Noticias

Exclusive: Lydia West, Abbie Cornish and Brooke Satchwell are among high-profile acting talent leading Stan’s tenth anniversary slate, we can reveal.

The Australian streamer is today unveiling its latest TV series, films and acquisitions at a splashy showcase event held at Linseed House at the Grounds of Alexandria in Sydney. In total, it unveiled 14 originals — three scripted series, six features and five docs — along with a host of acquisitions.

On the originals front, Stan’s Chief Content Officer Cailah Scobie and Head of Originals Amanda Duthie are announcing the likes of He Had It Coming, Love Divided By Eleven and Whale Shark Jack, and a horror-comedy series, Gnomes.

He Had it Coming stars Lydia West (It’s a Sin), Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Ahsoka: Star Wars) and Liv Hewson (Yellowjackets). It follows Elise (West), an awkward English scholarship student who forms an unlikely alliance with fashion influencer Barbara (Liu Bordizzo) after...

Exclusive: Australian Emmy winner Craig Anderson is to showrun the first season of Charles Jazz Terrier’s Melbourne fitness comedy WTFitness.

Anderson has been signed up as a packaged principal director and showrunner of Red Empire’s show, which isn’t yet attached to a network.

Starring Kat Stewart (Five Bedrooms), Christopher Kirby (Iron Sky), Jonny Brugh (What We Do In The Shadows), Trevor Jamieson (Rabbit-Proof Fence) and Terrier (Legacies), the eight-part comedy is set in an inner-city Melbourne fitness center, following a mismatched cast as they confront the everyday Dodgeball-esque trials and tribulations of running an unpopular gym and facing off against rival Punch Fitness.

Anderson has won Australian Emmys for Double the Fist and Black Comedy and recently finished producing a behind-the-scenes documentary for ABC’s Indigenous Department.

“Apart from other people’s sweat, the gym is full of deeply awkward interactions, cringeworthy employees and desperate clientele...

Red Christmas.

Red Christmas is the feature debut of Aussie actor-director Craig Anderson, known for the likes of Double the Fist and Black Comedy.

The film premiered at the Sydney Film Festival on Saturday, with another screening this Friday night.

Anderson's reaction to his Sff berth was "unsure", he told If.

"I couldn't quite believe or understand it, only because horror in this country is usually not received well here until it's proven overseas."

Written by Anderson himself, Red Christmas stars E.T.'s Dee Wallace as a widow defending her daughters against a stranger with an axe.

"I liked the idea of picking the stupidest thing I could think of and trying to write a movie based on that.".

The director was inspired by Lake of Fire, a documentary made by American History X's Tony Kaye about abortion.

"It's a two and a half hour doco he made over fifteen years. He's a nutjob filmmaker who always gets into fights with studios in the Hollywood system, and you can see why when you see this doco. He features three abortions in it, and covers both sides really well.".

"I decided I'd try and use horror and in particular the slasher sub-genre as a way to deal with the abortion debate, because horror can often bring up shit that you would have trouble bringing up with a drama or a comedy."

"It took in total about two years to write, including lots of discussions with women about the abortion subject. I did a first draft that was kind of a ridiculous comedy-horror where something runs around killing the family that rejected it. But then I decided I needed to make it more serious, so it took another year to write that version.".

Anderson started the process of producing the film himself early last year.

"It's written in a house, and designed to be shot very cheaply. It was private investment, myself primarily. Plus everyone investing their time became shareholders in the film, which was great. I convinced thirty professionals I'd worked with before in television to do that."

The shoot lasted fifteen days, with the official budget just on a million..

"We shot on an Arri Alexa mini, which had just come out mid last year, and we used some awesome Zeiss lenses that were super fast, because we were shooting at night. We decided we'd spend big on the camera and lenses and less big on the lighting."

Anderson wanted to cast a scream queen from the 70's and 80's because "horror audiences are very loyal to the films from the past."

The first-time filmmaker approached Halloween's Jamie Lee Curtis and Blade Runner's Sean Young before connecting with Wallace.

"Dee got a hold of the script, and got it straightaway. And she was excited for the challenge, because all those women, once they're over sixty, they don't get exciting action roles anymore."

