*contains spoilers “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/A stately pleasure-dome decree”. These are the opening lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s (1772-1834 heart failure linked to opium use) poem Kubla Khan, inspired by Chinese history. Since this is where the name Xanadu came from for the movie musical, it is only fitting the poem was composed and…
*contains spoilers Name: Graham Age: 67 Occupation: Retired Public Servant Favorite Movie: Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969) Starring: Christopher Plummer, Robert Shaw, Nigel Davenport and Leonard Whiting First Saw It: In 1976 at the Schonell Theatre at the University of Queensland Plot: Based on the play by Peter Shaffer. Spanish conquistador Pizarro goes to…
And a word or two on Maslin Beach (1997), set on the eponymous nude beach in Adelaide. It’s your masterpiece in terms of script and direction. The nudity is not coy. Did you originally set out to make what is essentially a “European” movie? Maslin Beach was my ‘coming of age’, and the transition from…
You co-produced The Dreaming (1988) with Craig Lahiff and with Anthony I. Ginnane as executive producer. It stars Penny Cook who passed away recently. She worked with Lahiff, who is also gone, on the very good Hitchcockian slasher/horror Coda (1987). How would you sum them up? You must have known Lahiff well. The period 1984…
As the producer, what was the inspiration for Centrespread (1981)? How did it begin? In 1978, I began working with Newfilms in Adelaide, which was a production company owned by Justin Milne and Geoffrey Simpson. I learned my trade production managing documentaries, corporate films and commercials. Geoffrey and I constantly talked about making a feature…
*containers spoilers Now for The Dreaming (1988), which Wayne also produced, or The Nightmare as it should be known for its subject matter and slightly troubled production. It’s an epic! Well, for its limited budget of apparently just over two million, it is. From the opening credits, which has a shot taken by helicopter as…
*contains spoilers The original Pet Sematary (1989) is remembered by some as quite frightening to watch at an early age. It’s based on Stephen King’s 1983 novel and the screenplay is actually by King himself. He is an author so prolific – I just don’t know how he does it! I guess he’s no Hemingway…
*contains spoilers The horror movie Us (2019) could also stand for U.S. or United States because the phenomenon which unfolds in the film seems to be only happening in that country. That is not to say that it isn’t happening elsewhere but the events seem to be homegrown. As the beginning of the movie declares:…
Paramount Studios, who distributed Overlord, also released Annihilation (featuring Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh), which according to figures also broke even at the box office and might have been released long enough to just recoup its budget. Like the much vaunted, and Academy Award winning (it won three major Oscars) Roma (2018), it appeared…
*contains spoilers J.J. Abrams is the man who directed the Star Trek films (2009 and 2013), Super 8 (2011) and of course two parts of the latest Star Wars trilogy (2015 and 2019) and who wrote Forever Young (1992), Armageddon (1998), not to mention some people’s favorite Gone Fishin’ (1997). His Bad Robot Productions along…
