New feature projects receive development support and industry internships announced

Screen Australia today announced over $570,000 in funding to support 19 filmmaking teams to develop their feature film projects, provide three new industry internships through the Talent Escalator Program, and support three emerging directors through the Director's Acclaim Fund.

The team behind The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, writer/director Stephan Elliott and producer Al Clark, will be supported to develop their new comedy Flammable Children.

Shane Danielsen will develop his science fiction script set in the West Australian desert, End of Animal, with producers Michael Wrenn and Paul Yi. Eron Sheean is attached to direct, with Lizzette Atkins executive producing.

Writer/director Jacqueline McKenzie will develop her drama King: A Street Story with producer Robert Coe and executive producers Jocelyn Moorhouse and Timothy White.

Writer Melina Marchetta will be supported to adapt her bestselling novel for the screen, the mystery romance On the Jellicoe Road, with producers Sue Taylor and Rosemary Blight. Kate Woods is attached to direct.

Pest Control is an action comedy script from writer/director Christopher Weekes and producers Jamie Hilton and Michael Pontin about a city that finds itself overrun with monsters, with the only hope of survival resting with an all-woman team of pest controllers.

Jamie Hilton, with producer Michael Petroni, will also be supported to develop Truck Dogs for the screen, based on the children's book by author and illustrator Graeme Base.

Writer Lally Katz and producer Marian Macgowan will be supported to develop the feature script Neighbourhood Watch, a drama about an unlikely friendship between two neighbours, with Gillian Armstrong attached to direct.

Bait 2 3D from writers Shayne Armstrong and Shane Krause and producer Gary Hamilton will be developed as a sequel to Bait. Michael Wrenn is attached as executive producer.

Red Earth is a drama set in frontier Queensland in 1882, about a Chinese bride desperate to escape her arranged marriage. It will be developed by writer/director Liselle Mei and producers Trish Lake and Dan Lake.

Producer/writer/director Robert Connolly will be supported to adapt the action thriller The Shipkiller, about one man's determination to win at sea the justice he has been denied on land. The film will be based on the bestselling novel by Justin Scott, with Gale Anne Hurd and Henry Morrison attached as executive producers.

Starfish is a sex comedy told from the girls' perspective, from writer/director Hannah Moon, writer/producer Robin Geradts-Gill and writer Stephen Sholl.

Producer Michelle Harrison will option the novel Playground Duty by author Ned Manning.

Writer/director Miranda Nation will spend six months on an internship working with director Kasimir Burgess and producer John Maynard on the feature film Fell. Emerging producer Samantha Dinning will spend four months in London working with the development and acquisitions team at distribution and production company Element Pictures (The Guard, Shadow Dancer, Omagh) and producer Charlie Carman will spend four months in Los Angeles working with producer Josh Kesselman (Courage Under Fire, Doctor Dolittle) at Thruline Entertainment/Tagline Pictures.

Three emerging directors, Jessica Redenbach, Mirrah Foulkes, and Paola Morabito, will receive support through the Director's Acclaim Fund, which will provide them with an opportunity to progress their professional development.

See below for the full list of announced projects in development.

SINGLE PROJECT DEVELOPMENT: Feature Development

BAIT 2 3D

Genre Horror

Producer Gary Hamilton

Executive Producer Michael Wrenn

Writers Shayne Armstrong, Shane Krause

Synopsis An air marshal and a small group of air crash survivors must try to escape a sinking jetliner before it plunges into an oceanic trench, while they are hunted by huge and deadly tiger sharks.

BEREFT

Genre Crime, historical

Producers Lyn Norfor, Sheila Jayadev

Executive Producer Nina Stevenson, Greg Sitch, Prue Williams

Writers Andy Cox, Ranald Allan

Synopsis Quinn returns to the home he fled 10 years earlier when he was falsely accused of murdering his beloved sister. When he finds out it was his own uncle who killed her, Quinn must tell his mother in order to clear his name and for justice to be done. But he could never have reckoned with the terrible demand his mother would now make of him from her deathbed.

THE BURIAL

Genre Western

Producer Lucy Maclaren

Executive Producer Joe Connor

Director Jasmin Tarasin

Writer Polly Watkins

Synopsis After doing time for cattle-rustling, one time circus star 26-year old Jessie is placed in the custody of a brutal husband. Determined that she and her child will live free, Jessie escapes, but the consequences see her branded as a murderess. Now mother and baby are on the run.

DEALER

Genre Drama

Producer Robert Coe

Writer/Directors Sam McKeith, Tom McKeith

Synopsis After causing the accidental death of a recovering addict, a small time drug dealer desperately searches for a way to make up for what he has done. When he discovers that his ex-girlfriend is pregnant with the addicts child, the dealer is finally offered a path to redemption.

END OF ANIMAL

Genre Science fiction

Producers Michael Wrenn, Paul Yi

Executive Producer Lizzette Atkins

Director Eron Sheean

Writer Shane Danielsen

Synopsis When an unknown catastrophe befalls the Earth, Jess, a pregnant 20-year-old, is caught between towns in the middle of the West Australian desert, which proves the start of a terrifying journey to safety. She realises to her horror that her own unborn child somehow represents the key to this disaster.

FLAMMABLE CHILDREN

Genre Comedy

Producer Al Clark

Writer/Director Stephan Elliott

JASPER JONES

Genre Drama

Producers David Jowsey, Vincent Sheehan

Executive Producer R

LINK:	http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2013/mr_130712_devel...
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