Made in collaboration with the Hells Angels, Sandy Harbutt’s directorial feature debut is akin to watching celluloid soaked in LSD and set on fire
There is a scene early in director Sandy Harbutt’s inimitable 1974 road movie Stone in which a motorcycle, cruising down an ocean-hugging street on a bright sunny day, is nudged off the cliff by a car. Harbutt cuts to a long shot of the location (Lurline Bay in New South Wales), capturing the rider displaced from his bike and following his vehicle headfirst in a spectacular airborne trajectory off the steep rocky precipice into waters below.
The spirit of Harbutt’s film exists in that moment: a heady concoction of courage, recklessness and noodle-scratching bravado. Those attributes would come to define the “Ozploitation” genre, of which Stone was an early proponent. The storyline is uncomplicated, concerning a cop who goes undercover with a bunch of bikies called the Gravediggers,...
There is a scene early in director Sandy Harbutt’s inimitable 1974 road movie Stone in which a motorcycle, cruising down an ocean-hugging street on a bright sunny day, is nudged off the cliff by a car. Harbutt cuts to a long shot of the location (Lurline Bay in New South Wales), capturing the rider displaced from his bike and following his vehicle headfirst in a spectacular airborne trajectory off the steep rocky precipice into waters below.
The spirit of Harbutt’s film exists in that moment: a heady concoction of courage, recklessness and noodle-scratching bravado. Those attributes would come to define the “Ozploitation” genre, of which Stone was an early proponent. The storyline is uncomplicated, concerning a cop who goes undercover with a bunch of bikies called the Gravediggers,...
- 7/11/2015
- by Luke Buckmaster
- The Guardian - Film News
We look at the films that slipped through Hollywood's net, from biblical epics to a time travelling Gladiator sequel...
This article contains a spoiler for Gladiator.
If you're one of those frustrated over the quality of many of the blockbusters that make it to the inside of a multiplex, then ponder the following. For each of these were supposed to be major projects, that for one reason or another, stalled on their way to the big screen. Some still may make it. But for many others, the journey is over. Here are the big blockbusters that never were...
1. Airframe
The late Michael Crichton scored another residential on the bestseller list with his impressive thriller, Airframe. It was published in 1996, just after films of Crichton works such as Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure and the immortal Congo had proven to be hits of various sizes.
So: a hit book, another techno thriller,...
This article contains a spoiler for Gladiator.
If you're one of those frustrated over the quality of many of the blockbusters that make it to the inside of a multiplex, then ponder the following. For each of these were supposed to be major projects, that for one reason or another, stalled on their way to the big screen. Some still may make it. But for many others, the journey is over. Here are the big blockbusters that never were...
1. Airframe
The late Michael Crichton scored another residential on the bestseller list with his impressive thriller, Airframe. It was published in 1996, just after films of Crichton works such as Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Disclosure and the immortal Congo had proven to be hits of various sizes.
So: a hit book, another techno thriller,...
- 6/11/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
Australia... it's a vast, beautiful, welcoming country. It's also full to bursting with things that can kill you, if the big screen is to be believed. Inspired by Mia Wasikowska's plucky 1,700-mile trek across the Outback in Tracks, we flag up the traps and tropes she should watch out for.
(Un)Natural Phenomena
Exotic wildlife proliferates Down Under, most of it deceptively lethal. Witness the baby stolen by a dingo in horrifying Meryl Streep-starrer A Cry In The Dark (1988). The same – real – tragedy loosely inspired Razorback, a mullet-tastic 1984 horror about a giant marauding pig, directed by Highlander's Russell Mulcahy (mooted tagline: 'There Can Only Be Oink'). The less said about the ballet-dancing were-roos of The Marsupials: The Howling III (1987), the better.
Much more convincing is the giant CG crocodile munching Radha Mitchell's boat tour group (ex-Neighbours actors constitute an Outback peril all of their own) in 2007's Rogue,...
