Twenty-five must visit cinemas across Australia

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Twenty-five must visit cinemas across Australia

15 November 2025

Flicks list of Australia’s twenty-five most beautiful cinemas is almost enough to tempt me back into going to film screenings instead of streaming from home.

Of those on the list, I’ve been to Golden Age Cinema and Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace. I used to practically live at the Ritz Cinema during my days as film blogger, and when I was based in that part of the world. Seems a lifetime ago now.

A surprise inclusion, at least to me, is the Chauvel Cinema. It definitely looks better to be in, than it is to be in. The seats were far from comfortable, as was the auditorium itself. Still, I liked my visits to the Chauvel, plus the second, smaller theatre, which is not pictured in the Flicks article.

The list makes for a great inclusion to a film-goer’s bucket list. I’d like to go to all of these places, especially Sun Pictures, in Broome, West Australia.

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Australia, cinema, film

Star Trek reboot, Kelvin timeline, movie series cancelled

10 November 2025

Tatiana Siegel, Brent Lang, and Matt Donnelly, writing for Variety:

The hope is to have a fresh “Star Trek” movie, though the studio has moved on from the idea of bringing back Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and the rest of the ensemble from the J.J. Abrams reboot.

The news probably comes as no surprise to Star Trek fans who were nonetheless hopeful of a fourth film in the Kelvin timeline series, which kicked off with Star Trek in 2009, directed by J.J. Abrams.

There are likely numerous reasons for the apparent cancellation, with poor box office takings for 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, the last film in the series, being among them. The tragic death, also in 2016, of Anton Yelchin, who portrayed Pavel Chekov, a key character, might have been a factor as well.

The decision to not make any more instalments in the Kelvin series is not thought to be the end of the Star Trek stories however, and it is believed producers are considering other film and TV ideas.

Reading the Variety article reminded me the first of the rebootedTrek movies had its world premier at the Sydney Opera House, in 2009. While many of the cast and production crew were present, some sixteen-hundred “tastemakers” were also invited to the screening.

As a moniker for influencers, tastemakers didn’t last long, but many of those present would have been conveying their impressions of the new film through their blogs, and possibly Twitter.

How times change, regardless of which timeline you are on.

Non-existent but realistic looking Australian phone numbers for film and TV

5 November 2025

I don’t know how this works in other countries, but the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), a statutory authority that regulates communications and media services locally, has allocated a range of non-existent phone numbers for use in things like films and TV shows.

Actually, this is the first I’ve heard of these numbers, and have given little thought to those I see in a local movie or show. I’ve always assumed producers use numbers that appear to have obviously been made up, like maybe, 1234-5678, or something.

It’s a great initiative though, productions can make use of realistic looking Australian phone numbers even though they are fictitious. I imagine film and TV show makers outside of Australia can use the numbers as well, in the event they need an Australian phone number in their work.

Ethan Hawke discusses forty years of film work

23 October 2025

American actor Ethan Hawke discusses forty years of work, from Explorers in 1985, through to Blue Moon this year, as part of the Vanity Fair Career Timeline series of videos.

There’s not a lot what of Hawke does that feels like a run-of-the-mill movie. Dead Poets Society, and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, for example, are something else all together.

Then there’s the Richard Linklater productions, Before Sunrise, the first of the Before films, which spans an eighteen year period across three instalments, and Boyhood, filmed over twelve years.

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Ethan Hawke, film, Richard Linklater

Vale Diane Keaton, star of Annie Hall, First Wives Club, and many more

15 October 2025

American actor Diane Keaton died a few days aged 79.

Keaton will be remembered for many things. Her collaborations with Woody Allen. Her performance in Manhattan Murder Mystery was a stand out to me, but there were many more. Annie Hall (of course), The Godfather, First Wives Club. Even Father of the Bride, where she was the perfect foil to Steve Martin’s somewhat trite portrayal of a father of a bride to be.

The big screen will not be the same.

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.

Time Alone, a short horror film by Rod Blackhurst

27 September 2025

On Friday 27 September 2013, I posted a link to a short film I saw that day.

The story still holds up twelve years on. Directed by Rod Blackhurst, Time Alone is about a young woman, Ann, portrayed by Rose Hemingway, who spends a weekend camping alone in a wilderness area. The horror of what happened during Ann’s sojourn, however, is revealed when least expected.

Fantastic, if disturbing, storytelling.

