Controversial roo-hunt culled from Channel 10’s remake of cult Aussie film Wake in Fright
IT was one of Australia’s more famous psychological thrillers. Now a reboot of the cult classic Wake in Fright is on the way, but without one crucial moment.
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CHANNEL 10 has announced it will air date its anticipated remake of cult Aussie film, Wake in Fright, on October 8.
Starring Sean Keenan (Glitch, Australia Day) the two part telemovie will run over two weeks.
However, barbaric roo-shooting scenes which appeared in the 1971 film have been adapted for a modern audience.
Director Kriv Stenders (Red Dog) said violence against animals necessarily couldn’t be part of the telemovie.
“Obviously the roo shoot from the original film would have been impossible to re-create for a number of practical and ethical reasons, and we didn’t want to even try anyway,” Stenders said.
“For us, changing the roo shoot to a feral pig shoot just seemed to make perfect sense. The feral pig problem in Australia has become a devastating one that is seriously affecting rural communities, and the pig shoot provided us with the perfect setting and context for our version of the sequence.”
The footage of kangaroos being hunted that was in the earlier film was shot during an actual hunt, which lasted several hours, and got out of hand.
Stenders pointed out that both the 1971 film and his modern version are based on Kenneth Cook’s 1961 novel of the same name.
“With our retelling of Wake in Fright we deliberately set out not to do a remake of the original film. I have to make it very clear that this is not a remake.
“We wanted to tell a new story that would work in parallel with the original film and not step on the footprint of what is a very remarkable and historic piece of Australian cinema history. So there really wasn’t a dilemma as such, because we were exploring and investigating the novel, not the film, and using Cook’s original story as our foundation and starting point.
“So our version of Wake In Fright takes the basic premise of a teacher trapped in a small mining town, and then expands on that in a very different direction to the narrative of the film. Doing that liberated us from any concerns or issues, as we were free to tell our story, our way without any fear of deviating from the film, because simply we weren’t making a remake.
The 1971 film boasted a cast of Aussie acting icons including Donald Pleasence, Chips Rafferty and Jack Thompson.
Wake in Fright, Ten, Sunday October 8, 8.30pm
Originally published as Controversial roo-hunt culled from Channel 10’s remake of cult Aussie film Wake in Fright
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