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“My father always told me survival is never certain. And when there are no more leaders to follow, you must become one.” Here’s the first trailer for Alpha, director Albert Hughes’ tale of survival and unexpected kinship set 20,000 years ago. Kodi Smit-McPhee, who starred in Gallipoli and plays Nightcrawler in the X-Men world, is a young man thought dead by his clan after a hunt who embarks on a desperate journey and finds a unlikely ally in a fierce but injured and…...

The Easybeats.

Production has begun in Sydney on Playmaker.s.The Easybeats for the ABC.

The two-part mini will follow rise of the iconic 1960s rock band — made up of five immigrants who met in a Sydney hostel — and will star Ashley Zukerman (The Code, Manhatten) alongside newcomers Christian Byers, Will Rush, Mackenzie Fearnley, Du Toit Bredenkamp and Arthur McBain..

The script has been penned by Christopher Lee (Howzat, Paper Giants, Gallipoli), with Matthew Saville (Seven Types of Ambiguity, Please Like Me, The Slap) directing..

Playmaker producers David Taylor and David Maher said: .We.re massive Easybeats fans so to be involved in bringing this incredible story to life is a real honour, and something we.re both proud and excited to be producing for the ABC..

The Easybeats, which has received funding from Screen Australia and Screen Nsw, is set to air later this year..

Hyde & Seek.

Hyde & Seek will premiere on Nine October 3, the same airdate as Seven's new series The Secret Daughter. Matt Nable (Hacksaw Ridge, Arrow, Gallipoli) plays Gary Hyde, a detective hunting the killer of his best mate and partner. . Together with his new partner Claire McKenzie (Emma Hamilton, The Tudors, Mary: The Making of a Princess), Afp boss Jackie Walters (Mandy McElhinney, House of Hancock, Love Child) and Asio chiefs (Jindabyne's Deborra-lee Furness and Puberty Blues' Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Gary uncovers a criminal underbelly of murder and fraud as he's thrust into the secretive world of homeland security. . The show also stars Zoe Ventoura (Packed to the Rafters), Tai Hara (Home and Away), Claire Lovering (San Andreas), Andrew McFarlane (Devil.s Playground, Love Child), and Aaron Fa.oso (East West 101). In a statement, Nine.s heads of drama Andy Ryan and Jo Rooney said they were thrilled...

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The Legend of Ben Hall. Matthew Holmes.s The Legend of Ben Hall will get a national theatrical release from December 1, courtesy of Pinnacle Films.

The biopic tells the story of one of the most wanted men in Australian outlaw history. After years on the run in the outback, Ben Hall and his infamous band of outlaws decide to ride again in order to steal enough cash and gold so they can flee to America and greener pastures.

The reunited gang prove unstoppable until one fateful day, when holding up a mail coach, a police sergeant is shot dead. With the bounty on their heads growing and nowhere to go, Ben and his gang must now fight to the bitter end.

The Legend of Ben Hall, shot across regional New South Wales and Victoria, stars Jack Martin, Jamie Coffa (Gallipoli, The Lucifer King), William Lee, Joanne Dobbin (Neighbours, Swimming Upstream...

Stephen McCallum.

Screenwest has announced that 1%, debut feature of director Stephen McCallum, is the recipient of this year.s $750,000 West Coast Visions funding.

West Coast Visions is one of Screenwest.s largest funds, aimed to .uncover, inspire and develop. local talent and skills.

1%, written by actor Matt Nable (Hacksaw Ridge, Arrow, Barracuda), is a set within the primal underworld of outlaw motorcycle club gangs. It follows the heir to the throne of a motorcycle club who has to betray his president to save his brother.s life.

McCallum, who has previously directed a variety of shorts, music videos and commercials, says he was attracted to the Shakespearean undertones of the story. He calls it one of .father versus son, tradition versus ambition, and brotherhood..

.The main question that draws me to the script that Matt wrote is: what.s the cost of loyalty when it makes you turn against your own blood?...

Debuting today (March 17) on Vimeo on Demand, Play It Safe is the the debut feature from Melbourne filmmaker Chris Pahlow..

