News

Ron Haffkine, a Grammy-winning record producer and manager known for his work with Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, has died. He was 84.

Haffkine died Sunday at his home in Mexico after a brief bout with leukemia and kidney failure, his friend of 50 years, music executive Joel Diamond, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Ron always had an uncanny knack of hearing a hit song in its rawest stage and the rare talent to couple it with the best musicians and then top it off with a meticulous performance by the artist,” Diamond noted.

Haffkine was instrumental in getting Dr. Hook signed by Clive Davis at Columbia Records in the 1970s, and the band led by Dennis Locorriere, George Cummings, the eyepatch-wearing Ray Sawyer and Billy Francis would compile a string of hits that included “Sylvia’s Mother,” “Cover of the Rolling Stone,” “Sharing the Night Together,” “When You’re in Love With a Beautiful Woman,...

Exclusive: Orlando Bloom (Carnival Row) and Andie MacDowell (Maid) have signed on to star in Red Right Hand, an upcoming action-thriller from directors Ian and Eshom Nelms (Fatman).

The film written by Jonathan Easley centers on Cash (Bloom), who is trying to live an honest and quiet life, taking care of his niece Savannah in the Appalachian hills of Odim County. When the sadistic Queenpin Big Cat (MacDowell) who runs the town forces him back into her services, Cash learns he’s capable of anything—even killing—to protect the town and the only family he has left. As the journey gets harder, Cash is drawn into a nightmare that blurs the lines between good and evil.

Asbury Park Pictures is serving as the project’s financier and producing alongside Traction. Individual producers on board include John Wick‘s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, Asbury Park Pictures’ Mike Gabrawy, Traction...

Australian comedian and podcaster Wil Anderson discusses a few of his favorite Australian films.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Crying Game (1992)

Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008)

100 Horsemen (1964)

Mad Max (1979)

Walk Into Hell a.k.a. Walk Into Paradise (1956)

Walkabout (1971)

The Chain Reaction (1980)

Wake In Fright (1971)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Time Bandits (1981)

The Road Warrior (1981)

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Crocodile Dundee (1986)

The Castle (1997)

Chopper (2000)

Young Einstein (1988)

Reckless Kelly (1993)

Mr. Accident (2000)

Wolf Creek (2005)

Romper Stomper (1992)

Hammers Over The Anvil (1993)

Unhinged (2020)

The Nice Guys (2016)

Gladiator (2000)

Two Hands (1999)

The Dark Knight (2008)

Ned Kelly (2003)

Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975)

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Kenny (2006)

Borat (2006)

Gallipoli (1981)

Phar Lap (1983)

Seabiscuit (2003)

The Dish (2001)

Other Notable Items

Bruce Springsteen’s disappointing Jeep Superbowl commercial

Neil Young

Gruen TV...

Gregor Jordan on the set of ‘Dirt Music’. (Photo: Kerry Brown)

Once cinemas reopen, Universal Pictures intends to give Dirt Music a wide release – something director Gregor Jordan is thankful for.

Shot in Western Australia and based on Tim Winton’s Miles Franklin-winning novel, the film made its world at the Toronto International Film Festival last September.

It stars Kelly Macdonald as Georgie, a sometime sailor, diver and nurse who is stranded in a remote fishing town with Jim (David Wenham), a man she doesn’t love, and his young sons whose dead mother she can never replace. A reckless moment leads Georgie to an intense, sexually charged affair with Lu Fox (Garrett Hedlund), an enigmatic loner, musician and poacher who is traumatised by a tragic accident from his past.

When Lu retreats into the wilderness, Georgie embarks on a journey to bring him back with the unlikely help of Jim,...

New U.K. production company Three Little Birds Pictures has been launched by actor-director Philip Barantini, financial controller Samantha Warham and talent representative Sara Sehdev.

The London and Liverpool-based company’s first co-production, Barantini-helmed “Boiling Point,” stars British talent including “The Irishman” and “Save Me’s” Stephen Graham, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge’s” Hannah Walters, “The A Word’s” Vinette Robinson, “Pennyworth” and “Jamestown’s” Jason Flemyng, “Gangs of London’s” Ray Panthaki, and “Curfew’s” Malachi Kirby.

The feature, about a talented head chef wrangling his team on the busiest day of the year, was one of the last productions to finish shooting in the U.K. prior to the coronavirus lockdown. It is based on the Bifa-nominated short of the same name, and is produced with Ascendant Films, Burton Fox Films and Graham/Walters’ company Matriarch.

Projects in development for Three Little Birds Pictures include “Children of the Wild,...

Author: Zehra Phelan

It’s Showtime! Hugh Jackman dons the title of The Greatest Showman in the forthcoming film of the same name and we have the first trailer below for your eyes to behold.

The Greatest Showman sees Australian Michael Gracey, who is be best known for his visual effects on the Heath Ledger led Ned Kelly, debut at the helm of this musical biopic which is inspired by the ambition and imagination of P.T. Barnum.