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film, Rod Blackhurst, Rose Hemingway

The Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival, 3-5 October 2025

20 September 2025

A large blue spacecraft hovers above a futuristic cityscape of Sydney, Australia, with tall buildings and structures. The background features a large, bright yellow sphere, possibly the Moon, with a gradient sky transitioning from orange to red.

Running since 2020 I believe, this year’s Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival is on from Friday 3 October until Sunday 5 October 2025, at Event Cinemas, on George Street, in Sydney’s CBD. Eleven features will be screened, with many having their Australian premieres.

One title, The Eagle Obsession, trailer, a documentary directed by American filmmaker Jeffrey Morris, will have its international premiere at the festival.

Also known as The Eagle has Landed, the film explores travel to the Moon, both actual and imagined. William Shatner is among those appearing in the film, along with Barbara Bain and Nick Tate, who starred in 1970’s sci-fi TV series, Space 1999. Now I get the eagle reference…

The Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival Awards ceremony also takes place on the closing evening.

The spectacular banner for this year’s festival, as seen above, which is a futuristic representation of the skyline of Sydney’s CBD — spot the iconic Westfield Tower towards the left — was created by Australian filmmaker and artist Joshua Reed.

Where no Star Trek syndication royalties have gone: to William Shatner

12 September 2025

William Shatner, the Canadian actor perhaps best known for portraying Captain Kirk, in the original series (TOS) of sci-fi TV series, Star Trek, claims to have not been paid a penny for the shows that screened in syndication. After the show’s original run, between 1966 to 1969, after which the series was cancelled, some TV stations began broadcasting re-runs.

It seems incredible to think that Star Trek might not have become the cultural phenomenon it is today (that is, numerous movies and spin-off shows), if not for those re-runs during the 1970’s, which ignited broader interest in the story.

I imagine none of the other (original) Star Trek cast members received any residual fees either. It seems no one gave any thought, at the time, to the notion of TV shows being re-screened after their original run concluded. Perhaps though cast members received compensation in kind, when negotiating their fees to appear in the later series of movies.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Shatner also said he’d only ever seen a small number of the original TV shows, and none of the spin-offs. Of course the point can be made that there’s no use watching the shows since you were in them, and presumably know what happens.

But the experience of participating in a broadcast production, be it a TV show or a movie, is a world removed from viewing same. This is something Keir Dullea, who portrayed astronaut David Bowman, in 2001: A Space Odyssey, touched on at a special screening of the film, in Sydney, in 2006.

Dullea said all he could see — particularity during the close-up scenes where his character appeared to directly face the audience — were cameras, and production crew and equipment.

As a result, he said he didn’t get a true sense of the story until watching the finished product. This despite being right in the middle of proceeding at times. It can’t have been much different for Shatner. But we’re talking Captain Kirk here, someone whose perspective is a little different…

Future Boy, a book by Michael J. Fox, and a missing Gibson guitar

20 August 2025

Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey through the Space-Time Continuum, is a book written by American actor Michael J. Fox, of, of course, Back to the Future (BTTF) fame, in conjunction with TV and film producer, Nelle Fortenberry.

Fans of the 1985 time-travel caper, and Fox himself, probably already know the story. Fox was also on the cast of TV sitcom Family Ties, and during the filming of BTTF, would shuttle back and forth between the sets of TV and film. TV during the day, film by night. If working two jobs each day was tiring, Fox sure as hell didn’t show it, as he seemed to do nothing but burst about the screen in BTTF.

Future Boy delves deeper into this story, through interviews with the cast and crew of both Family Ties and BTTF, and will be published on Tuesday 14 October 2025.

That’ll definitely be a red-letter day for BTTF aficionados.

And in other news, BTTF cast and crew are searching for the guitar, the Cherry Red Gibson ES-345 to be precise, which Marty McFly played when performing Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode, at the Enchantment Under the Sea high school dance.

This is no publicity stunt (I don’t think). BTTF producers realised the iconic guitar was missing when they went to film the sequel, Back to the Future Part II, back in 1989.

They’re hoping to find it today, soon, this century, to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of BTTF, and the release of a documentary about the film, Lost to the Future, which I think goes to air later this year. Members of the cast, including Fox, Harry Waters Jr, Lea Thompson, and Christopher Lloyd, are among those who have issued an appeal for information in the search for the Gibson.

I’d forgotten 2025 was such a red-letter year in the history of BTTF. I think this calls for a screening this evening of BTTF.

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