News

Zombie movies have been going strong for nearly 100 years, and the genre shows no sign of ending any time soon. This is a bit of a mixed blessing, because it can be difficult for a zombie film to separate itself from such a huge pool of competition. With the market being oversaturated, audiences end up seeing movies that rehash familiar themes and storylines. But every now and then, a zombie movie actually does add something new and keeps the interest in the genre going. Cargo, directed by Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke, does exactly that by subverting the usual story expectation of watching a character avoid infection by actually having it happen within the first fifteen minutes. Martin Freeman also helps things along with a standout performance as an infected father desperately trying to save his infant daughter. Its an emotional journey that examines the depth of a parents desire to protect their child,...

Today, Prime Video and Amazon Freevee announced the second season of the gripping Australian crime series Troppo will premiere on July 25.

Stars Thomas Jane (Boogie Nights) and Nicole Chamoun (Safe Harbour) are back in the fictional rural town of Crimson Lake, in the tropical North of Australia, where another bizarre murder has taken place.

All eight episodes will be available on July 25, 2024, exclusively on Prime Video and Amazon Freevee in the U.S., UK, Germany, and Austria.

Six months after Ted Conkaffey (Thomas Jane) and Amanda Pharrell (Nicole Chamoun) solved their first murder case, the unlikely duo is now investigating the bizarre local murder of a healing retreat leader with connections to an exotic drug ring and a ‘bikie’ gang. While Amanda tangles with an old enemy and finds a new love interest, Ted’s past stalks him and his family to Crimson Lake — with deadly consequences.

Adapted for television by Yolanda Ramke,...

Australian series Troppo will travel across Europe, thanks to new deals for the crime drama starring Thomas Jane and Nicole Chamoun.

Canal+ Group’s thriller channel Polar+ snatched up pay, streaming and sell-through rights to it for French-speaking territories, and AMC Networks Central Europe acquired free, pay and streaming rights for the show, which premiered on Australia’s ABC and debuted on Amazon Freevee in the U.S. in May 2022.

RTP2 Portugal snatched up free-tv rights in the territory, while Amazon Freevee has Troppo for Germany and the U.K., and Scandinavian pay-tv group Viaplay carries the show in the Nordics.

Based on Candice Fox’s best-selling Crimson Lake novels, Troppo stars Jane as down-and-out ex-cop Ted Conkaffey, who teams up with Amanda Pharell (Chamoun), an eccentric small-town private investigator to find out who murdered a local tech pioneer. Radha Mitchell, David Lyons and Yerin Ha co-star. Yolanda Ramke created and wrote Troppo,...

Cool air in the evenings, pumpkins on doorsteps, and Spirit of Halloween stores everywhere you look. Yes, it is the most wonderful time of the year for a certain set of us who like our weather settings left at “autumnal” and our genre of choice to be on the spooky side of things.

With that in mind, one of the most pleasurable things to do each October is curl up with a good horror movie and feel the goosebumps gather on the back of your neck. But how do you know if something is a good horror movie, exactly? You watch it for yourself, or you trust the experts, of course! For instance, the most popular streaming service in the world, Netflix, offers a cornucopia of chillers, but which are the ones that might be worth your time? Our staff has put their heads together and come up with the below list.

Click here to read the full article.

Nordic streamer Viaplay and Amazon’s ad-supported service Freevee have scored online rights to the Australian crime drama Troppo from German group Leonine Studios.

Viaplay picked up SVOD rights to the series, based on Candice Fox’s best-selling Crimson Lake novels, for the Nordics, the Netherlands, Poland and the Baltic region. Amazon Freevee scored AVOD rights for Germany and the U.K.

In Troppo, Thomas Jane plays Ted Conkaffey, a down-and-out ex-cop living in tropical Far North Queensland, Australia, who is recruited by Amanda Pharell (Nicole Chamoun), an eccentric small town private investigator, to investigate the murder of a brilliant tech pioneer. Created and written by Yolanda Ramke (Cargo) and co-directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (Wakefield), Troppo premiered on Australian’s ABC and debuted in the U.S. on Freevee in May.

Radha Mitchell (Olympus Has Fallen), David Lyons (Eat Pray Love) and Yerin Ha (Halo) co-star.

Tis the season to be spooky! Halloween, or ‘weird kid Christmas’ is coming soon, along with the shortening of days, darkening of nights and encrappening of the weather. All the long dark evenings are all the better to hunker down and catch up on your horror movie watching. We have scoured Netflix back catalogue to pick out the best horror movies. Weirdly, the streamer hasn’t actually added any great new horror content this month (unless you count Hotel Transylvania 2) but fortunately there’s a great selection on the service already to choose from. There’s something for every horror hound!

47 Meters Down

UK Only

Amidst the many modern shark movies, 47 Meters Down happens to be one of the best. This is partly because the premise is extremely simple and extremely effective. Two sisters (Claire Holt and Mandy Moore) are stuck in a shark cage at the bottom of the ocean.

Germany’s Leonine Studios has acquired distribution rights to AGC Television’s Australian crime drama Troppo.

