|
Breath
|
|
| kim |
Date: Sunday, 17-May-15, 12:57 PM | Message # 106 |
 Bee's Knees
Messages: 676
Status: Offline |
Another article about Simon and Breath from his visit to Cannes. They gave a nice list of the people involved so far.
http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_an....ng.aspx
BREATH
See Pictures Pty Ltd, Gran Via Productions, Breath Productions Pty Ltd
Producers Mark Johnson, Simon Baker, Jamie Hilton
Director Simon Baker
Writer Gerard Lee
Australian Distributor Palace Films
International Sales Arclight Films
Synopsis Based on Tim Winton’s award-winning novel set in mid-70s coastal Australia. Two teenage boys, hungry for discovery, form an unlikely bond with a reclusive surfer and his mysterious wife. The boys are driven to take risks that will have a profound and lasting impact on their lives. - See more at: http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_an....f3.dpuf |
| |
| |
| Fran |
Date: Sunday, 17-May-15, 2:50 PM | Message # 107 |
 Fair Dinkum
Messages: 4127
Status: Offline |
Looks like the same info that Ivana posted on the previous page  |
| |
| |
| Tina |
Date: Monday, 18-May-15, 9:00 AM | Message # 108 |
 Fair Dinkum
Messages: 2066
Status: Offline |
I'm so happy it's official now that Simon will play Sando  |
| |
| |
| Fran |
Date: Monday, 18-May-15, 6:30 PM | Message # 109 |
Fair Dinkum
Messages: 4127
Status: Offline |
Me too Tina, I wouldn't allow myself to think of it as definite until I heard it from Simon's own lips |
| |
| |
| Tina |
Date: Tuesday, 19-May-15, 7:46 AM | Message # 110 |
Fair Dinkum
Messages: 2066
Status: Offline |
I was a little irritated because it was always just mentioned he is going behind the camera in his next project, no word about him acting, too. So I really was worried. So happy now. He is the perfect Sando! Hopefully we get to see Breath next year. |
| |
| |
| DS_Pallas |
Date: Tuesday, 19-May-15, 9:44 AM | Message # 111 |
 Fair Dinkum
Messages: 1979
Status: Offline |
Tina, love your tousled dolls… so cute!
Message edited by DS_Pallas - Tuesday, 19-May-15, 9:45 AM |
| |
| |
| Tina |
Date: Tuesday, 19-May-15, 10:06 AM | Message # 112 |
Fair Dinkum
Messages: 2066
Status: Offline |
Thank you DS |
| |
| |
| Ivana |
Date: Wednesday, 20-May-15, 8:13 PM | Message # 113 |
 Fair Dinkum
Messages: 1223
Status: Offline |
http://www.kftv.com/news....-cannes
Mentalist star announces Australia-set directorial debut at Cannes
20/05/2015 News by Alexandra Zeevalkink
Star of the popular US series The Mentalist, Simon Barker, has announced his directorial debut at Cannes.
The feature, entitled Breath, will be produced by Academy and Emmy Award-winning producer Mark Johnson, whose credits include Breaking Bad, The Notebook and the tear-jerking classic Rain Man, along side Simon Baker and Australian producer Jamie Hilton.
Barker, who also starred in Margin Call and The Devil Wears Prada, will also star. The screenplay is written by Gerard Lee, known from his work on Top of the Lake. A dramatic thriller, the film is based on the best-selling book of the same name by author Tim Winton. It focuses on the lives of two teenage thrill-seeking boys. Hungry for discovery they form an unlikely bond with reclusive older surfer, Sando (Baker) and his mysterious wife. The boys are driven to take risks that will have a profound and lasting impact on their lives.
"When I first read Breath, I knew I had to somehow make the film,” said Baker. “The gathering storm of the story, detailed and intimate against the power and scope of the rugged setting, struck me as incredibly cinematic. I’m beyond excited to be back filming in Australia realising this dream."
Breath is being developed and financed with the assistance of principal investor Screen Australia and starts filming this fall. The film is also being financed with the assistance of ScreenWest.
Screen Australia CEO, Graeme Mason said, "It is fantastic to have Simon return to Australia to make his feature directorial debut and even more so to portray an iconic Australian story to screen. The buzz it has created here in Cannes demonstrates the film will appeal to audiences worldwide."
Arclight Films will handle worldwide sales for the film. |
| |
| |
| Fran |
Date: Monday, 25-May-15, 1:55 PM | Message # 114 |
Fair Dinkum
Messages: 4127
Status: Offline |
'Breath' excerpts from Hollywood Reporter interview posted elsewhere:
.....
Baker helped co-write the script and is producing the film, which is set in a small coastal town in West Australia in the 1970s.
.....
“I enjoy being the control freak, having that influence,” he tells THR. “Often when you are acting, you do your thing and then you hand it over to someone else. This is all mine.”
.....
What's its been like doing the dirty work of financing and producing Breath?
All this time trying to figure out and organizing the financing has been a real eye opener and not the most pleasurable experience for me. It's been hard to disconnect creatively from the piece and talk about it like a product. That's obviously a necessary evil, but that's been challenging.
What's the appeal of Tim Winton for you?
The exported idea of Australians is more like me: blond, outdoorsy guy who drinks too much and is a bit brash. Tim Winton manages to combine that traditional, rugged Australian view of things with a more deep and sensitive side. ... I spent some time with him and we really identified on a certain level. He grew up in a coastal area too, he's into fishing, surfing and all that stuff. He's really a man's man, but he has been interested in literature and writing from a very young age. I grew up in this environment where there were six guys to one girl, very male-dominated, but I secretly wanted to become an actor. I understand where he is coming from, how difficult it is in that environment to become your own person.
