[press release by TM Publicity]
The final phase of Aurora 2008, the FTO’s script development workshop, is underway this week in Sydney with Australian and international advisors working closely with the selected creative teams to prepare projects for financing.
Four scripts and their creative teams were selected for stage one of Aurora 2008, a week-long residential held earlier this year. Stage two is providing creative feedback on the new drafts of the scripts, read-throughs with some of Australia’s top actors, and one-on-one meetings with international acquisition executives and Australian distributors about marketing and financing of the films.
The advisors are internationally acclaimed Australian director Gillian Armstrong whose recent films include Death Defying Acts, Charlotte Gray and Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst; Martha Coleman, who recently returned to Sydney after seven years in London as Head of Development at Icon Entertainment International, and then as Head of Creative Affairs with Material Entertainment, a joint venture between New Line Cinema and Entertainment Film Distributors; John Collee, screenwriter whose credits include Master and Commander and Happy Feet; Alan Finney, the Vice President and Managing Director of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Australia; Andrew Herwitz, the President of The Film Sales Company; the New York based domestic sales agent/producer’s representative.
Also on the panel of advisors are Stephen Kelliher, Head Of Sales & Marketing at international sales company Bankside Films; Sue Murray, Executive Director of Fandango Australia; John Scott, one of Australia’s most experienced film editors whose credits include Rabbit-Proof Fence, Little Fish, The Cup and The Quiet American; Duncan Thompson, renowned script editor and founder of SPAAmart feature finance market; and Director Rowan Woods, who last year completed his first US feature Winged Creatures, starring Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Fanning, Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson and Guy Pearce, and whose feature Little Fish was developed through Aurora; and leading casting directors Greg Apps and Faith Martin.
This team of highly credentialed advisors will consider the projects in relation to the domestic and international marketplace.
Actors who are working with the filmmaking teams on script read throughs include Martin Sacks, Michael Dorman, Mary Coustas, Sacha Horler, Dan Wylie, Kathryn Beck, Socratis Otto, Jack Finsterer, Marta Dusseldorp and Belinda McClory.
The Aurora 2008 projects are:
Freshwater: Matthew Dabner (Writer/Producer) & Kate Riedl (Director/Producer)
The Red Car: Paul Elliott (Writer) & Tony Leach (Producer)
Missing Water: Khoa Do (Writer/Director/Producer), Megan McMurchy (Producer)
Buried: Justin Walsh (Writer), Tim Bullock (Writer/Director), Sue Seeary (Producer)
In addition, three other projects, previous participants in Aurora, have been invited to return for this second stage workshop. They are Satellite Boy from Catriona McKenzie and David Jowsey, Eleven Months from Michael Joy and John L Simpson and Grace from Jennifer Kent and Helen Bowden.
“Aurora has been extremely successful in developing projects through scripting and financing and into production. Recent successes include The Black Balloon, the completion of Prime Mover and Accidents Happen and the news that Animal Kingdom will go into production early next year.
We continue to receive very positive feedback both from the creative teams and from our talented advisors, many of whom have been involved in several Aurora workshops. The FTO is very grateful for their commitment and incisive contributions,” Ashley Luke, Director of Market Development at the FTO.