Coronavirus: In a Hollywood ending comes a fresh beginning

The lure of Hollywood was so strong for film directors Zak Hilditch and Alison James that a year ago they moved permanently to LA to work.

Zak Hilditch, Alison James and their son, Ryker.

The lure of Hollywood was so strong for film directors Zak Hilditch and Alison James that a year ago they moved permanently to Los Angeles to work. It paid off, and both were about to start film projects when COVID-19 hit.

Now the couple and their two-year-old son, Ryker, are undergoing two periods of two-week isolation, currently in Sydney and soon at home in Perth, after flying out of the US on Tuesday last week.

“We were living pretty much in lockdown for four straight months with Ryker in our LA apartment,” says Hilditch, who directed 1922, the Netflix film he adapted from a Stephen King novel.

“It felt like a Groundhog Day experience and we were pretty jealous of the idea that in Perth you could go to a cafe or bar, or just leave the house without a mask. That seemed insane. When we get back it’s going to be quite surreal to slide back into our old life and do all the things we once took for granted.”

James’s career was also taking off after her short film Judas Collar — shot in the deserts of Western Australia with a herd of camels — was longlisted for an Oscar in the narrative film category.

But with Hollywood locked down and no end in sight, they decided to leave, especially after watching Ryker forced to play alone. “He has not seen much of other kids,” says James.

“We’d go down to the park every day in LA but Ryker would see kids and hide because he’d been told to keep away from other people.”

The decision to return to Perth was made easier by the fact it is viewed as one of the safest places to shoot films.

Willie Rowe, chief executive of the state’s film funding body Screenwest, says Perth’s industry is already coming out of shutdown.

“We’re looking to a couple of productions starting up in the next few months … People say ‘this is a place we can come and make films safely’. And lots of our crews want to come back and raise families here.”

Hilditch and James’s return also coincides with serious moves to create the one thing the West Australian industry lacks: a film studio facility.