(Un)Natural Phenomena
Exotic wildlife proliferates Down Under, most of it deceptively lethal. Witness the baby stolen by a dingo in horrifying Meryl Streep-starrer A Cry In The Dark (1988). The same – real – tragedy loosely inspired Razorback, a mullet-tastic 1984 horror about a giant marauding pig, directed by Highlander's Russell Mulcahy (mooted tagline: 'There Can Only Be Oink'). The less said about the ballet-dancing were-roos of The Marsupials: The Howling III (1987), the better.
Much more convincing is the giant CG crocodile munching Radha Mitchell's boat tour group (ex-Neighbours actors constitute an Outback peril all of their own) in 2007's Rogue,...
- 4/26/2014
- Digital Spy
"It's that rat circus out there, I'm beginning to enjoy it. Look, any longer out on that road and I'm one of them, a terminal psychotic, except that I've got this bronze badge that says that I'm one of the good guys."
And so we were introduced to the ticking time bomb of fury that is Mel Gibson, at least on screen, in "Mad Max."
Released 35 years ago this week (on April 12, 1979), George Miller's film about a near-future cop who turns vigilante when a biker gang kills his partner and his family, made an international star out of Gibson, made Miller an A-list director, and helped put the new wave of Australian cinema on the world map. It also launched a franchise that continues to this day; next year, Miller will finally release the long-gestating "Mad Max: Fury Road," with Tom Hardy taking over as Max.
While the original...
And so we were introduced to the ticking time bomb of fury that is Mel Gibson, at least on screen, in "Mad Max."
Released 35 years ago this week (on April 12, 1979), George Miller's film about a near-future cop who turns vigilante when a biker gang kills his partner and his family, made an international star out of Gibson, made Miller an A-list director, and helped put the new wave of Australian cinema on the world map. It also launched a franchise that continues to this day; next year, Miller will finally release the long-gestating "Mad Max: Fury Road," with Tom Hardy taking over as Max.
While the original...
- 4/12/2014
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Producer David Hannay will be remembered as one of the pioneers of the modern Australian film industry, a passionate cinephile, mentor and loyal friend.
The Nz-born filmmaker whose career spanned seven decades died on Monday, aged 74, after a long battle with cancer.
He entered the film industry at Artransa Park Studios in 1958 as an extras casting assistant on Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.
As a producer and executive producer he was involved in more than 50 film and television productions. His feature film credits include Stone, The Man From Hong Kong, Solo, Death of a Soldier, Emma.s War, Mapantsula, Shotgun Wedding, Gross Misconduct, Dead Funny, Savage Play, Love in Ambush and the feature documentary Stone Forever.
He was Head of Production for Gemini Productions (which merged with the Grundy Organisation in 1977) from 1970 to 1973 and again from 1975 to 1976, and general manager of the Greater Union production subsidiary The...
The Nz-born filmmaker whose career spanned seven decades died on Monday, aged 74, after a long battle with cancer.
He entered the film industry at Artransa Park Studios in 1958 as an extras casting assistant on Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.
As a producer and executive producer he was involved in more than 50 film and television productions. His feature film credits include Stone, The Man From Hong Kong, Solo, Death of a Soldier, Emma.s War, Mapantsula, Shotgun Wedding, Gross Misconduct, Dead Funny, Savage Play, Love in Ambush and the feature documentary Stone Forever.
He was Head of Production for Gemini Productions (which merged with the Grundy Organisation in 1977) from 1970 to 1973 and again from 1975 to 1976, and general manager of the Greater Union production subsidiary The...