The eight-part series comes is based on the Crimson Lake novel series from writer Candice Fox and recently debuted on the ABC in Australia. In the U.S., it is set to go out on Amazon’s IMDb TV (soon to be Amazon Freevee)

Set against a backdrop of crocodile-infested waters and idiosyncratic locals, it follows down-and-out cop Ted Conkaffey (Thomas Jane), who is recruited by eccentric small town investigator Amnda Pharell (Nicole Chamoun) to look into the murder of a brilliant tech pioneer.

Yolanda Ramke wrote and created the show, co-directing with Jocelyn Moorhouse (Wakefield), Catherine Millar (Twisted), Ben Howling (Cargo) and Grant Brown (Rush).

Aussie pair Eq Media Group and Beyond Entertainment co-produced the show in association with Renegade Entertainment. The ABC was a major financier,...

The Australian murder mystery series “Troppo” will premiere on Amazon Freevee May 20, as one of the first originals to launch on the newly renamed streaming platform.

Based on the novel “Crimson Lake” by Cameron Fox, “Troppo” stars Thomas Jane as Ted Conkaffey, an ex-cop accused of a crime that he didn’t commit. Hiding out in the Far North Queensland, he’s recruited by private investigator Amanda Pharrell (Nicole Chamoun) into helping her investigate a bizarre murder case and track down a missing person. In addition to Jane and Chamoun, the cast also includes David Lyons, Yerin Ha, Sun Park, Ling Cooper Tang, Kate Beahan, Cramer Cain, Peta Wilson, Angela Punch McGregor, Damien Garvey, Josh Helman and Radha Mitchell.

“Troppo” initially premiered in Australia this past February on ABC TV. News of it being picked up for a U.S. release on IMDb TV was announced last August. “Troppo” will...

Director Corrie Chen has hit a stride in her career where she is able to make projects she really believes in.

Tonight is the premiere of one such example in Sbs/Goalpost Television’s New Gold Mountain, with Chen having directed all four episodes.

Set in 1857 Ballarat, the mini-series looks at the gold rush from the perspective of Chinese miners, with the story unravelling around a murder mystery. The stellar ensemble cast includes Yoson An, Alyssa Sutherland, Christopher James Baker, Dan Spielman, Mabel Li, Leonie Whyman, Sam Wang, Rhys Muldoon, Alison Bell, Chris Masters Mah and Travis Cotton.

Sbs director of content Marshall Heald has called New Gold Mountain the broadcaster’s “most ambitious drama yet”, with producer Kylie du Fresne noting it draws inspiration from Deadwood. The series is dense in detail in terms of costuming and production design, and boasts a diverse cast of around 65 speaking roles, all in multiple languages,...

In Goalpost Pictures’ gold rush drama New Gold Mountain, Alyssa Sutherland plays a widow who overcomes the trauma of an abusive marriage and embarks on a quest for greater independence in 1850s Australia.

While it may be easy to classify her turn as Belle Roberts as a strong female character, the actress told If it was a description she was hoping to avoid.

“I like the attention we put on having much more well-rounded female characters but I get a little bee in my bonnet sometimes when all this focus gets put on these ‘strong female characters’,” she said.

“Women are just strong – that’s how it is.

“All the women in my life are very interesting and compelling people – it’s just taken a while to see the same thing on screen.”

Filmed at Sovereign Hill and around Melbourne and regional Victoria last year, New Gold Mountain follows the...

New Gold Mountain brings to the screen the untold story of the Chinese miners who arrived in the Victorian Goldfields in their thousands in the 1850s to try to make their fortune. Using inspired-by-real-life characters and shining a light on forgotten events, this revisionist Western is based in the harsh wild west era of the Australian gold rush and unearths a murder mystery.

Filmed in Sovereign Hill and around Melbourne and regional Victoria, the epic four-part series from Goalpost Television will air over two weeks, starting October 13 at 9.30pm on Sbs and Sbs On Demand.

Directed by Corrie Chen, New Gold Mountain stars Yoson An, Alyssa Sutherland, Christopher James Baker, Dan Spielman, Mabel Li, Leonie Whyman, Sam Wang, Rhys Muldoon, Alison Bell, Chris Masters Mah and Travis Cotton.

The mini-series is created and written by Peter Cox and produced by Kylie du Fresne and Elisa Argenzio. Writers include Yolanda Ramke,...

Nicole Chamoun will star opposite US actor Thomas Jane in ABC crime drama Troppo, with cameras now rolling in Queensland.

Produced by Beyond Entertainment and Eq Media Group in association with Jane’s production company Renegade Entertainment, the Fnq-set series is created by Yolanda Ramke and based on the novel Crimson Lake by Candice Fox.

Chamoun, best known for her roles in On The Ropes, The Gloaming, Safe Harbour and Romper Stomper, plays Amanda Pharrell, an eccentric Pi with a disturbing criminal past. She begrudgingly recruits disgraced ex-cop Ted Conkaffey (Jane) to investigate the murder of a brilliant research scientist.

As they battle to uncover the truth, and the tightly held secrets of Crimson Lake, their own traumatic pasts are dragged painfully into the present – tearing them apart, as each of them faces their own fight for sanity and survival.