The indie features Nicholas Kato (Gallipoli, The Fear), Clayton Jacobson (Kenny, Animal Kingdom), Maya Aleksandra (Neighbours, Winners and Losers, Wilfred), and is the story of Jamie (Kato), a 26-year-old musician who is out of work and down on his luck..

According to the logline: "After his band breaks up, Jamie.s left with no music, no career and no girlfriend. Stuck teaching piano at a soul-destroying music school, Jamie must decide whether to take a risk and follow his dreams, or surrender to his unhappiness and play it safe"..

Pahlow cites Andrew Bujalski.s pioneering mumblecore feature, 2005's Mutual Appreciation, as a watershed moment.

.I left the screening irrevocably changed. I got outside and asked my friend why nobody had made a film like it in Melbourne, where characters just...

After 27 years with the Southern Star Group and now Endemol Shine Australia, John Edwards is going solo.

Edwards, who will reactivate his banner Rough Diamond Entertainment, describes the split as entirely amicable.

He will continue as a creative consultant for the sixth season of Offspring with producer Imogen Banks and the production team, and will work with Endemol Shine on a number of other scripted projects.

Banks and Mimi Butler transferred to Endemol Shine from the former Southern Star Endemol.

Endemol Shine CEOs Mark and Carl Fennessy said, .John Edwards is a true industry legend and one of the finest producers in the country. John leaves us on the very best of terms..

Edwards tells If, .This is very happy, very amicable. I have nothing but the highest regard for Mark and Carl: they are exceptional producers. This is a personal and business decision.

.The time has come for me...

Matthew Saville.s A Month of Sundays and Jeremy Sims. Last Cab to Darwin will screen in the Contemporary World Cinema program at next month.s Toronto International Film Festival.

It will be the world premiere for Saville.s comedy-drama which stars Anthony Lapaglia as real estate agent Frank Mollard, who is divorced but still attached, can't connect with his teenage son or sell houses in a property boom. One night Frank gets a phone call from his mother, who died a year ago. John Clarke, Justine Clarke and Julia Blake round out the cast.

Produced by Madman.s Nick Batzias, Saville and Kirsty Stark, the film deals with parents, children, regrets, mourning, joy, houses, homes, love, work, television, Shakespeare and jazz fusion. Madman has yet to set a release date.

The Toronto launch steals a march on the Adelaide Film Festival (October 15-25), which had announced A Month of Sundays as a world premiere.

Sony Pictures Australian rom-com Spin Out starring Xavier Samuel and Morgan Griffin is set for a Shepparton, Victoria shoot.

The film, originally titled Circle Work, will start shooting in the Victorian country town from August 18.

Samuel (Fury, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn . Part 2, A Few Best Men) will star alongside Griffin (San Andreas, Louder Than Words, Charlie & Boots) and be supported by a talented group of actors that include Lincoln Lewis (Gallipoli, Tomorrow When the War Began), Melissa Bergland (Winners and Losers, Relative Happiness), Tessa James (Love Child, Home and Away) and Brooke McClymont, of Australia¹s number one country group, The McClymonts. .

The film follows a relationship between two long-time friends, Billy (Samuel) and Lucy (Griffin) who are both in denial over their desire for each other. .

But as change beckons, they must confront their feelings amidst the backdrop of their town.s Ute Muster and annual B&S...

When Matt Levett was nominated for this year.s Heath Ledger Scholarship along with 17 other rising talents, the actor didn.t fancy his chances amongst what he described as a .an intimidating. line-up.

So he was both stunned and stoked to win the award presented on Monday night Us time in Los Angeles.

The 2009 Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts (Waapa) graduate says the $US10,000 cash prize will enable him to further his ambitions in Hollywood.

.It will give me the ability to stay longer and give me a foot in the door,. says Levett, who first went to the Us last September/October, when he signed with the Gersh Agency. The runners-up are fellow Waapa graduate Emilie Cocquerel and Lily Sullivan, who each get a round-trip ticket to Los Angeles and a scholarship to attend Masterclasses at Screenwise Film & TV School for actors in Sydney.

On behalf of the judges,...

Rising young actors who.ve appeared in Unbroken, The Water Diviner, Deadline Gallipoli, Anzac Girls and The Code are among the finalists for the 7th annual Heath Ledger Scholarship.

