Great unmade Australian Films
The Sydney Morning Herald recently reprinted a
Guardian article about great unmade films – Kubrick’s
Napoleon, Welles’ Don Quixote, etc. What about Australian cinema? Are there any unmade masterpieces that have been lost over the years, or have we used up all our good ideas? If the list of projects given development funding by the AFC is any guide there are a probably an awful lot of them out there. Stephen Vagg has a look at some of the better known ones.
Barry McKenzie III
In his autobiography, Barry Crocker said there were plans for a third Barry McKenzie film, where Bazza would take on America. Box office receipts for
Barry McKenzie Holds His Own were not quite enough to warrant it – but I’m sure Crocker would be up for another go if anyone could ever raise the cash.
The Boney Series
Arthur Upfield’s internationally popular series novels of about a half-caste aboriginal detective were discovered by Michael (
The Red Shoes) Powell when he came here in the 60s to make
They’re a Weird Mob. He got Paramount interested in adapting the books as a series of films, starting with
The Bone is Pointed. They never resulted, but two TV series did:
Boney in 1971-3 (where the title role was played by a Kiwi, James Laurenson, with dark make-up) and
Bony in 1993 (where the character was changed to a white raised by aboriginals role and was played by Cameron Daddo). Incidentally, while out here Powell also unsuccessfully tried to make film versions of two other classic Australian stories later filmed by others –
Picnic at Hanging Rock and
The Magic Pudding.
Breakout
This feature film about the Cowra breakout by Japanese POWs in World War 2 was to have been made by Bruce Beresford in the late 70s under his contract with the SAFC, but he went on to
Breaker Morant instead. Kennedy Miller made a mini series on the incident in the 1980s.
Call Me When the Cross Turns Over
Adaptation of the novel by D’Arcy (
The Shiralee) Niland was announced in 1964 as a big budget 20th Century Fox project to be filmed in Australia. Niland did the script and Sean Connery and his then-wife, Aussie Diane Cilento, were mooted as possible stars.
Clean Straw for Nothing
Based on the novel by George (
My Brother Jack) Johnston, this is a long-standing project of producer Pat Lovell (
Picnic at Hanging Rock) and very nearly got made in the 80s with Mel Gibson; Gillian Armstrong was also attached at one stage. As Lovell tells it in her autobiography, a film was on the cards until Gibson hit pay dirt in
Lethal Weapon… and we ain’t seen him in an Aussie story since.
The Drums of Myrrh
Sandy Harbutt’s debut feature,
Stone, was one of the most successful Australian films of the 70s and it one of the most beloved Australian films of all time, inspiring the terrific documentary Stone Forever (only
Mad Max would have as many lunatic fans ). Harbutt’s follow up project was to be
The Drums of Myrrh, based on the 1933 novel by Ion Idriess about goings on in the Torres Strait. It never got made and Harbutt has never directed another feature film.
Goodbye Adelaide
Goodbye Paradise was a 1983 film noir set on the Gold Coast; based on a script by Bob Ellis and Denny Lawrence it featured Ray Barrett in perhaps his greatest role as the world-weary private eye Mike Stacey. A wonderful film, but not a spectacular box office performer, which is presumably why this mooted sequel (where Stacey goes to the Adelaide Festival) was not made.
King Hit
This proposed feature film attracted a lot of attention in the late 70s due to it’s subject matter: the’75 dismissal of the Gough Whitlam government by Governor General John Kerr. Written by Erwin Rado and Bruce Grant, it was considered by Phil Noyce and then, later, Paul Cox (!). It was to get around potential defamation problems by being about the making of a film about Whitlam. No film resulted; Eventually Kennedy Miller got in first with their mini-series
The Dismissal. (Incidentally, British producer David Puttnam was planning on making a film of the 1932-33 Bodyline cricket series in the early 1980s, but Kennedy Miller got in there first, too, with the mini-series
Bodyline.)
The Last Bus to Banjo Creek
In the early 1960s, Helen Wilson’s short story was turned into a script by English TV legend Lord Ted Willis (
Dixon of Dock Green) about a prim English girl and a sweaty Aussie male travelling through the Outback, finding love on the way – kind of like an Aussie African Queen only without any war. Rod Taylor was mentioned as a possible star in 1964 and for the next ten years he tried on and off to get it made but it never happened.
The Long Green Shore
John Hepworth’s novel based on experiences fighting in New Guinea during the last days of WW2 was not published until after he died in the 90s. Bob Ellis wrote a script, and a few years ago Russell Crowe expressed interest on the film making his directorial debut. The great Aussie WW2 film is yet to be made – maybe this could be it!