For his first feature Gracey hasn’t held back on the talent that don’s the picture, not only has he managed to bag Jackman but also Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya and Rebecca Ferguson to create a colourful, weird and wonderful spectacle.

“It’s everything you ever wanted, it’s everything you ever needed and it’s right here in front of you”…

The trailer sees Jackman’s Barnum rise from nothing...

El Questro Station, where 'Wonderful Unknown' will shoot. (Photo: Tourism Western Australia)..

Two features, Wonderful Unknown and Dirt Music, as well as a six-part drama series from Greer Simpkin and David Jowsey, are set to shoot in Western Australia, thanks to the $16 million Wa Regional Film Fund.

The fund, launched by the state government.last year, is designed to attract local and international productions..

".Eight months after its launch, the fund has helped secure its first Hollywood-Australian feature and UK-Australian feature as well as a major Australian television series," said Wa Culture and Arts Minister John Day.

.It is estimated they will contribute more than $14 million to the Wa economy..

Gregor Jordan (Buffalo Soldiers, Ned Kelly, Two Hands) will direct Dirt Music, the long-in-the-works adaptation of Tim Winton.s novel.

The screenplay was penned by Jack Thorne (Wonder, The Last Panthers), and the producers are Brits Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey,...

People love to watch cops behaving badly. Be it for thrills in films like Bad Boys, chills in movies like Training Day, or the kind of laughs found in 21 Jump Street, there's definitely something appealing about watching law enforcement cut loose from its square-jawed reputation.

The latest film to explore cops gone wild is the bonkers-looking War On Everyone. It stars the stellar Michael Peña (Ant-man, End Of Watch) and Alexander Skarsgård (The Legend Of Tarzan), who's continuing his push for post-True Blood glory.

Here's the red-band teaser for War On Everyone:

War On Everyone was directed by John Michael McDonagh (Ned Kelly, Calvary), and comes out in wide release later this year.

Source: Icon

Mario-f. Robles '#Justiceleague' Blowout: Who's In Charge? Who's The Villain? And Much More! — https://t.co/W8Nt6gFE3c https://t.co/aZ3cXK4BY1 about 11 hours ago...

For the past couple of years, Joel Edgerton has been doing work that has gotten him more and more noticed in the industry. This year, partly for his role in Black Mass, the 19th annual Hollywood Film Awards will be citing him with their Hollywood Breakout Actor Award. This will not only have him in contention at the Oscars for a Best Supporting Actor nomination, it will continue him down the path for A-list stardom in the years to come. We’ll see if the Academy Awards go for him or not, but the Hollywood Film Awards already have. Kudos to Edgerton for the honor… Here’s part of the press release once again announcing this honor: Actor Joel Edgerton will receive the “Hollywood Breakout Actor Award” for Black Mass The “19th Annual Hollywood Film Awards” will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, on November 1, 2015. The Hollywood Film Awards,...

Chinese entertainment conglomerate Huace Group and Arclight Films have signed a strategic alliance for a multi-faceted $300 million feature film collaboration.

Their co-venture Aurora Alliance Films. plans to develop, finance and produce a slate of high concept international co-productions. The first titles have secured top-tier Hollywood directors to be announced soon. Huace and Arclight Films have begun work on the action-thriller Lights Out and are in final negotiations with a Hollywood director.

Also in the works is Safecrackers, a crime-action feature written by Paul Staheli, to be directed by Gregor Jordan whose credits include Buffalo Soldiers,.. Two Hands and Ned Kelly. The group is also developing a big budgeted Chinese co-production, an action thriller,. with Thunder Road.s Basil Iwanyk, who recently produced Gods Of Egypt, the $200 miliion film directed by Alex Proyas.

The producers are in negotiations with James McTeigue to direct. McTeigue made his directorial debut in 2006 with box-office hit V for Vendetta.

Gary Hamilton has struck a partnership with president Zhao Yifang of China’s Huace Group to collaborate on a slate of at least three high-concept features a year.

Huace and Aurora Alliance, a new venture created through the partnership, will jointly produce the slate of Chinese, Us and Australian co-productions, while Arclight will handle sales outside China.

The parties claim to have secured “top-tier Hollywood directors” to each project and are in final talks with James McTeigue to direct what they say will be one of the most expensive Chinese co-productions ever, which is being developed with Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk.

Huace and Arclight Films have begun work on the action-thriller Lights Out and say they are in final negotiations with a “legendary” Hollywood director. Xavier Gens had been attached previously.

The roster includes action comedy Safecracker that teams up Ned Kelly and Buffalo Soldiers director Gregor Jordan with screenwriter Paul Staheli.

