A slew of both veteran and emerging Aussie filmmakers have received development support from Screen Australia for their forthcoming features.
Stephan Elliott, the writer-director behind the 1994 local hit Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and who more recently helmed A Few Best Men, will re-team with his Priscilla producer Al Clark to develop their latest comedy, Flammable Children.
Veteran filmmaker Gillian Armstrong, responsible for the seminal, multi AFI winning My Brilliant Career is attached to direct drama Neighbourhood Watch. The film is about an unlikely friendship that sparks between a 27 year old and an 80 year old cranky Hungarian woman and will be written by first time feature scribe Lally Katz and produced by Marian Macgowan (South Solitary).
King: A Street Story is a drama from actress turned debut writer-director Jacqueline McKenzie who is developing the project with producer Robert Coe (Red Obsession) and Proof scribe Jocelyn Moorhouse - who serves as an executive producer with Timothy White (Gettin' Square, Son of a Gun). Errors of the Human Body writer (and SBS Movies critic) Shane Danielsen and director Eron Sheean are set to re-team to develop End of Animal – an apocalyptic science fiction story set in the West Australian desert.
Other projects in development and receiving funding nclude: On the Jellicoe Road, an adaptation of Melina Marchetta's bestselling mystery romance novel; Pest Control, a monster themed action comedy script from writer/director Christopher Weekes; a 3D sequel to international hit shark thriller Bait; Queensland set historical frontier drama Red Earth; an adaptation of Graeme Base's children's book Truck Dogs; action thriller The Shipkiller, from writer-director and producer Robert Connolly (Underground: The Julian Assange Story) which is based on a Justin Scott novel; and Starfish - a sex comedy from debut feature writer-director Hannah Moon.
Veteran filmmaker Phillip Noyce (Dead Calm, The Quiet American) is also set to executive produce the 1951-set drama Obelia, which is about a teenager who runs away from an Aboriginal government reserve to join a travelling carnival and ultimately finds she can't outrun her true identity.
