News

George Trumbull Miller, the director of The Man From Snowy River and The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, has died of a heart attack. He was 79.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported the news of the Australian filmmaker’s death on Saturday. No details of the day he died have been shared at this time.

Miller rose to prominence in the 1980s with his massive hit The Man From Snowy River, starring Kirk Douglas. To this day, the Western still has a place on Australia’s list of top 20 grossing films of all time in unadjusted terms. It made 17.2 million locally then, which equals about 68 million in today’s world.

After becoming one of his home country’s most commercially successful filmmakers, the Scottish-born director made his way to Hollywood, where he helmed The NeverEnding Story II, Christmas movie In the Nick of Time and family movie Zeus and Roxanne,...

Australian film and television director George Miller has died of a heart attack in a hospital in Melbourne, Australia. He was 79.

He is best remembered for his film The Man From Snowy River, which launched him to make movies in Hollywood,

Unfortunately, Miller was destined to always be known as “the other George Miller.” That’s because he worked at the same time as the creator of the Mad Max franchise, Dr. George Miller.

Early in his career, Miller worked on the Australian television shows Division 4, Matlock Police, The Box, and The Sullivans. The boom in TV miniseries saw him take on the colonial-era Against the Wind, starring pop singer Jon English.

George T. (for Trumbull) Miller’s The Man From Snowy River was released in 1982 and spawned a sequel. It is still in the top 20 Australian films in unadjusted terms.

That led him to Hollywood, where he made...

George Trumbull Miller, an Australian film and television director whose most notable credits include “The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter” and “The Man From Snowy River,” died of a heart attack in a hospital in Melbourne. He was 79 years old.

Miller’s death was confirmed by the Sydney Morning Herald. No details regarding a date of death are available at this time.

Miller reached national prominence for his 1982 Western “The Man From Snowy River,” starring Kirk Douglas. The film grossed 17.2 million in Australia and reached more than 20 million worldwide, inspiring a sequel as well as an arena attraction. More than 40 years on, “Man From Snowy River” remains one of the top 20 highest grossing local productions in the history of the Australian box office.

Coincidentally, George T. Miller’s rise as a filmmaker closely paralleled that of his fellow Australian, “Mad Max” director George Miller.

“He was very kind to me,...

Mad Max star Vincent Gil has died aged 83.

The Australian actor was best known for playing The Nightrider in the original 1979 film.

Gil’s death was announced in a Facebook post by his co-star Paul Johnstone, who played Cundalini. No cause of death was given.

Sharing a recent photo of the pair embracing, Johnstone wrote: “Sadly, it is true… Vince Gil has left us. He’s been very frail for quite some time and mercifully no longer needs to be constrained by his mortal form.”

He continued: “My fondest memory of Vince will be during our wonderful tour of Japan for MMCon 2015. He was already in less-than-ideal health, and in the opening days a couple of us were concerned about his ability to get through the long demanding days of convention and socialising and travel and convention.

“We need not have been concerned. Vince was remarkable – he rose to the occasion every time,...

‘Point of No Return.’

Vincent Monton is understandably chuffed that Australians have the chance to discover – or rediscover – his telemovie Point of No Return 25 years after it premiered on Network 10.

Umbrella Entertainment released a digitally restored version of the drama written and directed by Monton, which starred Marcus Graham and Nikki Coghill, on DVD and VOD this month.

Graham played the dual roles of Grady, a former soldier who is traumatized by his experiences in war and prison, and his murdered brother Kristian.

Grady escapes from custody after attending Kristian’s funeral. Coghill is Kate, the girlfriend of the protagonist who later hooked up with his brother.

The producer, the late Phillip Emanuel, had raised the budget to make a telemovie about a prison break but was not happy with the script so he approached Monton. The offer was to write a screenplay in three weeks, which he could...

Political thriller The Code took the major Awgie award as well as the trophy for best original miniseries at the Australian Writers. Guild awards on Friday night.

The six-hour series, which premieres on ABC on September 21, is written by Blake Ayshford, Shelley Birse and Justin Monjo and produced by Playmaker Media. The major Awgie recognises the best of the night's winners across stage, screen, new media and radio.

The feature film award went to Adelaide writer Matthew Cormack for his first debut feature 52 Tuesdays, the gender-bending drama hailed as .bold and structurally adventurous..

Winner of the best documentary prize was Sally McKenzie for A Woman.s Journey Into Sex.

Andrew Knight was rewarded for his script for Essential Media and Entertainment.s telemovie The Broken Shore, adapted from the Peter Temple novel. Writer/director Peter Duncan won best TV series script for Essential.s Rake.

Niki Aken and Felicity Packard...

Screen Queensland has appointed Jo Dillon, formerly a development executive at Screen Australia, in the new role of head of development and production.

