Eric, you of course previously worked with Robert on The Dry which was a massive hit in Australia and has become something of an unsung cult favourite around the world, so theres going to be a lot of people excited for the sequel, if youre not forbidden from sharing any details on that. The teenage Abby (Ilsa Fogg) is the perfect child, intellectually gifted, uncannily calm in a crisis and free of all the stroppiness that punctuates the adolescent years of more credible beings. It's a beautiful piece of old school craft. Get InReview in your inbox - free . His reviews and interviews with TV and film personalities have appeared in USA Today Network, Huffington Post, The Advocate, and other media outlets. Ahead of the release, We Got This Covered had the chance to talk to Bana and Wasikowska about the project, the difficulties of shooting on location during the pandemic, their own thoughts on the perils of climate change and much more, which you can check out below. Expands the canon of coastal Aussie pictures: Blueback is in cinemas from 1 January. Tim Winton reflects on how Albany shaped his life 27,470 views Jun 15, 2012 100 Dislike Share Save ABC News (Australia) 1.62M subscribers Writer Tim Winton visits Albany for the premiere of. We again assembled an incredible cast and showing off another very, very interesting part of part of Australia, in another thriller. "We were told by the culture that all the real Australia was elsewhere, it occurred on the east coast," Winton says. There is no discernible "Connolly style" in any of his films, just extreme competence, humility and a love of storytelling. "It was odd because I think all of us were conscious of the connection; as if we were inhabiting some fictional reality.". You can email him here Tim WintonMessages to Tim Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site. This means there will be more next time; I want audiences to have immersive experience, noted Bana about what he hopes people walk away with. And I think that they just did a brilliant job. Abel realises his mother is looking older; she asks him does he think she should sell up and he is shocked. I wanted it to be somewhere that had a scale; what an amazing place for a mother to bring up a daughter and teach her about the environment and to introduce her to Blueback, this amazing fish.. I think there are a lot of examples of incredible women leading the environmental movement at the moment and plenty of examples of men whove done some pretty catastrophic choices on the environment, including our political leaders in this country in the past. Its absolutely stunning; theres absolute magic in it.. If you live your life with your gaze vigorously averted, Some Blueback fodder that should pique audience interest: Creating Blueback, the hero of the film, was an undertaking. Robert. personally how to resolve. "The Perth that my grandparents knew, and that my parents knew, was a foreign place to me, and my children never saw it. Winton says he learned a valuable lesson from this "dark, dark time". Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). persuasive effect. Overall, you get a sense of how real it all felt when you watch the film and particularly for the cast who had to interact with the fish. I thought I might be good," Winton says. The fish are so colourful and shiny that you can notice the sparks coming out of the water. Blueback was originally conceived as an animated film due to the state of CGI technology in the late 1990s, and the risks of having a big, wild fish in the water with children. So, to be in this beautiful natural environment felt soothing. Later, an older Dora who has suffered a stroke is played in a smaller and more limited role by Liz Alexander. children's literature is the little league, adults the big. "If you're in this caper long enough, you realise that it's inevitable that you're going to repeat yourself, but not in a conventional way," Winton says. When the film opens, the adult Abby (Mia Wasikowska), now a professor of marine biology, is at sea on a research boat when she receives word that her mother has suffered a stroke. Winton has written about the way the book mirrored subsequent events. Despite this idyllic image they lead a hard, basic life. So I think I think it is a good way forward. Few writers have been as welcomed or as sought after. Growing up in a working-class family in suburban Perth, Winton understood that he lived on "the wrong side of the wrong country in the wrong hemisphere". Were working to restore it. "I feel very specifically that I benefited from growing up where I did, where so much revolved around the sea - in a way, it was a gift and I owe it something. The puppet they made for this was just amazing.. These three strands of story are woven against a backdrop of the fight to preserve the womens community and the surrounding ocean from the predations of over-fishing and a boo-hiss property developer. Blueback is an adaptation of a novel from best-seller Tim Winton (The Turning). Listen back to his conversation with The Book Show's Claire Nichols. Throughout the inevitable rise in interest in him, he has guarded his So it was a lot of fun to make. Thats incredible. 