David vs Goliath Australian film classic The Castle being adapted for stage

Showing all posts about Australian film

David vs Goliath Australian film classic The Castle being adapted for stage

30 July 2026

Feel good Australian comedy classic movie, The Castle, made in 1997, is set the join the likes of Back to the Future, The Color Purple, and Titanic, in being adapted for the stage. The story follows a working class family trying to stop cashed-up property developers seizing their home.

The producers of the film, including Tom Gleisner, Santo Cilauro, Jane Kennedy, and Rob Sitch, will be involved in the writing and production of the stage show. Fingers crossed then the adaptation will retain the quirkiness and candour of the original film.

Talking of Kennedy and Sitch, I stumbled upon a satirical show they starred in about thirty years ago, Frontline, a send-up of Australian current affairs shows, in the iView archives. It’s a great show, but a lot has changed since the mid 1990’s. I’m not sure something like that could be made today.

George Miller wants to bring Mad Max stories to an end, a slow end

18 June 2026

The Australian film director thinks it’s time to bring the story to an end. But a movie, and a separate TV series in addition, sounds like at least another several years worth of work.

The first Mad Max film was made in 1979, and another four have followed, albeit with decades long gaps in between. Assuming the sixth movie, and TV show eventuate, the franchise will have been running for the best part of fifty years.

It’s probably been said before, but I could see Mad Max going the way of stories such as Star Trek and Star Wars, in other words indefinitely. After all, Miller seems interested in selling the franchise at some point. I think this might only be the beginning.

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Australian film, film, George Miller

The Top Fifty Australian movies of all time, compiled by The Age/Sydney Morning Herald

30 April 2026

Lindy Percival, Nathanael Scott, Daniel Carter, and others:

This list of our 50 best films will likely provoke debate, but with the aid of 24 experts, including directors, actors, critics, curators and authors, what follows is an inspiring reminder of what we’ve seen so far and a heartfelt encouragement to go on watching our stories on screen.

Spoilers: Crocodile Dundee doesn’t feature, though The Castle does, but overall the fifty selected titles are indicative — I think — of the best Australian film.

Bad Boy Bubby, The Devil’s Playground, Ten Canoes, and Walkabout, are among entries listed earlier on. The top twenty is definitely on the money, with the likes of Nitram, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Snowtown, Beneath Clouds, Somersault, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Animal Kingdom, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Samson & Delilah.

Some of these titles are not easy to watch, but are exemplary instances of local film and storytelling.

Trailer for One More Shot, a time travel comedy by Nicholas Clifford, with Emily Browning

7 October 2025

If you’ve ever wanted to travel back in time so you can put something right, then One More Shot, trailer, the debut feature of Melbourne based Australian filmmaker Nicholas Clifford, staring Australian actor Emily Browning, might be for you.

It’s New Year’s Eve 1999, and Minnie (Browning) discovers a bottle of tequila, Time Traveling Tequila no less, is able to transport her back to the beginning of NYE party she’s at, with each swig. For some people, going that far back in time could possibly just be enough to put the world to rights.

From what I can tell, One More Shot is going to straight to streaming (the way I prefer things) in Australia on Sunday 12 October 2025.

Vale David Stratton, Australian film critic

15 August 2025

The family of the noted film critic announced his death, at age 85, yesterday, Thursday August 2025.

I used to do some film writing (I still do occasionally) but would never describe my efforts as critique. Nonetheless, I used to be invited to preview screenings and premieres, and from time to time Stratton would be present.

Stratton, together with long time collaborator Margaret Pomeranz, were recently inducted onto the Australian Film Walk of Fame, becoming the first non-actors to be accorded the honour. If that doesn’t speak volumes about the regard in which Stratton’s work was held, I don’t know what does.

Picnic at Hanging Rock, a film by Peter Weir, released fifty years ago

9 August 2025

Yesterday, Friday 8 August, marked fifty years since Picnic at Hanging Rock, trailer, premiered in Adelaide, South Australia. They story about some students of a girls’ school who go missing during a picnic, continues to captivate, and baffle, film watchers.