This co-incides with the retirement of director-development Jock Blair after a career spanning more than 40 years, and the departure of production investment and business development executive Catherine Nebauer.

Nebauer is leaving mid-August to become general manager of ZooMoo, billed as the world.s first kids channel dedicated to animals, launched by David Haslingden.s Beach House Pictures and Nhnz.

Dillon starts at Screen Queensland on August 25 and Blair steps down on August 1.

.As Screen Queensland continues to work with industry to grow a healthy and sustainable industry, Jo.s experience with creative and thoughtful leadership will provide exactly what the industry is asking for,. said CEO Tracey Vieira.

Vieira tells If that Dillon is a new addition to the executive ranks and she will hire replacements for Blair and Nebauer.

Prolific screenwriter Everett De Roche, who died in Melbourne yesterday, was one of the instigators of the Ozploitation genre movement of the 1970s and 80s.

The Us-born writer, who migrated to Australia with his wife in 1968, was 67. He had battled with cancer for three years. He started as an in-house writer for Crawfords for four years in the 1970s, penning episodes of Homicide, Division 4, Ryan and Matlock Police.

His first feature screenplay was Colin Eggleston.s Long Weekend in 1978. Among his film credits were Richard Franklin.s Patrick (1978), Simon Wincer.s Harlequin (1980), Franklin.s Roadgames (1981), David Hemmings. Race to the Yankee Zephyr (1981), Russell Mulcahy.s Razorback (1984) and Franklin.s Visitors (2003).

In 2008 he and director Jamie Blanks collaborated on a remake of Long Weekend, for which he added two characters, a baby dugong and several scenes. "The basic environmental message works as well today as it did in 1978," he said.

Conrad Rothmann..

The film business was saddened to receive the news of the passing of SFX impresario and creator of illusions, Conrad Rothman on 21 June 2013 - the winter solstice. Conrad died of a heart attack on his way to a hospital in Sydney. An American import into our film industry in the 1970.s, Conrad was perhaps one of the first SFX men to hit our shores, and he was most welcome. .He was thought of as the .stunt-glass-kid. of Australia..no one did glass like Conrad., ex-wife and dear friend Natalie Hammond said of him. Conrad went to film school with Steven Spielberg and Richard Franklin. He worked often with the latter and wished he had with the former!

His final years were spent working out of Fox in Sydney in an office and workroom with Aet, where he was known as Corny. Conrad was the genuine eccentric and much loved by everyone.

Paul 'Clackers' Clark..

The Australian film industry was saddened to hear the news of the death of sound recordist extraordinaire Paul Clark on 5 July 2013, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Paul was on location shooting with Living Films, on a Canadian production, when he became unwell. Determinedly he completed the scene they were shooting before he left the set. Initially, he had complained of a sore foot. A blood infection followed by diabetic and heart complications ensued and Paul passed away peacefully. Friend and producer Chris Lowenstein was at Paul.s side until the end at Chiang Mai Ram Private Hospital at 6.00am local time. Friend and fellow sound recordist, Gary Wilkins, Paul.s Thai friends and workmates arranged a Buddhist funeral days later. Paul.s two sons, Simon and Sam were able to attend the ceremony. Gary Wilkins said, .We had made an agreement for Paul to return here, to his beloved Chiang Mai,...

Harold Hopkins, who appeared in several important Australian movies including Gallipoli (right), The Year My Voice Broke, Don's Party, and The Club, died yesterday, Dec. 10, at Neringah Private Hospital in Wahroonga, north Sydney. According to reports, his death was caused by the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma.

Hopkins, who was 67, is supposed to have been exposed to the cancer right after finishing high school, while working as an apprentice carpenter sheeting asbestos in Queensland in the early 1960s.

Following on the footsteps of his twin brother John, Harold Hopkins (born on March 6, 1944, in Toowoomba, Queensland) graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1967. He then performed onstage and began his feature-film career in 1969, landing a supporting part in Michael Powell's Age of Consent, starring James Mason and Helen Mirren.

Film roles were sporadic throughout the 1970s — among those was an appearance in Bruce Beresford's comedy-drama Don's Party — though Hopkins...

Some may recall that when Frank Brittain's The Set was released in Australia in the seventies, it outraged many with its uncompromising look at teenage sexuality and identity at a time when homosexuality was not only taboo, but also illegal.   While the film went on to become a cult classic, the book, upon which the film was based, remained unpublished. That is, until now. The Set's author, Roger Ward, decided it was time to finally publish the novel.   An established actor, particularly of the "Ozploitation" genre, Ward has enjoyed roles in a slew of legendary Australian films including Mad Max, Turkey Shoot, The Man from Hong Kong and Young Einstein, and a clutch of television series such as Division 4, Matlock Police and Homicide.