Little Death springs to life in new versions

A Spanish version of Josh Lawson’s film, The Little Death, is in production with French and Lithuanian remakes in the works.

Kate Mulvany and Damon Herriman in The Little Death.

A Spanish version of Josh Lawson’s film The Little Death is in production with French and Lithuanian remakes in the works. Co-producer Jamie Hilton says the Spanish film will be “in the can” within 12 months of the original’s global premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last October. European distributor and sale agent Wild Bunch wanted the French remake rights to the film, and took the Spanish rights, which was rushed into production. Lawson, who wrote and directed the film about sexual fetishes, starring Damon Herriman, Bojana Novakovic and Kate Mulvany, is executive producer along with Hilton and Michael Petroni. “It’s funny, that film had a mixed response here,” Hilton tells Reel Time. “A lot people really loved it but it came out at a low point for Aussie films. And internationally we sold it to every major territory.” The film has had a few different names during its international releases, including A Funny Kind of Love in Britain, Orgazam in Croatia and Sex Actually in The Netherlands. Hilton’s See Pictures is in full swing with Ben C. Lucas’s sci-fi film starring Jess De Gouw, OtherLife filming in Perth, Simon Baker’s adaptation of Tim Winton’s Breathe scouting for locations around Western Australia’s Denmark and Petroni’s thriller starring Adrien Brody, Backtrack, received extremely well at last week’s CinefestOZ festival.

Also at CinefestOZ, Nicole Ma’s documentary feature Putuparri and the Rainmakers upstaged higher profile films to win the $100,000 film prize. The film about Tom “Putuparri” Lawford’s cultural struggles in his community outside Fitzroy Crossing in the West Australian desert outpointed four other strong contenders: Wayne Hope and Robyn Butler’s comedy Now Add Honey; Petroni’s Backtrack; Paul Ireland’s Melbourne drama Pawno; and The Daughter, Simon Stone’s Tasmanian drama starring Ewen Leslie and Geoffrey Rush. David Wenham headed a jury comprising Sarah Snook, Wayne Blair, Liz Kearney and Annie Murtagh-Monks.

Congratulations to Blair, whose latest film, Septembers of Shiraz, starring Salma Hayek and Adrien Brody, will have its global premiere in the Gala section of the TIFF this month. It joins Jocelyn Moorhouse’s The Dressmaker in the main selection next to new films by Julie Delpy, Stephen Frears, Atom Egoyan and others. Stone’s The Daughter features in the Special Presentation section along with Truth, the Sydney-shot drama starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford. (Blanchett will also receive the British Film Institute Fellowship at the London Film Festival premiere of Truth next month). Blair, who is concluding the ABC TV series Cleverman, has turned around his second feature quickly after The Sapphires. He says he didn’t want to get trapped in the second film development malaise and responded to the story of a family torn asunder during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. “I just thought: ‘Shit, that sounds good!’ and I went for it,” he says of the film shot by Samson and Delilah’s Warwick Thornton, in Bulgaria. “There was no rhyme nor reason, it was just what I felt instinctively. It was a great story that happened at the right time.”

Still in Western Australia, producers Vincent Sheehan and David Jowsey have confirmed their cast for their feature Jasper Jones, which will begin filming in the state next month. The adaptation of Craig Silvey’s popular novel will star Levi Miller, These Final Hours’ Angourie Rice and Glitch’s Aaron McGrath as Jasper. Miller’s screen debut will be seen next week as the lead opposite Hugh Jackman in Joe Wright’s Pan, for Warner Bros, and he has just concluded filming the Red Dog sequel Blue Dog. Rice also has an imminent Hollywood debut, opposite Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in Shane Black’s The Nice Guys. Jowsey jokes it is becoming difficult finding young Australian talent for local films. “They’ve all got Hollywood agents now,” he says. Rachel Perkins will direct.

Shine screenwriter Jan Sardi was a happy man at CinefestOZ after filming began in South Africa last week on his screenplay with Bronwen Hughes, The Journey is the Destination — 13 years after beginning the story. “You never lose hope,” he says. Maria Bello stars in the story of Dan Eldon. Bello is a close friend of Eldon’s mother and is portraying her. The film, based on the book The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon, tells of the photojournalist who was killed in Somalia. Most recently, Sardi’s co-screenplay for The Secret River aired on ABC TV and he revealed at CinefestOZ the adaptation of Kate Grenville’s novel was conceived as a feature film. “I was very happy it didn’t get made as a feature film because not a lot of people would have seen it and it would have cost a lot of money,” Sardi says.