The supporting cast includes David Lyons, Sun Park, Simon Lyndon,...

IMDb TV has picked up the first season of Australian drama series Troppo, based on Candice Fox’s bestselling novel Crimson Lake, starring and executive produced by Thomas Jane (The Expanse The Vanished) via his Renegade Entertainment. The upcoming series comes from Eq Media Group, Beyond Entertainment and AGC Television, the television production and distribution division of Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios. Production is currently underway in Australia.

Adapted for television by Yolanda Ramke, Troppo is the story of Ted Conkaffey (Jane), an ex-cop falsely accused of committing a disturbing crime, who has escaped to hide away in the tropics of Far North Queensland. As he tries to avoid discovery, he’s drawn into investigating a wild murder and a missing person, alongside a complicated woman, with dark secrets of her own.

Troppo is based on Fox’s book Crimson Lake, the first novel of a gripping contemporary crime series set in Queensland,...

Exclusive: UK sales company Bankside Film has inked a development overhead deal with Sydney-based production company Causeway Films, which has credits including Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook and The Nightingale.

The agreement will see Bankside provide development finance in exchange for a first look on international sales rights and production finance. The companies have worked previously and are already teaming on three projects in the pipeline: Racka Racka’s horror feature Talk To Me; Catriona McKenzie’s drama Stolen; and Goran Stolevski’s second feature Of An Age.

Alongside Kent’s hit horror The Babadook, which premiered to raves at Sundance, and her follow-up The Nightingale, which was at Venice, Causeway’s credits also include Yolande Ramke and Ben Howling’s Cargo, which Bankside sold to Netflix in Aus, and the upcoming You Won’t Be Alone starring Noomi Rapace, which is in post and Bankside has pre-sold to Focus Features.

US star Thomas Jane has been announced as the lead for ABC crime series Troppo, due to shoot on the Gold Coast and Far North Queensland mid-year.

Based on Candice Fox’s bestselling novel Crimson Lake, the eight-part series centres on disgraced ex-cop Ted Conkaffey (Jane), who is mismatched with eccentric private investigator Amanda Pharrell to help uncover the whereabouts of a missing Korean family man and tech pioneer.

As they begin to uncover a string of bizarre deaths, the unlikely duo is thrust into a mutual fight for survival and sanity in the wilds of Far North Queensland.

Produced by Eq Media and Beyond Entertainment, with AGC Television onboard as co-financier and co-producer, Troppo is created by Yolanda Ramke, with Jocelyn Moorhouse the set-up director.

The series producer is Karl Zwicky, with executive producers including Quail, Lisa Duff and Simonne Overend (Eq Media Group), Mikael Borglund and David Ogilvy...

Production on crime series set to begin in July in Queensland

AGC Television and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation are partnering with Screen Australia to co-finance the eight-part crime series Troppo starring Thomas Jane.

Production is set to begin in July in Queensland with Eq Media Group and Beyond Productions on board as producers. AGC Studios holds worldwide rights outside Australia.

Jane will play Ted Conkaffey, a former detective accused of a disturbing crime.

When he escapes to the tropics of Far North Queensland and gets involved with a new private agency, the by-the-book investigator and his new partner start to...

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has given the greenlight to Troppo, a new Oz-set crime series starring Thomas Jane (The Expanse).

Jocelyn Moorhouse, director of the Cate Blanchett-led series Stateless, has come on board to helm the eight-part series. Yolanda Ramke (Netflix’s Cargo) is writing the show based on Candice Fox’s bestselling novel Crimson Lake, the first in Fox’s Detective Ted Conkaffey series.

Jane will play Detective Conkaffey, an ex-cop accused of a disturbing crime who tries to find a safe haven in the outback of Far North Queensland. Instead, he again becomes entangled in a local private investigations agency and, together with ...

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has given the greenlight to Troppo, a new Oz-set crime series starring Thomas Jane (The Expanse).

Jocelyn Moorhouse, director of the Cate Blanchett-led series Stateless, has come on board to helm the eight-part series. Yolanda Ramke (Netflix’s Cargo) is writing the show based on Candice Fox’s bestselling novel Crimson Lake, the first in Fox’s Detective Ted Conkaffey series.

Jane will play Detective Conkaffey, an ex-cop accused of a disturbing crime who tries to find a safe haven in the outback of Far North Queensland. Instead, he again becomes entangled in a local private investigations agency and, together with ...

BAFTA Execs To Speak At British Urban Film Festival

Exclusive: The British Urban Film Festival (Buff) has set BAFTA Chair Krishnendu Majumdar and BAFTA Film Committee Chair Marc Samuelson for a 90-minute ‘in conversation’ session at this year’s festival, which is taking place later than usual and online as a result of the coronavirus lockdown. The pre-recorded Q&a, titled The Changing Faces of BAFTA, will be moderated by Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe and streamed via the festival’s website next month. Viewers will be able to submit questions in advance of the Zoom session via the Buff Facebook page. Actor and producer Femi Oyeniran will once again helm the annual Buff awards ceremony. Winners last year included Noel Clarke, Terry Pheto and Aki Omoshaybi. The festival’s full program is due to be announced in coming weeks.

