Screen Australia

  • Search Keywords

  • Year

  • Production Status

  • Genre

  • Co-production

  • SA Supported

  • First Nations Creative

  • Length

  • Technique

International success #1

Australian creatives, stars and projects – and the stories they create – continue to be in high demand across the globe.

Whether it’s Jai Courtney or Last Cab to Darwin, Australian creatives, stars and projects – and the stories they create – continue to be in high demand across the globe. Need proof? Here’s the first in our new international success series, giving you a glimpse at recent casting, sales and release news.

Actor Naomi Watts

ON SCREEN

British actor Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, Sherlock) has signed on to star in new zombie apocalypse thriller, Cargo from Australian directors Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke, and producer Kristina Ceyton (The Babadook).

Actors Jai Courtney (Divergent, Suicide Squad) and Brendon Thwaites (Gods of Egypt, Ruben Guthrie) have been cast alongside Hollywood veteran Michael Douglas in sports drama The God Four.

Actress Caitlyn Stasey (Please Like Me, Reign) will star in the new US Fox network police drama series A.P.B. alongside Justin Kirk (Weeds, Wayward Pines) and Eric Winter (The Mentalist).

Claire McCarthy (The Waiting City) will direct not one but two upcoming international features. Ophelia is a re-imagining of the Shakespeare classic Hamlet with Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Naomi Watts expected to star. The Personal History of Rachel DuPree, based on the novel by Ann Weisgarber about the experiences of black frontier women in the American West, will be produced by Viola Davis (How To Get Away With Murder) and star Naomie Harris (Spectre) in the title role.

Sophie Hyde (52 Tuesdays) has signed on to direct British comedy Animals, adapted from the Manchester-set novel by Emma Jane Unsworth, about two women whose hedonistic friendship is tested when one of them decides to sober up and settle down with her fiancé.

Director Nash Edgerton’s new untitled feature is filming in Mexico with Charlize Theron, David Oyelowo (Interstellar), Amanda Seyfried (Les Miserables), Thandie Newtown (US The Slap) and Aussie Joel Edgerton (Black Mass, The Gift) all starring. Amazon and STX Entertainment have bought the world rights to the comedy, which is Nash Edgerton’s first directorial outing since 2008’s The Square.

Girl Asleep/Shane Reid

OFF SCREEN

ABC teen drama and Logie award-winner Ready For This from Werner Films Productions and Blackfella Films was sold to German broadcaster ZDF and will screen on their free-to-air children’s channel KiKA later this year.

ABC comedy Sammy J and Randy in Ricketts Lane has been picked up by Netflix for the UK market, not long after NBC Universal picked up the US rights for their comedy channel Seeso.

The US rights to Rosemary Myers’ debut feature Girl Asleep has been picked up by Oscilloscope Laboratories after the 1970s coming-of-age story premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival.

AACTA award-winning feature Last Cab To Darwin starring Michael Caton and Jacki Weaver will open in US cinemas next month.

Vanuatu-set love story Tanna will also have a US release in September, initially in New York and LA before potentially a wider release.

US network Fox has commissioned eight episodes of Channel 7’s hit reality series My Kitchen Rules featuring Aussie chef Curtis Stone and Cat Cora (Iron Chef) as judges for celebrities cooking in their Hollywood homes.