That coup also proved tricky: "Being such a famous actress, Dee had no frame of reference as to how low budget a film could be."

"She's done over 180 films or something, and she knows what low-budget is in America, but there was no way she could quite get what the hell we were doing. We looked like we were on a school camp. There were no vans, none of the things she's used to.".

"She's also 67 years old, and she's out at 3am, freezing, lying on asphalt. So she was only keen to do one or two takes. And she's a brilliant actor who only needs one take, but we had no money for a stand in or for 3rd ADs. So she's standing around, and then our Dp had to pray he got the focus right on the first try. In the edit, occassionally the focus goes in and out, and I guess that's what you get when you shoot so cheap."

The vagaries of indie film insurance was another source of stress.

"It was very scary because we don't have a grading system in Australia, so to speak. In America I did an ultra low-budget film as an actor, where they have an award wage that gets graded based on the total budget of the film, that works to make everything legitimate. So someone will come on for $100 a day as an actor, but they'll be insured, they'll be registered with the union, everything's above board and everyone feels safe.".

"Whereas in Australia you pay the full amount upfront, proper fees to everyone, but if you want to do a deferment or split deferred payment, it becomes a little tricky, because it was hard to get insurance. It was hard to do everything properly, and that makes it scary."

The director describes a feeling of "horrible tension" that something would go wrong..

"I'm in a house shooting all night, and if someone's Mum came out to help cook food for us, and she went to Woolworths and accidentally backed into a pram, which nearly happened, I would be the guy getting sued for that. So it's horrifying to think about. We don't have the processes here."

http://tix.sff.org.au/session_sff.asp?sn=Red+Christmas...

Red Christmas star Dee Wallace played the mother in E.T more than 30 years ago.

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Craig Anderson's Indie Aussie horror feature debut Red Christmas, starring Dee Wallace (E.T, Cujo) will have its world premiere at Sydney Film Festival.

Anderson is an award-winning director best known for television (Black Comedy, Double the Fist)..

His debut feature, Red Christmas, is a horror film about abortion and will receive its world premiere at Sydney Film Festival in June as part of the Freak Me Out program.

Red Christmas tells the story of a mother who must defend her family from a deranged killer on Christmas day..

Unbeknown to her, the killer is her son who survived an abortion twenty years earlier and was raised by an extremist who bombed the clinic..

American actress, Wallace, who most audiences will know as the mum in Steven Spielberg.s E.T, will also star in the film.

Cathrine McVeigh.

Mike Adams.

Mike Adams of Barnett Law has joined Essential Media and Entertainment as Head of Legal and Commercial Affairs, while Cathrine McVeigh is Essential's new Head of Production.

Adams will be working with company directors Chris Hilton, Ian Collie, Sonja Armstrong and Carmel Travers on Essential's legal and commercial interests, plus business affairs for the company.s full slate of television drama, factual, kids and factual entertainment and feature films.

Adams has been subcontracted to Essential from Barnett Law, a Sydney based law firm he joined as a Director following his recent departure from the See-Saw Films group where, since 2009, he worked as Corporate Counsel & Business Affairs Manager..

At See-Saw, Adams provided support to production activities while focusing primarily on Fulcrum Media Finance.s lending operations and oversaw the negotiation and contracting of numerous film and television projects.

As Head of Production, Cathrine McVeigh oversees Essential.s production slate.

Local filmmakers Mark Strong and Bryan Moses find success with short animation/live action film Miscast.

The film, doing the rounds at numerous American festivals has won Best Foreign Film Award at the Action/Cut Short Film Awards and an Award of Merit for Special Effects at the Los Angeles Film Festival and picked up the ‘Award of Excellence and Best Voice-Over at the Los Angeles Movie Awards.

The film was nominated for Best Performance for Markus Hamilton and Best Special Effects and Animation at the Maverick Film Awards.

The film also screened at the Jersey Shore Film Festival and the New York Hell’s Kitchen Film Festival.

Miscast is the story of a big burly horned monster named Stuart who is often cast as ‘the muscle’ in films but desires to become a real actor on meaningful projects.

Mark Strong wrote, produced and directed Miscast. He is the founder...