.....
How difficult has it been to adapt Winton's work?
He is not an easy writer to adapt because his prose is so good. The developing of the script has been difficult — it's taken time to distil the book down. I worked with [Top of the Lake writer] Gerard Lee on the last couple of drafts. He did the drafts, I did the re-writes. He has a real understanding of the material and definitely a real understanding of the kind of film I wanted to make. He really understands how to create the voice of the teenage boys that are at the center of the story.
What will be your cinematic approach with Breath?
The story suggests a lot of the cinematic style of the piece — it is a big broad canvas. We're planning to shoot it in Western Australia on the coast — it is so vast and impressive, it is like Jurassic. Seeing 13-year-old boys against that landscape says a lot about the themes of the book, without the need for dialogue.
Australia has produced a number of prominent actors and directors. But Australian films, with a few exceptions such as George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road, are rarely successful with local audiences. Why do you think that is?
It's an eternal question in Australia. We are incredibly fortunate to have an organization like Screen Australia and they have been incredibly supportive [of Breath]. That is an ongoing question with them: Why don't more Australians go to Australian films? Australian films can be a bit slow because we aren't a very verbose culture — until we've had a couple of beers, at least. But that doesn't mean there isn't a lot going on under the surface. So the challenge is to find that and not to feel that we had to push in a certain way.
I think we are a nation of story-tellers but we also struggle with our identity. If you look at a lot of the [local] films that do really well in Australia, many of them parody Australian culture. Because maybe otherwise there is a slight cultural cringe with our own content.
The other side of it is sometimes we try to make films that fit into the American mould, which I don't understand because Americans make those films better. I feel that you have to run the course and try to make films that we can identify with without boring us senseless. I can say all this now but I'm going to have to get into the director's chair and try and do it.
What films have you been looking at for inspiration?
I have been looking a lot of films that use the environment as a character. I really enjoyed the [2014 Cannes Best Screenplay winner] Leviathan for that. I have also been looking a lot at films that deal with coming-of-age themes — the French film [and 2013 Palme d'Or winner] Blue is the Warmest Color was a really well-made film. It was a very simplistic story but it was very identifiable and you were drawn into it by the way it was shot and the fluidity of it. I probably could have done without the 15 minute sex scene in the middle of it — watching that in the cinema was pretty awkward.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news....-797352 |
| |
| |
| Hayseed |
Date: Monday, 25-May-15, 2:55 PM | Message # 115 |
 Bee's Knees
Messages: 549
Status: Offline |
I would imagine it was hard to get funding for this. The material makes it unlikely to be a big box office earner, no matter how beautifully/artfully it is brought to the screen. It's a hard sell. |
| |
| |
| DaboGirl |
Date: Tuesday, 26-May-15, 9:36 PM | Message # 116 |
 Jillaroo
Messages: 44
Status: Offline |
Quote Hayseed (  ) I would imagine it was hard to get funding for this. The material makes it unlikely to be a big box office earner, no matter how beautifully/artfully it is brought to the screen. It's a hard sell.
I was thinking the same thing Hayseed, I can't see it doing well in the big screen worldwide market. Sure it will make the Festival rounds and garner high praise for Simon.
I live in Hawaii and we have a Film Festival of surfing movies every year. Already put a bug in the coordinator's ear to look out for "Breath". And maybe I mentioned it would be nice to have the director/star of the movie (and whoever else) come along and do a panel.
Message edited by DaboGirl - Tuesday, 26-May-15, 9:37 PM |
| |
| |
| Fran |
Date: Tuesday, 26-May-15, 11:04 PM | Message # 117 |
Fair Dinkum
Messages: 4127
Status: Offline |
Yes I agree that this type of film doesn't usually do well at the box office these days. I would think Simon's working with a pretty limited budget, and I expect there'll be more interest in Europe than in the US. That's probably why Simon felt he needed to do the pre promotional work at Cannes, to try and generate a bit of buzz. I'm not sure whether or not he's been successful at doing that, because as fans we get to see pretty much everything, so can sometimes get a false view of things. |
| |
| |
| ruuger |
Date: Wednesday, 27-May-15, 12:52 PM | Message # 118 |
Cobber
Messages: 134
Status: Offline |
Agreed. Simon will have his work to cut out for him to find international distributors for the film because it's subject matter is a bit too commercial to the indie circuit, but too indie for the big screens.
He's doing this at a good time, though, because there's currently an interest in Australian cinema thanks to the success of Mad Max 4 and Russell Crowe's directorial debute with The Water Diviner. And the good thing about small budgets is that you don't have to make loads of money to be a success  |
| |
| |
| Fran |
Date: Sunday, 31-May-15, 11:40 PM | Message # 119 |
Fair Dinkum
Messages: 4127
Status: Offline |
'Breath' excerpt from http://www.smh.com.au/lifesty....0a.html :
With his two youngest children to actor wife Rebecca Rigg enrolled at schools in Sydney and the dust covers packed away at their recently purchased Ben Buckler digs, the Baker family appears to be enjoying its time reconnecting with its hometown.
Baker has most recently been spotted around the streets of Paddington, where he has set up office with production companies See Pictures and Gran Via productions to bring Tim Winton's novel Breath to the silver screen. Baker is making his feature film directorial debut with the project and is also producing the film. |
| |
| |
| bee |
Date: Monday, 01-Jun-15, 6:46 PM | Message # 120 |
 Fair Dinkum
Messages: 1525
Status: Offline |
As the film is about teenage boys I did wonder whether Claude and/or Harry would play the part of "extras" that may be required in some scenes. It would be nice to see them in Simon's first film as a Director, if only in the background. |
| |
| |