Long considered to be one of British auteur Tony Richardson’s greatest miscalculations is his 1970 film Ned Kelly, certainly the most notable but arguably the definitive version as concerns one of Australia’s most infamous outlaws. Arriving on Blu-ray for the first time, the title remains a curious novelty, one of a handful of on-screen appearances featuring The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger in a high-profile role. As many of these once-reviled titles go, the history behind the making of the film tends to overshadow the compromised product, and Richardson’s failed period piece is no exception.

In the late 1800s Outback, horse thief and aspiring bank robber Ned Kelly (Jagger) is released after serving a three year prison sentence. Harassed by the law and his angry neighbors, the ornery bushranger is forced into action when his mother (Clarissa Kaye) is unjustly accused of murder and sentenced to prison. His resulting...

Writer/director Justin Kurzel and co-writer Shaun Grant broke through in a big way with Australian crime tale Snowtown. And for a new collaboration, they’re digging into more of the country’s criminal history for True History Of The Kelly Gang. Grant is working on an adaptation of Peter Carey’s eponymous novel, which chronicles Ned Kelly’s adventures through the man’s own eyes. Their history was a complicated one – in the eyes of the law, they were bandits and murderers, but to many ordinary Australians, they were heroes, the bushrangers who defied English authority to life their own lives.Kelly’s story has been brought to the screen several times before, including a 1906 version, Tony Richardson’s take in 1970 with Mick Jagger playing the main man and 2003’s Ned Kelly, which saw Heath Ledger taking on the role for director Gregor Jordan. It’s early days for this one,...

"Snowtown" and "Macbeth" director Justin Kurzel is re-teaming with the screenwriter of the former, Shaun Grant, for a new film about famed Australian bushranger Ned Kelly for Daybreak Pictures and Porchlight.

"True History of the Kelly Gang" will be based on the Peter Carey novel which tells the story through Kelly’s eyes as he penned his narrative on scraps of paper whilst on the run.

Though Kelly was a monstrous criminal, a thief and a murderer to some, to others he was a hero defying the authority of British rule.

Several films about the bushranger have been made over the years, the most recent being 2003's "Ned Kelly" starring Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom and Naomi Watts.

Source: If...

Snowtown director Justin Kurzel and screenwriter Shaun Grant are collaborating on an Australian bushranger feature.

Grant is writing True History of the Kelly Gang, adapted from the Peter Carey novel, a co-production between Porchlight.s Liz Watts and the UK's Daybreak Pictures.

The novel is seen through Kelly.s eyes, scribbling his narrative on scraps of paper in semi-literate but descriptive prose as he fled from the police.

To his pursuers, Kelly was a monstrous criminal, a thief and a murderer. To many ordinary Australians, the bushranger was a hero, defying the authority of the English to control their lives.

Joe Penhall was listed as the writer when the project received development funding from Screen Australia.

Heath Ledger played the bushranger in Gregor Jordan's Ned Kelly in 2003 and Mick Jagger starred in Tony Richardson's Ned Kelly in 1970. The first screen version was The Story of the Kelly Gang in...

Australians in Film has announced the 2015 finalists for the Heath Ledger Scholarship, which fosters the education and career development of emerging Australian actors within the U.S. The recipients of the seventh annual scholarship, including a main prize winner and two runners up, will be announced on Monday, June 1 at the Sunset Marquis Hotel in West Hollywood, California. Rose Byrne, Ben Mendelsohn and Vince Vaughn are among the judges of this year’s scholarship, along with executive producer Adam Schroeder (“Zoolander,” “Sleepy Hollow,” “Clueless”), directors Kieran Darcy-Smith (“Wish You Were Here,” “By Way of Helena”) and Gregor Jordan (“Ned Kelly,...

Garrett Hedlund and Michael Peña have been cast in John Michael McDonagh's latest film.

The pair will star in War on Everyone, the follow-up to the writer and director's latest project Calvary, reports Screen Daily.

The movie will be about two corrupt cops who make a killing blackmailing criminals in New Mexico.

Things go awry when they become entangled with a man more dangerous than they are.

Guy Pearce – who was reported to be in talks for War on Everyone – was not mentioned.

McDonagh's other films include The Guard and Ned Kelly.

War on Everyone will begin shooting in early 2015.

"Downton Abbey" is about to get a major visitor. George Clooney has shot a cameo appearance on the show, with the episode set to air this Christmas. He'll play "an American character who is a guest at a wedding in the country estate" and his participation is part of the annual charity drive Text Santa for ITV which raises money for various good causes. [The Guardian] Steve Coogan will lead "Boswell for the Defence," an adaptation of the play by Patrick Edgeworth (who also penned the movie script). Gregor Jordan ("Ned Kelly") will direct this one about "James Boswell (Coogan), who in the twilight of his career and life takes on an impossible case—to save the life of the convict Mary Bryant from the gallows, a case no one else wants. " Production starts next year. [THR] Albert Brooks and Gugu Mbatha-Raw have joined the untitled Will Smith NFL concussion drama. Peter Landesman (“Parkland”) directs the movie about.

