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Football film Blinder kicks off AFL season

media release Asha Holmes Publicity

 

Not to be confused with US NFL film The Blind Side, Blinder is a new Australian film all about AFL, starring the legendary Jack Thompson.

 

The Torquay Tigers are a tightly-knit, small town footy club. That is until a scandal throws their lives into chaos. Ten years down the track, one-time Torquay legend Tom Dunn (Ackland) returns to face his demons and reform the club. To pull the team together, Tom Dunn must embrace the life lessons his coach once taught him, rekindling a personal romance, as well as a love of football.

 

Jack Thompson reprises the role of football coach for the first time since the 1980 Bruce Beresford film The Club. The film also stars Josh Helman (Jack Reacher,  Animal Kingdom), Oliver Ackland (The Slap, Cloudstreet), Rose McIver (The Lovely Bones), Anna Hutchison (Wild Boys), Zoe Carides (Death In Brunswick), Bob Morley (Home and Away) and Angus Sampson (Insidious).

The original screenplay was written by businessman Scott Didier 14 years ago. Didier approached Director/Writer Richard Gray (Summer Coda, Mine Games) after seeing Summer Coda and sought his help making the project a reality. Richard and Michelle Gray started working on the script late 2010. Blinder is Grey’s third feature film since graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2003. He already has an impressive resume of TV projects and his next feature, US made indie thriller The Lookalike, is currently in production.

AFL greats Glenn Archer, Adrian Gleeson and Sam Kekovich have also jumped on board to produce the film, joined by Virginia Kay and US based Chris Lemole and Mike Gillespie.

Blinder will be released in cinemas nationally on 7 March 2013 by new theatrical sales company The Backlot Studios. The company was recently launched by Tony Ianiro and Mark D’Angelo. Together they have over two decades of experience in the theatrical placement of films with Paramount and Roadshow.