelly of Melbourne.

Closing Night: Acclaimed Melbourne cult filmmaker Stuart Simpson...

World Wrestling Entertainment’S World Champion Raven Stars In Horror/Thriller ‘Sleeper’ On DVD June 26.

Los Angeles, CA, 6/14/2012 – Scott ‘Raven’ Levy (WWE’s 6x World Wrestling Champion) and Bruce Hopkins (Lord of the Rings) collaborate with Australian director Dru Brown in his latest horror/thriller, ‘Sleeper’, coming to DVD June 26 from Celebrity Home Entertainment. Sleeper has already taken Australian by storm with Official Selection of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival and Gold Coast Film Festival.… More...

*full disclosure: a DVD screener of this film was provided by Gravitas Ventures. Tagline: "He's on the loose and kills by night." Director/writer: Dru Brown. Sleeper is an indie horror film from relative newcomer Dru Brown. The film stars, notably, Raven aka Scott Levy. Many may recognize Levy from his years of wrestling on amateur and pro wrestling circuits. He often appeared as a nihilistic sychophant in his many television appearances. In Sleeper, he does not have to change much. Raven appears as Resnick; he is a man with knowledge of murder. Many of the characters find out about his abilities the hard way. And while the film focuses on Raven and some university students, at the film's heart is a story of manipulation and betrayal. Maybe Resnick's victims deserved their bloody ends. This reviewer enjoyed watching this film as the villain, Resnick, is often foreboding. His legend grows...