Highland Film Group announced today at the Toronto film festival that Academy-nominated, BAFTA Award-winning actor Steve Coogan (“Philomena”, “The Trip”) has signed on to play the title role of James Boswell in a feature film adaptation of acclaimed West End play, Boswell For The Defence.

Gregor Jordan (“Buffalo Soldiers”, “Ned Kelly”) will direct from a script by Patrick Edgeworth, who also wrote the play. Mark Pennell and Steve Chasman will produce. Armyan Bernstein (Beacon Pictures) will executive produce. The project is represented by Highland Film Group Internationally.

Production is set for 2015.

Boswell For The Defence tells the true story of how James Boswell (Coogan), in the twilight of his career and life, takes on an impossible case – to save the life of the convict Mary Bryant from the gallows. A case no one else wants or cares about. The tragi-comic Boswell is the most unlikely hero from the most unlikely quarter.

Something black and acidic runs through the veins of those McDonagh brothers; there’s just something not quite right with these lads...and thank goodness for that. Playwright and younger sibling Martin McDonagh made a splash in Ireland’s theater scene with his hilarious, tart, pitch-black plays and then impressed film audiences with two wicked black comedies (“In Bruges” and “Seven Psychopaths”). Older bro John Michael McDonagh possesses a similar talent, and an ear for devilish dialogue, and having penned “Ned Kelly,” he made his feature-length debut with the cheeky, underrated black comedy “The Guard” (underrated internationally, that is; the film is the most successful Irish film of all time in Ireland). If you don’t know these guys, you need to remedy that immediately. For McDonagh’s similarly irreverent, but darker sophomore effort, “Calvary,” the filmmaker reteams with his ‘Guard’ star Brendan Gleeson for an inspired story about a benevolent Irish priest tormented.

Something black and acidic runs through the veins of those McDonagh brothers; there’s just something not quite right with these lads...and thank goodness for that. Playwright and younger sibling Martin McDonagh made a splash in Ireland’s theater scene with his hilarious, tart, pitch-black plays and then impressed film audiences with two wicked black comedies (“In Bruges” and “Seven Psychopaths”). Older bro John Michael McDonagh possesses a similar talent, and an ear for devilish dialogue, and having penned “Ned Kelly,” he made his feature-length debut with the cheeky, underrated black comedy “The Guard” (underrated internationally, that is; the film is the most successful Irish film of all time in Ireland). If you don’t know these guys, you need to remedy that immediately. For McDonagh’s similarly irreverent, but darker sophomore effort, “Calvary,” the filmmaker reteams with his ‘Guard’ star Brendan Gleeson for an inspired story about a benevolent Irish priest tormented.

Universal’s “Daughter of Smoke and Bone”, long in development, has finally found someone to hold its hand in former visual effects director Michael Gracey, who will be making his feature film debut on the movie. Gracey’s credits include works on “Double Vision”, “Ned Kelly”, and “The Magician”. Based on the series of Young Adult books by Laini Taylor, “Daughter of Smoke and Bone” tells “the tale of a 17-year-old art student whose father occasionally sends her on errands around the world collecting human teeth for a mysterious purpose. The young woman gradually becomes aware that she is part of an ancient struggle between devils and angels and finds herself in a forbidden romance with a warrior angel.” But she at least gets two hunky guys falling madly in love with her, right? Isn’t that a law in these books? Universal and producer Joe Roth, of course, is...

Australian drama Secrets & Lies will air on Channel 5 in the UK, it has been announced.

The series follows the story of an everyday family man, whose life falls apart when he is accused of murdering a 4-year-old boy.

Martin Henderson (The Ring, Smokin' Aces, Windtalkers), Anthony Hayes (Rabbit Proof Fence, Ned Kelly, The Slap), Diana Glenn and Adrienne Pickering all star.

A six-part mini-series written by Stephen M Irwin, Channel 5 has said that the show will be at the cornerstone of its schedules in 2014.

Channel 5's head of acquisitions Katie Keenan said: "Channel 5 viewers love compelling, character-led drama packed with twists and turns. Secrets & Lies ticks all these boxes. We're thrilled to add it to our 2014 drama line-up."

The show launches in 2014 on Network Ten Australia.

Head of the network Rick Maier said: "This is a sensational early response and full credit to the cast and crew. We can't wait...

• Joel Edgerton is by no means a newcomer to the movie scene. In the early 2000s alone he appeared in Ned Kelly, King Arthur (as Gawain) and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. But it wasn’t till his turn as the stoic Mma fighter in 2011′s Warrior that he really entered our consciousness as a new leading man to take seriously. In addition to high-profile roles in The Great Gatsby (as Tom Buchanan) and Zero Dark Thirty, Edgerton is also slated to appear in Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Service. Now, Edgerton is in talks to play Ramses...