Sbs Begins “Most Ambitious Drama Yet”

Oz broadcaster Sbs has begun its “most...

Sbs unveiled its largest ever local drama slate at its upfronts today, including a new four-part crime series from Bunya Productions and Caama, Copping it Black, to be directed by Erica Glynn and Steven McGregor.

Next year will also see the broadcaster air a hefty roster of local unscripted projects, including the seven one-off docs produced via the Australia Uncovered initiative, and landmark factual series covering off on topics such as domestic violence, adult literacy, disability, ageism and obesity.

Goalpost’s gold rush drama New Gold Mountain, delayed due to Covid-19, is now underway in Victoria, with Yoson An, Alyssa Sutherland, Christopher James Baker, Dan Spielman, and Mabel Li toplining the cast.

Set in the Bendigo Goldfields in 1855, it follows the charismatic headman of the Chinese mining camp who suddenly finds himself struggling to maintain the fragile harmony between Chinese and European diggers and authorities when a murdered European woman...

When he was working on The Haunting of Hill House, genre filmmaker extraordinaire Mike Flanagan ambitiously took on helming all 10 episodes himself. It proved to be an extremely taxing venture for Flanagan, so when it came time to begin production on The Haunting of Bly Manor, he set out to not only bring in some other talented directors to collaborate with, but was looking at it as an opportunity to be able to support more voices in the genre space as well.

The director’s pool on Bly Manor is pretty damn impressive, and features the likes of Ciarán Foy, Liam Gavin, Axelle Carolyn, Yolanda Ramke, Ben Howling, and E.L. Katz, with Flanagan taking the reins on the first episode.

“When we first started talking about a second season, coming off of Hill House, I was not in great shape,” Flanagan explained. “I lost like 40 pounds in production and I...

EntertainmentThis standalone series is the second instalment of the riveting ‘Haunting of Hill House’, and released on Netflix on October 9.Geetika MantriScreenshot/NetflixSpoilers ahead In a lot of mainstream stories that we see in cinema, love tends to be a major driver in the actions of the characters. But there are some stories which are just as powerful because they unravel another emotion that can be as strong a motivator as love, if not more – guilt. And Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor, which released on October 9, is a brilliant exploration of a drama that is driven by several of its characters being haunted by the guilt of their past. The Haunting of Bly Manor is the second instalment after the riveting Haunting of Hill House, though the two series explore different settings and different stories. Bly Manor, unlike its predecessor which was entirely directed by Mike Flanagan, has episodes directed by others,...

Lisa Duff.

Former Screen Australia senior investment development manager Lisa Duff has joined the Australian operation of the Eq Media Group.

Duff started today as head of production – scripted, working alongside VP scripted Michelle Hardy.

“I’m looking forward to being involved with the making of quality Australian drama and encouraging internationals to choose Australia as their production location of choice,” said Duff, who departed Screen Australia in June after more than five years with the agency.

Eq Media Group CEO Greg Quail and president Jesse Fawcett re-branded their trans-national production company Essential Media and Entertainment after buying the Essential companies in March from the collapsed Kew Media Group.

As If reported, Eq Media, Beyond Production, Renegade Entertainment and AGC Television are teaming up for Troppo, an Australian crime drama series which Yolanda Ramke (Cargo) adapted from Candice Fox’s novel Crimson Lake.

Thomas Jane (Amazon’s The Expanse) will...

Greg Quail and Jesse Fawcett.

Greg Quail and Jesse Fawcett have re-branded their trans-national production company Essential Media and Entertainment as the Eq Media Group and are boosting their slate of unscripted and scripted content.

With development and production hubs in Los Angeles, Sydney, Dallas, Vancouver and Auckland, Eq Media Group has a core staff of 40, with a current run-of-show employee count of 70.

Quail and Fawcett bought the Essential companies in March from the collapsed Kew Media Group.

President and executive producer Fawcett said: “We have focused on staff retention and are proud to say we haven’t lost any employees. Our team’s focus on content development has now tripled our production slate with further North American show announcements in the pipeline.”

CEO and executive producer Quail said the name Eq was chosen to signify Emotional Quotient or Emotional Intelligence, the elements which they say drive the best storytelling.

The Expanse star Thomas Jane will star in and executive produce crime drama Troppo, a series adaptation of New York Times bestselling author Candice Fox’s Crimson Lake novel, from Jane’s and Courtney Lauren Penn’s Renegade Entertainment, AGC Television, Essential Media and Beyond Production.

Writer Yolanda Ramke (Netflix’s Cargo) will pen the series adaptation based on Crimson Lake, the first novel of Fox’s gripping contemporary crime series set in Queensland, Australia. In Troppo, Jane stars as an ex-cop falsely accused of a disturbing crime who escapes to the tropics of Far North Queensland where he becomes entangled in a newly-formed private investigations agency. The series is slated to go into production later this year in Australia.

Jane and Penn will executive produce via their Renegade Entertainment banner. AGC Television, Essential Media and Beyond Production will co-produce.