The Sydney born Australian filmmaker Peter Weir has made a slew of top-notch movies. These include Gallipoli, Dead Poets Society, and The Truman Show, but Picnic at Hanging Rock is by far — to my mind at least — his most enigmatic.

The screenplay was based on the 1967 novel of the same name, by late Australian author Joan Lindsay. Much of mystery enveloping the film stemmed from the belief it was based on actual events. The story is in fact fiction (thankfully).

I re-watched Picnic at Hanging Rock a few years ago, and soon after saw a lesser known Weir feature, The Plumber, which is truly bat shit mad/disturbing. Take a look at the trailer. If not already, Weir’s work should be required learning at Australian film schools.

Cast of The Castle reunite, but not for a sequel, nor a prequel

16 July 2025

Alisha Buaya, writing for Media Week:

Uber has reunited Australian film icons, stars of The Castle, Michael Caton, Stephen Curry and Anthony Simcoe, to highlight Uber Green’s transition to a fully electric rideshare product.

The Castle was made by Australian actor, comedian, and filmmaker, Rob Sitch. The 1997 film is a feel good, David versus Goliath comedy, about a working class family attempting to stop property developers taking their home, their castle, away from them.

But wait until you see where the home is located.

The Uber promotion informs riders they now have the option to hire an EV for their journey. As yet, I’m not sure just how much of The Castle — aside from the stars — comes into this.

Fifteen years ago, my interview with Claire McCarthy, Australian filmmaker

30 June 2025

In 2010, Claire McCarthy’s publicity company kindly gave me the opportunity to ask her about her then upcoming film, The Waiting City, which starred Radha Mitchell and Joel Edgerton. I published the interview on this day fifteen years ago.

I remember feeling a tad apprehensive preparing my questions as I hadn’t seen the film beforehand, and subsequently didn’t think they were particularly original. All seemed to be well (or well enough) on the night though, as they say.

Margaret Pomeranz, David Stratton, join Australian Film Walk of Fame

28 June 2025

Colloquially referred to as Margaret and David, the long time Australian film critics became, on Sunday 1 June 2025, the first non-actors to be inducted to the Australian Film Walk of Fame.

The pair are perhaps best known for the two film review television shows they co-hosted, The Movie Show, on SBS, from 1986 until 2004, and then At the Movies, on ABC, from 2004 through to 2014.

Among other roles, Stratton served as director of the Sydney Film Festival from 1966 until 1983. Pomeranz meanwhile was a prominent anti-censorship activist, and was once detained by police during a protest. Despite the warmth of their professional partnership, they often disagreed with each other as to the merits of a film. This became a distinguishing hallmark of their collaboration.

In the earlier days of disassociated I wrote a fair bit about film, and often saw Pomeranz and Stratton at various previews screenings and other events. Stratton hosted a conversation with Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, of 2001: A Space Odyssey, in 2006.

One evening, while waiting to go into a preview screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Sydney in 2012, Pomeranz walked right passed me, as she was leaving the earlier screening. “Any good?” I asked her. She nodded politely in response.

The Australian Film Walk of Fame plague awarded to Pomeranz and Stratton earlier this month, is the second one presented this year. In recent years, the Walk, located outside the Ritz Cinema, in the Sydney suburb of Randwick, has been a little quiet. Is this something of a Film Walk of Fame revival?

David Wenham inducted into the Australian Film Walk of Fame

7 June 2025

Talking of the erstwhile Australian Film Festival, as I was earlier this week, word has reached me that Brisbane based Australian actor David Wenham was admitted to the Australian Film Walk of Fame in February 2025. The induction coincided with a screening of Spit, Wenham’s then most recent work, at the Ritz Cinema, in Randwick, Sydney.

Anyone who has seen Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, 300: Rise of an Empire, or Elvis by Baz Luhrmann, will have seen some of Wenham’s work. Oranges and Sunshine, directed by Jim Loach, was one I particularly liked. The pavement outside the Ritz is adorned with the plagues of the twelve Australian actors who have so far been inducted to the Walk.

(Thanks Stef AKA Coffee Girl)

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Australian film, David Wenham, film

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