The last time we wrote about Elton John biopic Rocketman was 2011, a long-ago time when Star Wars was still a dead property and The Avengers looked risky. But while some things have changed, the film is still on its way, and in fact today has landed a Us distribution deal and taken a few more steps towards the screen.The film is still in early pre-production, however, so don't start doing a tiny dance just yet. But FilmDistrict came aboard to distribute the film in the Us, following the Cannes deal where Icon's production arm AI agreed to co-finance the film. Michael Gracey is onboard to direct the film; he previously worked in effects on Ned Kelly and also has The Greatest Showman On Earth coming up.The film will follow Sir Elton's life from his earliest days as Reginald Dwight, misunderstood child prodigy, to the global superstar that we're all familiar with.

Australians in Film President Andrew Warne has announced the fifteen finalists for the 2013 Heath Ledger Scholarship. The Scholarship is named after Oscar-winning Australian actor Heath Ledger, who tragically passed away in January 2008, and has the full support of the Ledger family and friends. Of the final fifteen, an esteemed panel will choose one winner and two runners-up, who will be announced in Los Angeles on June 12. The overall winner will received Usd$10,000 in cash, a return ticket to Los Angeles, a one-year Scholarship to Stella Adler Acting School in La, a trip around California for two a Showcast & Breakdown Services VIP casting package and $5000 worth of visa and immigration services. The runners up will round-trip ticket to Los Angeles plus a Showcast VIP casting package. The 2013 finalists are: Hannah Barlow, Elizabeth Blackmore (Home & Away), Laura Brent, David Coussins, Ashleigh Cummings (Puberty Blues), Georgia Flood (Wentworth & House Husbands), Geraldine Hakewill, Andrew Hazzard (Home & Away), Will Howarth,...

Directors are the people most responsible for the quality of a film, and director with a good track record automatically makes a movie more intriguing. It sometimes takes a film director several attempts before he/she can hit on a formula that works best for them, while some directors come out of the gate already fully formed.

The following ten directors have already shown that they have directing talent of the highest caliber but either have only directed a few movies or have only recently come to the attention of moviegoers. These directors represent the next wave for movies and in the next few years they should take their place as some of the most prominent filmmakers working in movies today.

The directors were ranked both by the quality of their films so far as well as on their potential to make future great films.

10. John Michael McDonagh

Brother of playwright/film director Martin McDonagh,...

More than one year after Elton John broke the news about "Rocketman," an upcoming biopic about the famed singer, the film has found a director. Deadline.com reports that Michael Gracey has signed on to lead "Rocketman."

Gracey, who has largely worked on commercials in the past, is also leading the upcoming film about P.T. Barnum, "The Greatest Showman on Earth." His feature credits include working in the visual effects department on the 2003 Heath Ledger film "Ned Kelly."

With Gracey on board, who will play the Rocketman?

"Number one on my wish list is Justin Timberlake, because he played me before," John said last year.

Timberlake recently did his best Elton when hosting "Saturday Night Live" earlier this month. The singer and actor donned John's signature sunglasses and sparkly suit, and affected his accent for a performance of "Candle in the Wind."

"It's going to be a surreal look at my life,...

Naomi Watts has played her share of real people.   In addition to appearing in biopics like "Ned Kelly" and "J. Edgar," Watts starred as Valerie Plame in "Fair Game" and she'll be playing Princess Diana in a 2013 film.    J.A. Bayona's new disaster film "The Impossible" tells the true story of a family of tourists who are separated from each other in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, with Watts' Maria and son Lucas (Tom Holland) split off from husband Henry (Ewan McGregor) and their younger sons (Samuel Joslin and Oaklee Pendergast).    The real-life Maria Belon...

Over a decade after.his short film Swinger won first place at.Tropfest, internationally renowned director Gregor Jordan is back on the short filmmaking scene alongside Australian film veteran Bryan Brown.

Together the pair, with the support of Harley Davidson, have created the Open Road Film Festival; an initiative devised to engage and challenge young Australian filmmakers.

The premise is as simple as it is unique. Jordan (Two Hands, Ned Kelly) has directed a 75-second ending to a film and challenged entrants to come up with the beginning.. The entire product must be under six minutes in length.

.I like that (the festival) is based on one ending and a whole lot of other beginnings,. Jordan says.

.Anything that sort of experiments with the craft of filmmaking and tries to push it to new places I find really interesting..

Jordan is the first to admit the festival is part-promotion for Harley Davidson,...

Trainspotting and Star Wars star Ewan McGregor has been cast in a new Australian thriller Son of a Gun, to be directed by first time feature film-maker Julius Avery.

The film is a heist thriller, written and directed by Avery, with McGregor set to play a master criminal, who takes on an apprentice.

Avery previously won the Jury Prize at Cannes International Film Festival and a Best Short Film award at the AFIs for his 2008 film Jerrycan.

Avery told Encore: “I’d always had Ewan up there in my top of the list and it just so happened, my agent in the Us reps Ewan, and he put us together. Ewan read the script and connected with it and we had a good chat and felt he was right for the role.”

