Stuart Beattie is a man on a mission.
The Australian writer/director of Tomorrow, When The War Began and I, Frankenstein knows Australia has the potential and the talent to make epic movies.
He's written films like Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Collateral and 30 Days of Night; he's been on those sets and he knows if it wasn't for a lack of money in the Aussie film industry, more movies like these would be made here.
It's one of the reasons why he tries to always bring his productions to Australia, even though he hasn't lived here since 1992.
"It's a big part of me and I know that we can make these kinds of films in Australia and we just don't often get the chance to because they cost more than the average film," he says.
To give you an idea, I, Frankenstein, which filmed in Melbourne in 2012 had a budget of $36 million (after federal government tax rebates). To the average person, that's a hell of a lot of cash, but for a special-effects driven fantasy flick, it's nothing.
Combine that and a nine-week shoot and the director says it was challenging, "to the point of impossible".
"It's a lot (of money) for a certain kind of film but for the kind of film we were doing, we were trying to do a $100 million film with $36 million," he says.
Beattie, who made his directorial debut in 2010 with Tomorrow, When The War Began, found I, Frankenstein a huge step up in every way.
But that's what he was looking for - a challenge - and his experience watching directors over the years helped him prepare.
"That was my filmschool, watching Michael Mann direct Collateral, or Jim Mangold direct 3:10 to Yuma, any of these guys. Baz (Luhrmann) doing Australia," he says.
"Being on these sets and watching those guys was how I learnt to do the job, which was an awesome wave to surf."
I, Frankenstein, which stars Aaron Eckhart and Bill Nighy alongside an all-Australian cast, started out as a partly-written graphic novel by Underworld actor Kevin Grevioux. It was picked up by Underworld producer Tom Rosenberg to turn it into a film and found its way to Beattie several years later.
Beattie says he was given the title and told it would be a modern day action movie with Frankenstein, but everything else was left up to his imagination.
One thing he was determined not to do was make this another Underworld.
"They wanted me to do vampires and werewolves. (I said) let me do gargoyles and demons," he says.
"I strayed away from it (Underworld) as much as I possibly could."
Instead I, Frankenstein is about Mary Shelley's monster trying to become a man, played out against the backdrop of an age-old battle between gargoyles and demons.
With the fate of humanity hanging in the balance, Beattie wanted to ask what would motivate the creature to try and help.
"Why would this monster who's treated so badly by mankind, especially his own father, why would that monster care about mankind?" he says.
"To me what someone does isn't nearly as interesting as why they do it."
* I, Frankenstein releases in Australian cinemas on March 20