In all 20 are in contention for the prize which includes two round-trip flights to L.A., a two-year scholarship at the Stella Adler Academy, $5,000 worth of visa and immigration services and $10,000 cash.

Presented by Australians in Film, the winner will be announced in Los Angeles on June 1. Two runners up will each receive a round-trip ticket to La and a scholarship to attend masterclasses at Screenwise Film & TV School for actors in Sydney.

Previous recipients were Cody Fern (The Last Time I Saw Richard), James Mackay (The Dressmaker, The Tomorrow People), Anna McGahan (Anzac Girls, House Husbands), Ryan Corr (The Water Diviner, Wolf Creek 2), Bella Heathcote (Dark Shadows, The Rewrite) and Oliver Ackland (Party Tricks, Blinder).

The finalists were selected...

I love the movies, really, truly I do, I love the movies. Cinema, motion pictures, movies, film, whatever you want to label this peculiar art form that we all cherish here at We Are Movie Geeks, I have loved it ever since the first time I saw a movie on television, in a theater or at a drive-in. I wish I could recall the first movie I ever saw and what the medium was in which I saw it.

One of my earliest memories was the yearly showing of Wizard of Oz on television and my delight at seeing Judy Garland in a different movie, Pigskin Parade, and realizing that actors made a living by appearing in more than one movie or television series.

I can recall seeing Battle Beyond the Stars at the Pine Hill Drive-in in Piedmont, Missouri, one of the Russian space movies bought and re-edited by Roger Corman.

After immersing himself in WW1 as the director of the Nine Network.s Gallipoli, Glendyn Ivin is looking forward to exploring myriad forms of love.

Ivin has just started pre-production on The Beautiful Lie, a contemporary re-imagining of Leo Tolstoy.s classic novel Anna Karenina.

While the tone and setting could not be further apart, Ivin sees a common element: .Both are emotionally driven..

Commissioned by the ABC, the 6-part series is the director.s fourth collaboration with Endemol Australia.s John Edwards and Imogen Banks. Their first was Offspring, followed by Puberty Blues and Gallipoli.

Scripted by Alice Bell, Jonathan Gavin and Blake Ayshford, the drama is billed as a sprawling saga of adultery, scandal, manners and mayhem involving three enmeshed families across three generations.

Ivin hasn.t read the novel but he.s seen two earlier versions: Joe Wright.s 2012 film Anna Karenina, which starred Keira Knightley and...

Grab your backpack, apply some sunscreen, and keep your wits about you, because we could be returning to Mick Taylor territory in the outback. Since we first saw him approach Liz, Kristy, and Ben's campfire in 2005's Wolf Creek, the malevolent Mick has popped up again in 2013's Wolf Creek 2 and in two prequel novels, but the rugged killer with a warped sense of humor isn't done yet. John Jarratt is set to reprise his role as Mick Taylor in a six-part series for the Australian video-on-demand service Stan, and Greg McLean, the writer/director of the two Wolf Creek films and co-author of the tie-in books, is developing the miniseries.

A project from Screentime (a Banijay Group company and Emu Creek Pictures), the six-part Wolf Creek series is described as "a compelling, psychologically complex and visually spectacular suspense series driven by a young woman’s quest for justice.

In a bold move, the Nine Network released all seven episodes of Gallipoli on its half-owned streaming service Stan following the drama.s Monday night premiere on Nine.

And in another twist in the on-demand turf battle, EzyFlix.tv has started selling a season pass to Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul, which launched on Stan on Monday night.

Produced by Endemol Australia.s John Edwards, Imogen Banks and Rob Connolly and directed by Glendyn Ivin, Gallipoli follows 17-year-old Thomas .Tolly. Johnson ( Kodi Smit-McPhee) who lies about his age to join his brother Bevan in the Great War.

The cast includes Harry Greenwood, Lachy Hulme, Matt Nable, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Lincoln Lewis, James Callis, Grant Bowler, Anthony Hayes, Justine Clarke, Damon Gameau, Ashleigh Cummings, Gracie Gilbert, Dan Wyllie, Sam Parsonson, Tom Budge, John Bach, Nicholas Hope and James Stewart.

The premiere of Gallipoli drew 1.1 million viewers in the five capital cities and 1.51 million nationally,...