Avery also wrote Yardbird, directed by Good Oil’s Michael Spiccia, which screened at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

An ABC documentary about Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe directed by Gregor Jordan is one of the films to receive funding from Screen Australia.

Jordan, who directed Ned Kelly and Two Hands, followed Thorpe as the swimmer made his failed comeback for the 2012 London Olympics.

The project, Ian Thorpe: The Swimmer is produced for the ABC by Jordan Helen Panckhurst, Michael Hilliard, Simone Kessell and executive producer Rob Galluzzo.

Five documentaries have received funding from the national screen agency, two from the National Documentary Program and three from the General Documentary Program.

The $750,000 investment is expected to trigger $2.1m in production.

Also slated for funding is 10 Days That Shocked The Nation, about the 2005 Cronulla riots, to be broadcast on Sbs Online; the life story of music composer Peter Sculthorpe for the ABC; 1960s pop artist Martin Sharp called The Sharp End; and Canberra Confidential – a hundred years inside the nation’s capital.

A new short film competition created by a prominent Australian director is asking film-makers to create the beginning of a film which already has an ending.

The Open Road Film Festival, sponsored, with naming rights, by Harley Davidson, was created by Two Hands and Ned Kelly director, Gregor Jordan.

Jordan, who shot the final moments of the film called The Queen of Hearts which is billed as a film-noir, likens the competition model to Tropfest.

Jordan told Encore: “We’re hoping it will be an annual event. Tropfest has its prop each year to make sure all films are made exclusively for Tropfest, and ours is probably taking this one step further.

“My dream is to have another film-maker make the ending one year, maybe David Michod,” added Jordan.

With two ways of entering, film-makers can submit a script until July 13 in which five recipients will be awarded $1000 production grant...

In an ideal world, Australian actor Heath Ledger would have been celebrating his thirty-third birthday today. Heartbreakingly, he isn't here for it: the actor passed away from an accidental prescription drugs overdose just over four years ago, on January 22, 2008. At the time, the actor was shooting Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," and the director managed to finish the film with Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law paying tribute to the late actor by joining the production.

Ledger had a rare talent that seemingly wowed everyone he would work with -- Matt Damon, who appeared with the actor in Gilliam's "The Brothers Grimm," recently called him "the best actor I ever worked with" -- and it's hard not to be distraught at the thought of the performances we'll never get to see. But even so, Ledger left behind an enormously impressive body of work for one so young,...

Red Dog has continued its winning streak with its canine star, Koko, taking out the award for Best Dog in a Foreign Film at the Golden Collar Awards in Los Angeles.

Red Dog, the story of the Pilbara wanderer, was both a critical and box office success, picking up seven If Awards including Best Feature and Best Actor for Koko.s human co-star, Josh Lucas, though this is the first nomination and award for the kelpie.

The film.s producer Nelson Woss (Ned Kelly) said: .This win has cemented Koko.s status as cinema.s top dog. I am very proud that Koko has finally won an acting award, which recognises his terrific performance and contribution to the film..

This award is just the latest in international recognition for the film, which has screened at film festivals all over the world, from Berlin to Busan, and which, in October, took...

Red Dog has continued its winning streak with its canine star, Koko, taking out the award for Best Dog in a Foreign Film at the Golden Collar Awards in Los Angeles. Red Dog, the story of the Pilbara wanderer, was both a critical and box office success, picking up seven If Awards including Best Feature and Best Actor for Koko.s human co-star, Josh Lucas, though this is the first nomination and award for the kelpie. The film.s producer Nelson Woss (Ned Kelly) said: .This win has cemented Koko.s status as cinema.s top dog. I am very proud that Koko has finally won an acting award, which recognises his terrific performance and contribution to the film.. This award is just the latest in international recognition for the film, which has screened...

A box-office hit in its native Australia, Red Dog is the tale of the legendary pooch who embodied the country's outback spirit – and has a made a star of its canine lead, Koko

Australia's hottest movie star fixes me with his soulful brown eyes and greets me with a firm lick on the hand. Then, with a clack-clack of claws on the wooden floor of his airy home, Koko shows me through to the kitchen. For the next 20 minutes, the six-year-old star of Red Dog embarks on an impressive charm offensive, gazing up charismatically and fixing a gimlet eye on the bowl of cashew nuts placed before us.

Koko, a red cloud kelpie, has been the surprise breakout talent of 2011 in Australia. The underdog project to adapt Louis de Bernières's book about a real dog that breathed life into a desolate mining town, took $21.3m (£13.4m) at the Australian box office last year,...