- 3/31/2014
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's film fetishises the 70s porn style, then tuts at all the exploitation
• News: Deep Throat lawsuit threatens to swallow Lovelace
• Peter Sarsgaard interviewed for Lovelace
• Lovelace: first look review from Sundance
There's plenty to admire about Lovelace, the second feature from documentarians Robert Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (their first was Howl), including a surprisingly nuanced performance from Amanda Seyfried as the tragic frontierswoman of 70s hardcore porn, and sterling work from Peter Sarsgaard as Lovelace's husband/manager/pimp/owner/dungeonkeeper Chuck Traynor, and from Robert Patrick and Sharon Stone as her emotionally repressed working-class parents. Stone is almost unrecognisable as Linda's ice-cold, Livia Soprano-esque mother, who keeps telling her frightened daughter: "Go back to your husband." (Lovelace, incidentally, has more than a passing kinship with Stone's own tragic heroine in Casino.)
Plus it's the 1970s, so the costume department get to go hog-wild on bellbottoms,...
• News: Deep Throat lawsuit threatens to swallow Lovelace
• Peter Sarsgaard interviewed for Lovelace
• Lovelace: first look review from Sundance
There's plenty to admire about Lovelace, the second feature from documentarians Robert Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (their first was Howl), including a surprisingly nuanced performance from Amanda Seyfried as the tragic frontierswoman of 70s hardcore porn, and sterling work from Peter Sarsgaard as Lovelace's husband/manager/pimp/owner/dungeonkeeper Chuck Traynor, and from Robert Patrick and Sharon Stone as her emotionally repressed working-class parents. Stone is almost unrecognisable as Linda's ice-cold, Livia Soprano-esque mother, who keeps telling her frightened daughter: "Go back to your husband." (Lovelace, incidentally, has more than a passing kinship with Stone's own tragic heroine in Casino.)
Plus it's the 1970s, so the costume department get to go hog-wild on bellbottoms,...
- 8/19/2013
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
The Australian Cinematographers Society has announced the 2012 award winners for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
Held on November 17 at new venue, the Masonic Centre, Sydney, the 2012 Nsw & Act Annual Awards attracted more than 180 members, sponsors and guests.
The 19 different award categories included student cinematography, current affairs, telefeatures, TV drama and mini-series, music videos and features cinema.
The Ross Wood Snr Acs Memorial Judges Award for 2012 Best Entry was awarded to Toby Oliver.for his work on Beaconsfield.
A list of all winners.can be found.below.
1 - Student Cinematography presented by the Aftrs Bronze Patrick Jaeger "Maquisard" Silver Damian Smith GetUP "It's Time" Gold Tim Barnsley "Inferno" Gold Dimitri Zaunders "Look At Me"
2 - Experimental & Specialised presented by Adept Turnkey & Airview Xtreme Silver Zoe White Gail Sorronda "Oh My Goth" Gold Judd Overton "Door Chair Bed Stair"
3 - John Bowring Acs TV Station Breaks & Promos presented by...
Held on November 17 at new venue, the Masonic Centre, Sydney, the 2012 Nsw & Act Annual Awards attracted more than 180 members, sponsors and guests.
The 19 different award categories included student cinematography, current affairs, telefeatures, TV drama and mini-series, music videos and features cinema.
The Ross Wood Snr Acs Memorial Judges Award for 2012 Best Entry was awarded to Toby Oliver.for his work on Beaconsfield.
A list of all winners.can be found.below.
1 - Student Cinematography presented by the Aftrs Bronze Patrick Jaeger "Maquisard" Silver Damian Smith GetUP "It's Time" Gold Tim Barnsley "Inferno" Gold Dimitri Zaunders "Look At Me"
2 - Experimental & Specialised presented by Adept Turnkey & Airview Xtreme Silver Zoe White Gail Sorronda "Oh My Goth" Gold Judd Overton "Door Chair Bed Stair"
3 - John Bowring Acs TV Station Breaks & Promos presented by...
- 11/18/2012
- by Emily Blatchford
- IF.com.au
The Australian Cinematographers Society has announced the 2012 award winners for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
Held on November 17 at new venue, the Masonic Centre, Sydney, the 2012 Nsw & Act Annual Awards attracted more than 180 members, sponsors and guests.