Shaun Micallef as a fictional former prime minister who is desperate to stay relevant, a comedy series starring The Project.s Charlie Pickering and a modern re-telling of Anna Karenina.

These are among the highlights of the ABC.s 2015 line-up unveiled today by director of television Richard Finlayson. .The breadth and depth of our slate reflects the quality of Australian independent production,. Finlayson told If.

The executive acknowledges producers are fearful of the impact of looming budget cuts to be imposed by the federal government but says, .We know the cuts cast a pall of uncertainty but we are getting on with the process of commissioning as best we can. By and large it is business as usual.. Micallef will star in The Ex-pm as Australia.s third longest-serving Prime Minister who has far too much time on his hands and no one to waste it on in a Cjz...

Georgia Flood as Alice behind the scenes of Anzac Girls. .A Screentime production for ABC TV.

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While writer-producer Felicity Packard was researching an ABC WW1 drama, she made a shocking discovery: More than 3,700 Australian and New Zealand nurses served overseas during the war- but only seven were awarded military medals.

The reason for that anomaly is one of the recurring themes of Anzac Girls, a six-hour series based on real people and events at the Western Front and Gallipoli, which premieres at 8.30 pm on Sunday August 10.

Packard believes the Australian Army refused to honour the nurses because officers were opposed to young women being involved in the war.

.The Army was quite hostile to them,. Packard tells If. This attitude is personified in the show by Colonel Thomas Fiaschi (John Waters), who, she says, .was obstructionist and critical of the nurses.. Those medals were awarded to people of .other ranks,...

Dave Eastgate, Lawrence Leung and Stephanie Son in Maximum Choppage.

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Head of ABC TV comedy Rick Kalowski has commissioned a stand-alone pilot, a prototype he intends to test for further pilots, and he.s developing a sitcom to be filmed in front of a studio audience.

In a further break from the traditional approach to comedy, Kalowski is developing several shows that are each built around an established performer-writer. All that is in addition to eight series which are either in production or post.

The stand-alone pilot deals with an unusual subject- mental illness. Details of that sitcom are under wraps but Kowalski tells If he.s looking for other projects that are suitable material for pilots.

The studio-based comedy could be the ABC.s first since Mother and Son, the Geoffrey Atherden-created classic which ran until 1994. The show is being developed with writer . producer Marieke Hardy and would...

Projects by Stephan Elliott, The Babadook writer- director Jennifer Kent, Ben Elton, Rowan Woods, Trent O'Donnell and Jacqueline McKenzie are among the recipients of the latest round of development funding from Screen Australia.

The agency is investing more than $550,000 in 16 feature film projects, including 11 new ones and five that get continued support.

Screen Australia.s Head of Production Sally Caplan, said, .The funding decisions made in this last quarter reflect the breadth of stories coming out of this country and the depth of talent. It is great to be able to support such a spread of genres and ideas and such a range of established and emerging writing, directing and producing talent..

Elliott.s Madams is a comedy from the writers of Easy Virtue. Kent gets funding for Interior, a revenge thriller set in Tasmania in the 1820s.

Woods. The Phobos Experiment is a thriller in which people simulate training...

Kodi Smit-McPhee, Harry Greenwood, Tom Budge, Lincoln Lewis, Matt Nable, Anthony Hayes, Lachy Hulme and Ashleigh Cummings are among the big ensemble cast announced today for the Endemol Australia/Nine Network miniseries Gallipoli.

A three-month shoot starts in and around Melbourne on March 17 with Glendyn Ivin (Beaconsfield, Puberty Blues) directing. The screenplay by Christopher Lee (Howzat! Kerry Packer.s War, Paper Giants, Rush, Police Rescue) is adapted from the best-selling book by Les Carlyon.

The producers are John Edwards (Howzat! Kerry Packer.s War, Beaconsfield, Paper Giants, and Offspring), Imogen Banks (Puberty Blues, Offspring) and Robert Connolly (producer of Balibo and The Boys, director of Underground: The Julian Assange Story, The Slap). Nine.s co-Heads of Drama Jo Rooney and Andy Ryan and Endemol Australia CEO Janeen Faithfull are executive producers. .Smit-McPhee plays 17-year-old Thomas .Tolly. Johnson, who lies about his age to enlist with his brother Bevan in the...