Lord Kitcheners’ Little Dummer Boys
Not really an Aussie film but it was to star the Bee Gees! In 1968 this project, a Boer War story set in Africa, was announced but no film resulted, so Barry, Maurice and Robin had to limit their film career to soundtracks.
Mad Max 4: Fury Road
George Miller and Mel Gibson can’t surely need the money but there’s been rumours around on this one for ages (Heath Ledger as Max Jnr? Return of the feral kid?) Apparently it was to start filming in Namibia in 2003 but called off. Now who knows? Check the internet for further gossip.
Mr Burke and Mr Wills
Before the 1985 release of
Burke and Wills (not to mention
Wills and Burke) this unrelated British-Aussie project about Australia’s most famous bad explorers was supposed to go into production in the early 70s. Based on a script by Terrence Rattigan, Charlton Heston and Trevor Howard were discussed as possible stars.
The Riders
Tim Winton novel which Ray (
Bliss) Lawrence was having little luck getting funding for. But it had a happy ending or sorts: working on the screenplay was Andrew Bovell, and Lawrence went to see Bovell’s
Speaking in Tongues one night and that eventually became
Lantana.
Robbery Under Arms
Rolfe Bolderwood’s classic novel has been filmed several times, never entirely satisfactorily – 1907, 1911, 1920, 1957 and 1985. Ken G Hall, whose Cinesound Studios dominated local production before World War 2, had dreamt of filming this since the 1930s but could never make it happen: problems with rights, question of the ban on bushranger films, etc. He kept on trying after WW2, attempting to do a co-production with Rank. It eventually fell through; Rank went ahead and made their own version in 1957 which despite expat legend Peter Finch in the lead fell a bit flat.
The Siege of Sydney
A project floated by Brian (
The Man from Hong Kong, BMX Bandits) Trenchard-Smith in the late 70s about rogue CIA agents who threaten Sydney with destruction – years before
The Rock. The hero was to be a politician based on Neville Wran, so government co-operation couldn’t have been the reason why this didn’t happen.
Sweetlip
Another Ray Lawrence project that couldn’t get up in the late 80s and early 90s. Robert Drewe wrote the script based on one of his short stories and Sam Neill was attached to star. They almost got funding – then Sam Neill pulled out.
The Thorn Birds
The blockbuster success of Colleen McCulloch’s novel inevitably attracted the attention of Hollywood who, after original director Herbert Ross left the project, approached none other than Peter Weir to direct it. In the end he turned it down and made
Gallipoli instead. One is intrigued to think of what Weir would have done with
The Thorn Birds; as it was the novel was subsequently turned into a highly successful mini series that shot in Hawaii and had no Aussies except Bryan Brown.
Something Great
Every couple of years someone promises to make a film about Les Darcy. This effort came in the late 80s courtesy of Frank Howson and Jonathan Hardy, with Richard Franklin mentioned as a possible director. Howson later tried to get it done as a mini series with Pino Amenta attached; it didn’t happen and Howson and Amenta made
Boulevard of Broken Dreams instead.
Total Recall
Before Arnie and Paul Verhoven came along this was to have been an Aussie movie. Well, made in Australia anyway - with Bruce Beresford as director and starring Patrick Swayze. It was to be one of the first productions at the Gold Coast film studio built by Dino de Laurentis in the 1980s which later became Warner Brothers Movie World. De Laurentis’ finances were never that great at this time and in hindsight it is not that surprising the project didn’t go ahead.
Tracks
Robyn Davidson wrote a book about her experience crossing the Australian desert with four camels. In the late 1980s Ray Lawrence tried to get this up. At one stage Julia Roberts was mentioned as being interested in the project.
The Unknown Industrial Prisoner
Film version of David Ireland’s novel was to have been the first feature film made by Film Australia, with director Arch Nicholson and producer Richard Mason attached. In 1978 Minister for Home Affairs John Ellicot stepped in and the film was not made despite having been approved by the board of the Australian Film Commission (the script dealt with industrial relations and foreign ownership issues). This decision led to the Australian Film Commission's Act being amended to require ministers to table their reasons for blocking film proposals.
Voss
A multi-million dollar film of Patrick White’s novel was a dream of Harry M Miller in the 70s, and it very nearly happened. Ken Russell (
Women in Love) then Joseph Losey (
The Caretaker) were to direct. The big budget and troubles with unions were among the reasons why it did not proceed.
The Year My Voice Broke III (for lack of a better title)
John Duigan always intended his highly successful
The Year My Voice Broke to be the first part of a trilogy. After
Flirting, however, no third film has resulted. In the late 90s, Duigan said he intended to do a third part of the trilogy and had “half-written” several versions, one being set in Paris in 1968 and one set in Kenya and Uganda. Noah Taylor is probably too old now.