The Irish Film Board (Ifb) and the Irish Film and Television Academy (Ifta) have announced the Rising Star Award nominees for 2012. The nominees are: Chris O’Dowd - Actor (“Bridesmaids”) Emmett Scanlan - Actor (“Charlie Casanova”) Rebecca Daly - Writer/Director (“The Other Side of Sleep”) John Michael McDonagh - Writer/Director (“The Guard”) The Rising Star Award is a unique Ifta Award in that it aims to highlight exceptional new and breakthrough talent working in all areas of the Irish film industry. John Michael McDonagh wrote and directed “The Guard”, starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle. “The Guard” is officially the highest grossing Irish independent film of all time at the Irish box office. He has been shortlisted for Best Original Screenplay at this year’s BAFTA Film Awards, in addition to “The Guard” receiving nine Irish Film & Television Awards nominations. McDonagh also wrote the screenplay for “Ned Kelly” (2003), starring Heath Ledger,...

His new film The Guard just pipped younger brother Martin's In Bruges to be the biggest-ever Irish indie movie. But his humour's still as black as his pint

December before last, it was snowy and rainy in the rural west of Ireland. John Michael McDonagh, older brother of playwright Martin, was visiting family and out cycling, having had his directorial debut accepted by the Sundance Film Festival and wondering what was to become of his film, The Guard. After a few hundred lonely yards he came upon the body of dead cat, so he got off his bike and dragged it to the side of the road. Further along, there was another body, this one much bigger, about three or four feet long. What the hell was it?

He soon found out. It was, he recalls, "a fucking badger!" So once again he thought he'd do the right thing, be nice about it.

The Breath of Fresh Air Film Festival has announced the finalists for their Digital Slr Short Film Competition

The festival is currently on in Launceston, Tasmania. Winners of the competition will be announced at the Bofa Awards Dinner.

The films have been selected for reflecting the festival’s contemporary issues and this year’s themes of “new horizons” or “food for thought.”

Judges for the competition include Gregor Jordan (Dir: Ned Kelly, Two Hands) Rowan Woods (Dir: Little Fish, The Boys) and Karena Slaninka, Screen Tasmania’s CEO.

The Digital Slr Short Film Competition 2011 finalists for the MyState Bofa Film Festival are:

‘Abbie’, Dir. Erin Good, Australia, 8 min ‘Being Bradford Dillman’, Dir. Emma Burch, UK, 10 min ‘Bookman’, Dir. Ben Bryan, Australia, 10 min ‘Bottled’, Dir. Michael Sloane, Australia, 9 min ‘Cloud’, Dir. Gilbert James, UK, 12 min ‘Emilia Eckle’, Dir. Alyssa McClelland, Australia, 7 min ‘Good Men’, Dir. Brian Connors, USA, 12 min ‘Life in Red String’. Dir.

Release Date: Jan. 3, 2011

Price: DVD $30.99, Blu-ray $35.99

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Don Cheadle (l.) and Brendan Gleeson try to get along in The Guard.

The dark comedy-thriller film The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson (Green Zone) and Don Cheadle (Brooklyn’s Finest), is a fish-out-of-water tale about murder, blackmail, drug trafficking and rural police corruption … and it’s really quite funny!

Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh (Ned Kelly), the R-rated crime movie opens on Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Gleeson), a small-town Irish cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humor, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes and only a passing interest in the international cocaine-smuggling case that has made it to his desk. This doesn’t go down too well with straight-laced FBI agent Wendell Everett (Cheadle), who has come to McDonagh’s village to work on the investigation. The two must join forces to take on the bad guys,...

Snowtown and The Eye of the Storm are the latest in a new wave of Australian films that rely less on rugged exteriors and more on contained emotional drama

From a controversial horror featuring a sadistic bushranger, to a Melbourne-set gangster saga, to a raucous documentary on 70s Ozploitation flicks, you'd have to have your head buried in the outback to have not noticed the sterling work going on in Australian cinema. And in case you thought Wolf Creek, Animal Kingdom and Not Quite Hollywood were some sort of fleeting mirage, check out the impressive directorial debuts from Patrick Hughes (the suspenseful neo-western Red Hill), Leon Ford (Griff the Invisible – a remarkable romantic ode to superhero flicks) or Ben C Lucas (Wasted on the Young – a nightmarish social networking thriller). They're all evidence of fine Aussie film-making talent that proves you don't need special effects nor mega bucks to make intelligent,...

Two of Australia’s most successful producers have been revealed as speakers at next month’s Spaa Conference in Sydney.

Emile Sherman, Oscar winning producer of The King’s Speech, and Nelson Woss, producer of current local box office hit Red Dog will both speak at the Screen Producers Association of Australia event which takes place from November 13 to 16.

Sherman and Woss will take place in an “on the couch” session at the conference.

As well as The King’s Speech, Sherman’s credits have included Disgrace, Candy and Rabbit Proof Fence. He co-founded See-Saw Films in 2008 which in turn created film finance company Fulcrum Media Finance. A Sherman is also a director of Australasian distribution company Transmission Films.

Red Dog has now moved into the top ten local films at the Australian box office. Woss was also behind the film Ned Kelly.

More details are available on the conference website.