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And there have been plenty of those: his 15 books The latest film from The Dry director Robert Connolly, starring Mia Wasikowska . Winton's first novel, an open swimmer won an award and it marked the beginning of Winton's literary career. The film is heavily anchored in messaging about conservation, the environment and saving our planet in the best way we know how. Nor is there anything surprising in the fact that his workers are a callous bunch with a taste for illegal spearfishing. When out fishing for some abalone with his mother Abel encounters a massive blue groper called Blueback and promises from then on to the protect this beautifulfish. childhood. paid $50,000 for second books ", That's the professional shaking his head in disbelief. Connolly describes him as a wonderful man to work with. Blueback drifts around a bit, neither plot-driven nor super stylish, but its a nice, gentle kind of drift. We had to sort of quarantine because Sydney, or Western Australia, was locked off from the rest of Australia. * preventing people from overfishing in the area that they own. The film could be described as unflinchingly earnest but in a good way, because its not often these days youll find a movie that doesnt have a cynical bone in its body. It could be the right film at the right time, theres definitely a gap in the market seeing as its the first major underwater movie to release since Avatar: The Way of Water. Eric Bana: We didnt even cross over because of isolation periods, we didnt get to meet on-set at all. And then one day he turned up with this polystyrene fish. It's not like we've taken characters from the city and put them into this particular world, and it's how they respond to it. And I think by offering some hope, and by offering a positive tail on a lot of these stories, it can make it seem less insurmountable. The family film will be produced by Arenamedia and directed by Robert Connolly as the follow up to his award-winning box office hit . all my time on, around or under the water. other way round. The Riders, which itself disconcerted many, it looks somewhat The supporting players are given even less to work with. It's just him and his mother in the house at Longboat Bay, but Abel has friends . And after others told him they were moved to tears by the tale, he thought He laughs, denies he's a romantic. The heart of the film, however, is about relationships of all kinds. Bluebacks tone is warm and earnest, with a meditative vibe helped by Nigel Westlakes ruminative orchestral score and Andrew Commiss uncluttered cinematography. He felt indebted to the teachers and mentors who'd helped him to succeed, who didn't get the same accolades themselves. Blueback puts a very eloquent case for the care of this marine paradise. , Exclusive: Blueback's Mia Wasikowska and Eric Bana Open Up About Their Heartwarming New Film, Two Planned DCU Projects Remain a Mystery, Including James Gunn's Favorite, 10 Gut-Wrenching Movies That Are Too Sad to Rewatch, The Little Mermaid's Live-Action Sebastian Design Revealed in Merchandise - and Continues a Disappointing Disney Trend. finally get pen to paper, you exist only in that present tense - you don't I mean, its one of the great things about when you really come in and do a supporting role is you dont get to see the rest of the film. So it is universal, and then also quite focused locally. I wasnt as taken in by Wasikowska, who is soft and sullen, reading her lines in a vacant sort of way as if shes mentally some place else. So what did Bana whose international career goes back to 1997s The Castle bring to the project, when cast and crew found themselves filming off Ningaloo Reefs warm waters with whale sharks and oceanic manta rays? I liked this film immensely. Mitchell imbues Dora with headstrong warmth, humanity and vividness as she engages in direct action including chaining herself to a truck in front of a crowd chanting, Save our bay. There, protagonist Bruce "Pikelet" Pike comes of age; especially important to this process is his complicated friendship with "Loonie," and later an older couple that he meets through his adventures with Loonie. Add to Goodreads. Later he tells me Only the fishs eyes were CGI. Blueback stars an animatronic fish but its the humans who are floundering. There was also state-of-the-art mechanized puppetry created by Creature Technology Company, who were behind King Kong: Alive on Broadway and the popular arena show version of How to Train Your Dragon. Crusty fisherman Macka (played by Bana) is part of Abbys memories as the film floats back and forth through time. And otherwise, the goal feels like its its not as achievable. "far more than for other fatter books". Tim Winton is appearing as part of ABC RN's Big Weekend of Books. And when it comes to the environment, it wears its environmental message on its on its heart and sleeve. sometimes sulkily terse communiques. So its a pretty well-known story over here. Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). We need beauty in our lives, so we don't go mad.". TIM WINTON Abel Jackson loves to dive. The changes that Abby sees in her personal life at the same time things are shifting on not just a local scale but a global one. 1. that people are seen as writing either for children or adults - and that Tim Winton was born on the 4th August 1960 in Western Australia is a famous Australian Author. childhood once available to us. Blueback releases in select theaters, as well as on digital and on-demand, this coming Friday March 3. If Cloudstreet and Blueback were a pleasure, Winton's 2001 novel Dirt Music was something else altogether. I felt surrounded by nature. Publisher's Summary. promote-and-negotiate overseas tour - but he remains at best a diffident Because I think as human beings, we do respond to that positivity as well. slight. While diving, Abby forms a bond with a. a pragmatist than anything, but I believe these things in the face of pretty A simple but effective way of. If I had my way, I'd Thank you to Penguin Books Australia. So its a piece of magic, its a little bit of old school filmmaking and puppetry and a lot of beautiful craft work thats gone into it. The film is at its best in the watery world luminously evoked by cinematographer Andrew Commis a place where the animatronic puppet that is Blueback mingles happily with the rest of the sea life. And what that meant was there was a process getting in, but once we were there, they were COVID free at that time. has stooped to the mawkish in this tale about world ecology that as message is indisputable but that as fiction is inane. behave; the other is in terms of community - what are we prepared to give up He helps his mother each day and loves to dive. Cloudstreet the Miles Franklin-winning novel about two families sharing a house in Perth between the 40s and 60s was also a "pleasure" to write. With the always superb Radha Mitchell doing the heavy lifting as Dora and a deeply likeable Eric Bana, as local rogue and ally Macka, Blueback has talent to burn on screen. AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), abc.net.au/news/tim-winton-blueback-ningaloo-and-40-years-of-writing/101297058, Get breaking news alerts directly to your phone with our app, Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article. Editon Published June 25th 2014. Australian author Tim Winton has published dozens of novels, short story collections, plays, children's books, and non-fiction works in a career that spans four decades. Helpful. But, when Abel leaves his mother to go to a boarding school his mother has an encounter withbusinessmen who are trying to get her to sell the bay. She meets ol mate Blueback as a youngster (played as a child by Ariel Donoghue and as a teenager by Ilsa Fogg) and, as an adult (Mia Wasikowska), becomes a marine biologist caring deeply about the state of the reef. After the ambition of He's unabashed. Wasikowska plays environmentalist Abby as an adult Abby returns home upon hearing of her mother, Doras, stroke. mobile and not have to get into a working rut. Its a real challenge of how you create the journey of an audience of a relationship between a young person and a marine creature. Timothy John Winton (born 4 August 1960) is an Australian writer. I wanted to make the film in an analogue way. Interestingly, in southern Australia, the Western Blue Groper is the largest carnivorous bony fish species found living on reefs. Did you already know that as well? There are no doubts, insecurities or moral weaknesses to be found here. He had just completed his recently-published Lockie Leonard ms, and sat down to "scribble some notes on a yarn that had half-formed in my head". three children have enjoyed the same, mainly because I was lucky enough to be I was only there for two weeks, and maybe you were quite similar? He has been to various countries but now resides back in Western Australia. It can live up to 70 years. ", Blueback is subtitled "a fable for all ages", a marketing A classically Western Australian story from Tim Winton comes to the big screen with a star-studded cast including Mia Wasikowska and Eric Bana. I was so proud of it when I saw it. If the sea is ultimately where we come from, and it seems we did, commercially feted, from the first, An Open Swimmer, which was joint their children will have to experience nature in a virtual sense - landscapes can". By instinct an outspoken man of However, the filmmakers didnt want little kids coming face-to-face with big creatures. 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