Jane stars in hit sci-fi drama series The Expanse, which...

Thomas Jane is headed Down Under.

The actor will star in and executive produce an Australian crime drama called Troppo from AGC Television, Essential Media and Beyond Production. The project is based on best-selling author Candice Fox's novel Crimson Lake.

Jane (Amazon's The Expanse) will play an ex-cop who has been falsely accused of a disturbing crime, He escapes to the tropics of Far North Queensland and becomes entangled in a newly formed private investigation agency.

Troppo comes from writer Yolanda Ramke (Netflix's Cargo), who adapted Fox's novel. Jane and Courtney Penn Lauren executive produce via their Renegade Entertainment....

Caren Pistorius in ‘Unhinged.’

Caren Pistorius was working part-time in a fabrics shop in Sydney last year when her Rgm agent suggested she audition for the lead female role opposite Russell Crowe in a US road rage thriller.

The South African-born, New Zealand-raised actress did a self-tape but felt it was too rushed and didn’t expect it to lead anywhere.

The following day her agent told her the producers wanted her to fly to New Orleans the next day to audition with Crowe.

“I turned up in that room after almost no sleep, feeling delirious,” she tells If on the line from New Zealand, where she is spending lockdown with her family. The next morning director Derrick Borte rang to tell her she’d won the role in Unhinged.

Caren plays a single mother named Rachel in the Solstice Studios production which opened in Australia yesterday via Studiocanal and...

From VancouverFilm.Net, here is the Vancouver Film Production Update for February 2020, including "Arcadia", "Resident Alien", "The 100" and a whole lot more:

Feature

Arcadia

Local Production Company: Gramercy Film Productions Inc.

Producer: Cecil O'Connor, Pat Crowley

Director: Colin Trevorrow

2/24/2020 - 3/6/2020

Untitled Graham King Project

Local Production Company: Cold Hut Production Ulc.

Producer: Nan Morales

Director: Nora Fingscheidt

2/3/2020 - 4/9/2020

New Media Feature

Cats And Dogs 3

Local Production Company: Cats And Dogs Productions Ltd.

Director: Sean McNamara

1/13/2020 - 2/7/2020

TV Series

A Million Little Things - Season 2

Local Production Company: Stage 49 Ltd.

Producer: Chris Smirnoff, Nina Lopez Corrado

Director: Nina Lopez Corrado, Rebecca Asher

6/19/2019 - 2/19/2020

Batwoman - Season 1

Local Production Company: Renraw Production Services Inc.

Producer: Jae Marchant

Director: Paul Wesley

7/4/2019 - 4/7/2020

Charmed - Season 2

Local Production Company: First Cut Productions Inc.

Producer: Lisa Towers, Joey Falco, Johanna Lee, Nicki Renna

Director: Stuart Gillard, Felix Alcala

7/24/2019 - 4/9/2020

Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina - Season...

D.J. McPherson.

Victorian-based writer D.J. McPherson has won the Truant Pictures screenplay competition with her project His Name Is Jeremiah.

McPherson’s screenplay is said to have stood out to judges with for its “rich character work, strong on-the-page craft and a twisted plot that kept readers guessing until the very end.”

Set in a rural Australian town, His Name Is Jeremiah tells the story of a teen struggling to adjust after her estranged mother returns from jail. Feeling lost and alone, the teen develops a dangerous obsession with a missing boy, setting off a chain of events that unfold mysteries from the past and present.

McPherson has been awarded a $5,000 cash prize, a hot desk for one week at Truant Pictures’ office in Sydney, and mentorship from Truant’s development and production executives Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt.

Truant Pictures is the live-action genre arm of Animal Logic Entertainment,...

‘New Gold Mountain’ writers Peter Cox, Benjamin Law and Yolanda Ramke.

Sbs has commissioned a 4-part drama set during the 1850s gold rush from the perspective of desperate Chinese miners from Goalpost Television, to be directed by The Hunting’s Ana Kokkinos.

The broadcaster’s 2020 slate unveiled today includes documentaries spotlighting immigration, identity, homelessness, addiction and domestic violence.

Among the returning shows, Bert Newton, Lisa Wilkinson and country music star Troy Cassar-Daley will be among the eight identities who search for their family history in Warner Bros. Australia’s Who Do You Think You Are?

In the third season of Blackfella Films’ Filthy, Rich & Homeless five high-profile Aussies including Dr Andrew Rochford will swap their privileged lives to discover what life is like for the nation’s homeless.

Scripted by creator/lead writer Peter Cox (the Kiwi’s first Australian screen credit), Benjamin Law and Yolanda Ramke, Goalpost’s New...

Three finalists have been selected for a screenplay competition run by fledgling Sydney and La-based production outfit Truant Pictures. The trio will be read and noted by Stuart Beattie, Zak Hilditch (Rattlesnake) or Yolanda Ramke (Cargo).

Launched in 2018, Truant is a subsidiary of creative studio Animal Logic. It is overseen by Animal Logic CEO Zareh Nalbandian with VPs of Development and Production Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt.