Earlier this week I caught up with John Michael McDonagh, writer and director of the critically worshipped comedy of the year The Guard. He let HeyUGuys pick his brains about what makes him tick as a writer, how he feels about his prolific playwright brother Martin and how he managed to really capture the subtly dark Irish sense of humour.

The Guard is in UK cinemas Now! Our review can be seen here.

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HeyUGuys: What inspired The Guard?

I’d done a short film in 2000 called The Second Death and there was a supporting character, a pretty obnoxious guy and cantankerous and says really offensive things to people’s families. So that was at the forefront of my mind but I was sort of at a low ebb in the British film industry. I’d come off the back of a film that I really didn’t enjoy working on...

To celebrate release of the Anglo-Irish comedy-thriller The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle and Mark Strong, released nationwide on August 19, we’ve teamed up with Optimum Releasing to offer four lucky readers the chance to win a comedy DVD boxset of In The Loop, Four Lions & Perrier’s Bounty.

Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) is a small-town cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humour, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) to his door. However, despite the fact that Boyle seems more interested in mocking and undermining Everett than in actively working to solve the case, he finds that circumstances keep pulling him back into the thick of it.

First his tiresomely enthusiastic new partner McBride disappears, then his favourite hooker attempts to blackmail him into turning a blind eye,...

With The Guard out in UK cinemas tomorrow, we catch up with writer and director John Michael McDonagh about the making of the film…

Writer and director John Michael McDonagh’s debut feature, The Guard, could be described as a collision of buddy-cop thriller, western and black comedy. Its blending of slick, bitingly funny dialogue and familiar genre elements is so perfect, in fact, that it’s already made its way into our list of 2011’s best films.

We got to sit down to speak with McDonagh about the making of The Guard, and what he’s up to next.

We’ve been talking, back at the office, about what genre The Guard falls into. How would you describe it?

I call it a black comedy, because I don’t think the thriller element is big enough to call it a comedy thriller. And it’s sold as a buddy-cop comedy,...

Red Dog captures the wild, blokey days of the 1970s Dampier. Shot on location in isolated Wa’s Pilbara Region, the producers employed a low-budget mentality and called in favours to make finances go the distance. Joanne Whitehead reports.

Set in Western Australia in the remote town of Dampier, Red Dog is based upon a legend about a local stray dog, that residents claim was responsible for creating a sense of community in the 1970s, when the coastal town was barely established. A sentimental comedy that finds laughs from not just the dog but the inner workings of the male dominated mining community, it’s adapted from Louis de Bernieres’ (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin) novelisation of the story.

While wholly aimed at families and dog lovers, it might come as a surprise that Red Dog was directed by Kriv Stenders, who did the dark colonial tale Lucky Country (2009) and the...

Chicago – From a classic tradition of abrasive-but-lovable anti-heroes, the lead of writer/director John Michael McDonagh’s “The Guard,” Officer Boyle (Brendan Gleeson), is one of the most memorable leads of the year. Played with trademark wit by Gleeson, Boyle does drugs, sleeps with hookers, and simply doesn’t care what you think about him. When a major drug deal is set to go down in his minor city, Boyle gets involved with an American agent played by Don Cheadle and a very unusual buddy/action movie unfolds. Writer/director John Michael McDonagh sat down with us last week to talk about Gleeson, Cheadle, Walter Matthau, Terence Malick, Ennio Morricone, “Game of Thrones,” and much more.

HollywoodChicago.com: The first natural question that people may have if they look you up on IMDb [and see that your last credit is 2003’s “Ned Kelly”] is why so long between movies?

John Michael McDonagh: In 2000 I made the short film. Obviously,...

Don Cheadle and Brendan Gleeson in The Guard

Photo: Sony Pictures Classics John Michael McDonagh wrote the screenplay for the little-seen 2003 feature Ned Kelly, which I've avoided to this point based on hearing nothing that would lead me to believe it was a must see. But after seeing McDonagh's debut feature film The Guard I just may have to hunt it down.

Showing a similar talent for dialogue and character building that his younger brother Martin McDonagh exhibited in his debut feature, In Bruges, John has crafted a story of an Irish lawman that operates by his own set of rules in a darkly comic modern era Western you absolutely must see. Never afraid to say what's on his mind or do what suits him best, this is the kind of character movies were made for and the kind of film you want to pay to see.

Brendan Gleeson stars as Sgt.

Hugh Jackman pays tribute to "extraordinary man, actor and friend".

Australian actor David Ngoombujarra, known for his roles in international releases like Rabbit Proof Fence, Ned Kelly and Australia, was yesterday found dead in a park in the Australian city of Fremantle, near Perth. although he was only 44 years old police are not treating his death as suspicious.

Ngoombujarra was one of Australia's displaced generation of Aboriginal children, forcibly transplanted and raised by a white family. He first made a splash on the big screen with a bit part in Young Einstein, and...