Paul Kelly’s song How To Make Gravy being developed into feature film
One of Australia’s favourite Christmas songs is set to find a new home on the screen, as Paul Kelly’s iconic ballad How To Make Gravy is being developed into a feature film.
One of Australia’s favourite Christmas songs is set to find a new home on the screen, as Paul Kelly’s iconic ballad How To Make Gravy is being developed into a feature film.
Written by the Melbourne-based singer-songwriter and originally released in 1996, Kelly’s song famously tells the story of a prisoner who writes a letter of longing to be with his family in the days before Christmas.
“Hello Dan, it’s Joe here / I hope you’re keeping well,” Kelly sings in its opening verse. “It’s the 21st of December / And now they’re ringing the last bells…”
On Thursday, Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia announced that it had secured the exclusive international rights to develop Kelly’s song into a Christmas film.
In a statement, Kelly said, “Dan and Joe and Rita and Angus and Dolly and all the others have been stuck inside that song so long, I’m glad they’re going to get a chance to live life a different way!”
The deal is in partnership with Speech&Drama Pictures, a production company run by ARIA Award-winning musician and screenwriter Megan Washington and her partner, screenwriter and director Nick Waterman.
Fittingly, the Brisbane-based married couple signed their co-production deal with Warner Bros. on December 21 last year, after working on the script for about two years as a pandemic project, with funding from Screen Queensland.
“The song is so beloved; we haven’t taken this lightly,” Washington told The Australian. “We’ve been very intent on creating a story that is as faithful to the song as it can be, and that does not deviate from the DNA that is at the core of the whole thing.”
The upcoming film marks the first time that the couple has worked on a feature film together, and the man who wrote the gravy-centric tune has been supportive of their idea from their first approach, too.
“It was quite an unusual option agreement for the lawyers to put together, because I don’t think anyone has really done a song before, for a feature film adaptation,” said Waterman. “Paul has been in on it from the outset. It’s very cool to have his blessing to go ahead with the idea.”
Speaking with The Australian in December for a story about his double album, Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train, the singer-songwriter said his friends talked him into including a newer version of How To Make Gravy on that release.
“I hadn’t thought of re-recording it, but the band said, “We play it; we should record it,” he told The Australian. “Then I ran it by a few other friends, and most people I spoke to said, “You’ve got to record that. Why wouldn’t you?”
“That song has all these in-built gear changes, and they sort of play themselves, so we didn’t attempt a different version that changes the engine,” said Kelly, 67. “I understand it’s probably shifted in ways I’m not aware of; I’m probably singing it a bit differently, and my band is playing it with their own way of playing.”
In recent years, ‘Gravy Day’ has become a cultural phenomenon on social media, with fans happily celebrating December 21 to mark the occasion. In partnership with Frontier Touring, Kelly has also been hosting a touring mini-festival in late December named Making Gravy, with curated line-ups featuring some of his favourite artists at shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
In a statement, Michael Brooks, the managing director of Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia said, “In Australia, December 21st is known as Gravy Day. Few songs have risen to cult status and secured a date on the festive calendar, which is why Paul Kelly’s How to Make Gravy is so special.”
“It’s a privilege to be given the opportunity, alongside our partners Megan and Nick at Speech & Drama, to unravel the mystery and meaning captured in Paul’s now iconic lyrics and bring this incredible story to the screen,” said Brooks.
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