The selected writers all have scripts from the horror, sci-fi or thriller genres. The winner, who will be announced on November 25, will receive a $3,400 cash prize, a hot desk for one week at Truant Pictures’ office in Sydney, and mentorship from Nalbandian and Schmidt.

The finalists are:

David Willing and Beth King – The Surrogate

When single mother Natalia gives birth despite not being pregnant, she discovers the ghost of a missing...

Truant Pictures development and production executives Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt.

Animal Logic Entertainment’s live-action genre arm Truant Pictures has selected three finalists for its screenplay competition, designed to uncover emerging writing talent in the realms of horror, sci-fi and thriller.

The finalists, chosen from hundreds of submissions, are reported by Truant to “exhibit a unique voice, strong craft and a compelling command of their genre.”

The finalists are:

David Willing & Beth King (Vic) – The Surrogate

When single mother Natalia gives birth despite not being pregnant, she discovers the ghost of a missing child is hell-bent on destroying her family.

Jonathon Green & Anthony O’Connor (Nsw) – Emma After

A ghost girl falls in love with the living boy she’s meant to haunt away.

D.J. McPherson (Vic) – His Name Is Jeremiah

A damaged teen girl from a remote Australian town struggles to adjust when her violent mother is released from jail.

Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling.

Yolanda Ramke was browsing social media when she spotted a tweet from Mike Flanagan, creator/showrunner of Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, complimenting her and her co-director Ben Howling on Cargo.

Thrilled, Ramke sent off a grateful response to Flanagan. That prompted her Us agent, CAA’s Matt Martin, who knew a second series was in the works, to get in touch with the co-executive producer, Intrepid Pictures’ Trevor Macy.

In turn that led to a Skype interview for Ramke and Howling with Flanagan and Macy. After a brief wait, the offer came for the duo to co-direct episodes of The Haunting of Bly Manor, which is now shooting in Vancouver.

Flanagan announced the hiring of the Aussies on Twitter along with Ciarán Foy, Liam Gavin (A Dark Song) and Axelle Carolyn.

Ramke and Howling spent last week on the set in Vancouver...

‘Ride Like a Girl’.

Graeme Mason recognises the structural challenges facing independent films but does not subscribe to the view that this is a down year for Australian cinema.

While the Screen Australia CEO acknowledges 2019 has yet to produce a breakout hit like Peter Rabbit, Lion or Ladies in Black, he rates the year to date as very successful on a number of fronts, including:

Seven films have each grossed each more than $1 million. Exhibitors have high hopes for Rachel Griffiths’ Ride Like a Girl, the Michelle Payne biopic staring Teresa Palmer, which Transmission Films launches on September 26; some pundits think it can make upwards of $10 million. The consistent popularity of feature doc such as Damon Gameau’s 2040 and Richard Lowenstein’s Mystify: Michael Hutchence. Australian films are making their marks at the Sundance, Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals. Shannon Murphy won the gig of directing two episodes of...

Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt.

Animal Logic Entertainment’s live action genre arm Truant Pictures today launched a screenplay competition designed to discover new talent.

The call-out is for any writers who are Australian citizens or permanent residents and who earned no more than $30,000 from fiction screenwriting in the past 12 months.

The scripts must be in the genres of horror, science fiction and/or thriller.

The winner will receive $5,000 cash, a hot desk for one week at Truant Pictures’ Sydney office and mentorship from Truant’s development and production executives Toby Nalbandian and Greg Schmidt.

Two finalists will each receive $1,000 cash and all three will be read and given notes from one of the three judges: Stuart Beattie, Yolanda Ramke (Cargo) and Zak Hilditch, plus written feedback from La-based ex-pat Aussie script consultant Tim Schildberger.

Entries opened today and can be submitted until September 2, with the winners announced in November.

2018 Talent USA: La delegates.

Screen Australia and the Australian Writers’ Guild (Awg) have opened applications for the third year of Talent USA: La, a week-long program of targeted and curated meetings, workshops and networking opportunities for Australian creators, directors and/or screenwriters.

Up to 10 participants will be selected to take part in the career development program which will take place in Los Angeles September 15-21.

The delegation will be led by Screen Australia’s Nerida Moore, head of development and Harry Avramidis, manager international initiatives.

Hannah and Eliza Reilly attended Talent USA: La in 2018. In a joint statement, the sisters said: “Talent La was nothing short of a game changer for us. We came away with Us mentorship, signed to a fantastic team at CAA and truly learned so much about the Australian and American industry.

“Screen Australia and the Australian Writers’ Guild planned a week jam packed full of...

Niki Aken.

When screenwriter Niki Aken started writing TV shows seven years ago, she was the only one with an Asian or non-white heritage in the room.

That situation did not change until two years ago when the writer, who has a Malaysian father and an Aussie mother, and Benjamin Law began developing a show for Fremantle.

“For the first five years nearly everyone I worked with was middle class, Anglo and aged 40-plus,” she tells If.

As a founder member of Australian Writers’ Guild’s Diversity and Inclusion Action Committee alongside Law, Kodie Bedford, Jaime Browne, Mithila Gupta and Que Minh Luu, she has been heartened by the much greater diversity on screen and in writers’ rooms in the past couple of years.

