Shane Abbess: Method director’s seven-year itch

Shane Abbess is hot property once more with Infini.

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Seven years ago Shane Abbess was among the hottest Australian directors in Hollywood.

His $200,000 debut action-fantasy feature Gabriel made $1.8 million in Australia and US studio Sony Pictures picked it up for worldwide distribution.

Hollywood opened its doors and in quick time Abbess had the cliched “numerous projects in various stages of development”.

“I spent many years doing that and I realised that there’s kind of a window of opportunity in the marketplace where people can get their project made.

“And that statement (‘numerous projects’) means you’re looking for a job,” he says, laughing.

Today, Abbess is again a hot property in Hollywood, but he’s far wiser and this time has an Australian, not Hollywood, film under his belt. The director returned to Australia and made the sci-fi film Infini in an inner-Sydney warehouse.

As we speak, he also is already in pre-production for his next film, which will have a substantially bigger budget than Infini, which was made for less than $5m.

“I made sure after Infini that I had a whole bunch of stuff over the years, stuff I’d set up in Hollywood, ready to go,” he says. “So if I made another film I made sure I went straight on to the next one, which is kind of the secret.”

Abbess displays no sign of bitterness about his experience in Los Angeles.

“Oh no, it was amazing!” he says. “Hollywood is a magical place if you understand what’s happening. I’m in rooms with Joel Silver and Lorenzo di Bonaven­tura, some of my favourite producers, and in Universal Studios (Steven) Spielberg drives past on his golf cart and waves to me, and you think: ‘My god, how did this happen?’

“But then you realise you’ve still got to work.”

In fact, he notes, his paucity of production was “as much my doing as anyone else’s” because he was used to creative freedom with his short films and Gabriel. He didn’t want to be told, “Hey, we can’t wait to get your version of the film as long as you do everything we tell you to do and have everyone that we want.”

Abbess realised he was being asked to make films he didn’t like. He concedes he dodged two bullets in choosing not to direct a couple of movies that turned out to be turkeys.

“And you get to a point with the studios where you get to have big movie stars in your films but no one’s inspired, everyone’s just cashing a cheque,” he says.

Abbess worked hard to find films he believed in and to which he felt he could bring something unique. He heeded a quote from American Beauty director Sam Mendes: There’s no such thing as wrong or right in cinema, it’s just more or less interesting.

Abbess was looking for the more interesting films. He has nine features in active development and the tangible asset of a strong Australian genre film.

He has learned about the business and the market, and the many ways of getting a film up in Hollywood, and returned home only at the urging of his friend and producer Brett Thornquest.

As he and Thornquest were talking over beers while watching a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game, the film finance whiz and producer suggested Abbess take himself home and away from the Hollywood malaise. He told the director if he returned to Australia he would be making a film by Christmas.

“And no one had ever said something like that and been good to their word,” Abbess recalls.

Many advised him not to leave LA but he needed more than a line of possible projects. “It sounds good when I tell my parents what I’m doing, but I’m not making films,” he says with a laugh. “It was a risk but I’m so glad we (took it).”

The outcome couldn’t have been more positive. The first screening of Infini in LA allayed any fears that he had been forgotten. His sci-fi film, which has been sold to screen internationally, has made him hot property again. Infini is the product of a collaboration between Abbess’s wife and producing partner Sidonie Ab­bene and long-time Australian collaborator Brian Cachia, the composer; they spent weeks tossing around thriller ideas.

Abbess admits to a “sense of anarchy” about Infini, which plays like a 1970s sci-fi film that goes awry in its second half.

“I was in such a dark space I ­really wanted to find that rabbit hole and go down it,” he says.

“I have a very immersive approach to my directing; I guess you’d say I was a method director. I don’t treat it as a job, I live it 24/7.”

He had some ready collaborators, some of whom he had worked with on Gabriel before they dallied with Hollywood, and an enthusiastic cast, including Grace Huang, Luke Hemsworth, Luke Ford and an actor who had his own point to prove, Daniel MacPherson.

MacPherson told Abbess it was time he took his acting seriously, otherwise he would end up as merely a television actor doubling as an affable TV host.

MacPherson plays Whit, the lone survivor of a deep space mining colony overrun by disease. An elite search-and-rescue team is dispatched to rescue him.

Abbess’s “method directing” led to him not leaving the set once the shoot began. Some of the actors remained in the cavernous warehouse containing the 26 space station sets. The cast and crew invested most of their wages back into the film, supplementing some major private investors, adding to the “method” in Abbess’s madness to “do something bold with intense performances”.

“That created a level of passion on set where people just wanted to make a great film,” Abbess says.

Infini is available on digital platforms including iTunes, Google Play and Foxtel On Demand from Friday. A special cinema screening and Q&A with Abbess and cast is at the Ritz in Sydney’s Randwick tomorrow.