One show she is developing with Ian Collie’s Easy Tiger is emblematic of the advances in pluralism across the industry. Based on an idea by Collie,...

Hannah and Eliza Reilly.

Sisters Hannah and Eliza Reilly love the crime genre but wondered why Australia has never produced a TV series which tackles the subject from a female perspective, apart from Wentworth and Prisoner.

So when the writers-directors-performers met with experienced crime writer Niki Aken at the Engendered Masterclass hosted by Bunya Productions last December, they came up with the idea of a premium drama series about two sisters who quit their day jobs in their quest to become full-time criminals.

The Reillys then asked Yolanda Ramke (Cargo) and Sarah Lambert (Lambs of God), whom they had met on a Screen Australia/Australian Writers’ Guild’s Talent USA trip last September, to join the project entitled Partners in Crime.

Producer Julia Corcoran signed on and Screen Australia today announced it is receiving story development funding.

Not lacking in ambition, the sisters plan to produce eight episodes budgeted at...

Yolanda Ramke.

The former senior VP of acquisitions and co-productions in North America for Cineflix Rights has boarded The Line, an eight-part, female-driven World War II thriller created and written by Yolanda Ramke.

Anthony Kimble is introducing the project from the Essential Media Group via his newly-launched company Fugitive Content, at the Series Mania festival in Lille, northern France.

Screen Australia funded development of the series, originally entitled Zero Night, based on the true story of a crack team of British and Australian soldiers who staged an ingenious escape from a prisoner-of-war camp in Warburg, Germany. A parallel story follows a young woman who led the Belgian resistance movement.

Ramke wrote the second draft while she was co-directing Cargo with Ben Howling. Despite the historical setting, The Line is said to strike a contemporary tone and covers issues about the sexes that still resonate today.

The project is still in...

Brit musician Stormzy has joined the cast of BBC One drama Noughts + Crosses, Mammoth Screen’s adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s dystopian young adult book series currently being filmed in South Africa. The popular grime artist will play newspaper editor Kolawale, a character created for the series. Jack Rowan (Peaky Blinders) stars with newcomer Masali Baduza, Helen Baxendale, Paterson Joseph and Ian Hart. The show charts the story of first love in a dangerous, alternate world where racism divides society. Exec producers on the show include Participant and Jay-z’s Roc Nation. International distribution is handled by ITV Studios Global Entertainment.

Anthony Kimble, who recently left Cineflix Rights after five years as Svp acquisitions and co-productions North America, has formally launched new content outfit Fugitive. Kimble will be at next week’s Series Mania, where he will be repping projects including Uncanny Valley: The Truth About Thinking Machines, a six-hour hybrid event series about A.

Anthony Kimble, formerly of Cineflix, National Geographic, and Viacom’s Channel 5, has launched Fugitive and will develop, finance, and exec produce drama and unscripted TV through the new banner.

Its first projects include “Uncanny Valley: The Truth About Thinking Machines,” which comes from producers Topic and Jigsaw. A series about A.I. and the future of mankind, it will combine non-fiction elements from Alex Gibney and scripted elements from Cory Doctorow.

Fugitive also has a female-driven World War II series, “The Line,” from Australian shingle Essential. It is written by Yolanda Ramke, the screenwriter and director of Netflix’s first Australian feature, “Cargo.”

On the unscripted side the new firm is working with “Intervention” producer Grb and will find partners and finance for new shows on its slate.

“I am thrilled to have Fugitive up and running and most delighted that my first projects are such strong titles – and...

Despite horror’s thematic binding to society’s most current fears – this a year of parental devastation and horrors inside family units – my twenty favorite genre titles from 2018 still revel in variety: arachnid puppets, Nazi experiments, zombie musicals alike. Such morbid creativity would stick out like a sore severed thumb any other year, but today? You could drown out aforementioned absurdity with Nicolas Cage’s descent into occult revenge madness alone.

As I said, it’s been a wild year for horror – a damn fine one at that.

My ranking comes after killing many darlings, given my final tally of 118 seen horror films this year. Dig deeper, past these listed twenty, and you’ll still find plenty of gold worth mining. The following treasures just shine a little brighter and demand more attention. Feature debuts, streaming darlings, mainstream nightmares, all the works. It’s time for another end of year horror countdown,...

Nicole Kidman and Joel Edgerton on the set of ‘Boy Erased.’

Joel Edgerton and Simon Baker have scored nominations in the feature film direction and acting categories for Boy Erased and Breath, the first time that’s happened in the same year in AFI | Aacta history.

Edgerton and Baker will compete for four prizes at this year’s awards which will be handed out at an industry luncheon on December 3 and at the ceremony on December 5. Both titles have been nominated for best film and Edgerton and Baker are also in the running for best supporting actor and adapted screenplay.

In total 19 features received nominations, with five vying for best film: Boy Erased, Breath, Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling’s Cargo, Bruce Beresford’s Ladies in Black and Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country.

The five titles competing for the new category of best indie film budgeted under $2 million are the Jacobson brothers’ Sibling Rivalry,...

Brendan Dahill

Former ABC, BBC Worldwide and Keo Films Australia executive Brendan Dahill has joined Essential Media Group (Emg) as general manager and executive producer for Australia and New Zealand, a newly-created position.

Since leaving Keo Films he has run Gordian Media, a production company which launched in 2017 and became a joint venture with NBCUniversal and Matchbox Pictures in February.

As MD of Keo Films, which closed its Australian office in 2017, he oversaw productions including documentary series War on Waste for the ABC and factual and entertainment shows River Cottage Australia for Foxtel/Sbs, Struggle Street for Sbs and Bullied for the ABC.

He spent seven years at the ABC where he served as head of non-scripted productions, head of network programming and channel controller of ABC1.

Before that he was director of television at BBC Worldwide Australasia and he had stints at the BBC, ITV and UKTV in the UK and Discovery Channel Europe.

San Sebastian — Smart genre, zombies and throwbacks to the ’70s and ‘80s are some of the current trends in genre cinema, according to some specialists in the field. It’s a cyclical dynamic now offering meaningful box office hits such as Corin Hardy’s “The Nun” or Ari Aster’s “Hereditary.” Genre cinema always attracts the attention of industry players. These are some of them.

An auteur-driven trend commands greatest consensus among experts. Matteo Lovadina, CEO of Paris-based sales and co-production company Reel Suspects, observed that some great examples recently of genre film have, “thanks to their clever storytelling,” been able to attract both auteur and genre audiences.

“Films like Joachim Trier’s ‘Thelma,’ Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’, David Robert Mitchell’s ‘It Follows’ or ‘Hereditary,’ have brought genre cinema again into focus and restored a certain credit to this hidden part of the cinematic world,” Lovadina observed.

A “pure genre player,...

South Australia is small, but it packs a punch.

According to data from Screen Australia’s most recent Drama Report, in the five financial years from 2012-13 to 2016-17, South Australia captured on average 5 per cent of drama production expenditure in Australia. However, the state’s output often ranks among the most country’s most notable.

In recent years, the South Australian Film Corporation (often alongside the Adelaide Film Festival) has supported feature films like Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale and The Babadook, Anthony Maras’ Hotel Mumbai, Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling’s Cargo, Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country and Samson and Delilah, Sophie Hyde’s 52 Tuesdays, Rosemary Myers’ Girl Asleep, Rolf de Heer’s Charlie’s Country, John Curran’s Tracks and Jeremy Sims’ Last Cab to Darwin. Upcoming Sa projects also include Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding and Shawn Seet’s reimagining of Storm Boy.

The...

Nearly everything “The Walking Dead” has effectively done these past several years is present in this year’s Cargo, one hell of an emotionally powerful zombie movie and one of the finest horror movies I’ve seen this year. The film, directed by Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling, was rolled out on Netflix here in the States, so we’re not expecting […]...

Stars: Martin Freeman, Anthony Hayes, Susie Porter, Caren Pistorius, Kris McQuade, Natasha Wanganeen, Bruce R. Carter, Simone Landers, David Gulpilil | Written by Yolanda Ramke | Directed by Ben Howling, Yolanda Ramke

In a desperate bid to outrun a violent pandemic, Andy and Kay have holed up on a houseboat with their one-year-old daughter, Rosie. Their protected river existence is shattered by a violent attack, which sees Kay tragically die and Andy infected. Left with only 48 hours before he transforms into one of the creatures they have fought so long to evade, Andy sets out on a precarious journey to find a new guardian for his child. A flourishing Aboriginal tribe are Rosie’s best chance of survival – but with their merciless attitude toward the afflicted, they also pose a grave threat. A young Indigenous girl becomes Andy’s only chance of safe passage into this sacred community. But unfortunately the girl...

Hello again, readers! Welcome back to another installment of Daily Dead Salutes Your Shorts, where we highlight several entertaining short-form horror films in an effort to spotlight some amazing filmmakers and their vivid imaginations. And because there are so many amazing shorts out there, this writer has decided to turn this monthly column into a bi-monthly column, just so we can celebrate even more shorts each and every month.

This week, we have an adorable animated short entitled Dead Friends on tap, as well as the original short film Cargo, which directors Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling have adapted into a feature that is currently available on Netflix. Filmmaker Josh Forbes (Contracted: Phase II) has a brand new short starring Steve Agee that I think fans will get a kick out of, and for those of you who like your horror to cut a little deep, be sure to check...

There was a time when broken down civilizations populated by mindless, blood-thirsty creatures could play host to a fresh and frightening experience. That was fifty years ago when George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead forever changed the landscape of the horror genre. Since then, swarms of half-rate films, TV shows, and video games have run the idea dry. Everyone knows how to survive World War Z, and that the only way to divert Nazi Zombies from your tail is to throw an exploding monkey doll.

John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place proved that there’s still room for post-apocalyptic survival stories as long as there’s an intriguing distinction in the film’s roaming predators. Cargo, Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke’s Netflix production based on their sensationally original short, takes a step in the wrong direction, relying heavily on the tropes of the genre that the...