The 19 different award categories included student cinematography, current affairs, telefeatures, TV drama and mini-series, music videos and features cinema.
The Ross Wood Snr Acs Memorial Judges Award for 2012 Best Entry was awarded to Toby Oliver.for his work on Beaconsfield.
A list of all winners.can be found.below.
1 - Student Cinematography presented by the Aftrs Bronze Patrick Jaeger "Maquisard" Silver Damian Smith GetUP "It's Time" Gold Tim Barnsley "Inferno" Gold Dimitri Zaunders "Look At Me"
2 - Experimental & Specialised presented by Adept Turnkey & Airview Xtreme Silver Zoe White Gail Sorronda "Oh My Goth" Gold Judd Overton "Door Chair Bed Stair"
3 - John Bowring Acs TV Station Breaks & Promos presented by...
Held on November 17 at new venue, the Masonic Centre, Sydney, the 2012 Nsw & Act Annual Awards attracted more than 180 members, sponsors and guests.
The 19 different award categories included student cinematography, current affairs, telefeatures, TV drama and mini-series, music videos and features cinema.
The Ross Wood Snr Acs Memorial Judges Award for 2012 Best Entry was awarded to Toby Oliver.for his work on Beaconsfield.
A list of all winners.can be found.below.
1 - Student Cinematography presented by the Aftrs Bronze Patrick Jaeger "Maquisard" Silver Damian Smith GetUP "It's Time" Gold Tim Barnsley "Inferno" Gold Dimitri Zaunders "Look At Me"
2 - Experimental & Specialised presented by Adept Turnkey & Airview Xtreme Silver Zoe White Gail Sorronda "Oh My Goth" Gold Judd Overton "Door Chair Bed Stair"
3 - John Bowring Acs TV Station Breaks & Promos presented by...
- 11/18/2012
- by Emily Blatchford
- IF.com.au
I've spent a lot of time telling you all about the different aspects of Severin Films' home video catalog and even their theatrical releases. You would think that would be all, perhaps they'd found their niche and they'd be glad to hang out in their comfort zone, but you'd be wrong. Having admirably tackled EuroSleaze, horror, the eternal works of D'amato, Borowczyk, and Franco, and dipped their toes into feature film distribution and production, you'd think they would be satisfied. However, Severin Films has so much more to offer, their future is bright, and I predict that at least a couple of their upcoming releases will blow the minds of home viewers in the coming years.
I never got around to talking about one of Severin's best complete packages, the two disc special edition of Ozploitation biker classic, Stone. A good five years before Mel Gibson hit the wide...
I never got around to talking about one of Severin's best complete packages, the two disc special edition of Ozploitation biker classic, Stone. A good five years before Mel Gibson hit the wide...
- 11/30/2010
- Screen Anarchy
The Val Kilmer/Oliver Stone portrayal was built on hype all long, argues John Patterson
The first thing I thought when I heard about When You're Strange, Tom Dicillo's new Johnny Depp-narrated film about Jim Morrison and the Doors, was that it had taken the band a full 20 years to recover from that movie Oliver Stone made about them; you know, the one with Billy Idol in it. And, oh yeah, Val Kilmer.
I missed the Doors the first time round, when they probably were pretty magical (the more naive you were in 1967, the more appealingly dangerous they would have seemed; they were born to foment high-school revolution), but I was around for the first big revival, in 1980, not seven years after Morrison, bearded, bloated and blasted, expired aged 27 in his Parisian bathtub. That summer the Doors' Greatest Hits album, lately unleashed, enjoyed wall-to-wall play on suburban radio stations across America,...
The first thing I thought when I heard about When You're Strange, Tom Dicillo's new Johnny Depp-narrated film about Jim Morrison and the Doors, was that it had taken the band a full 20 years to recover from that movie Oliver Stone made about them; you know, the one with Billy Idol in it. And, oh yeah, Val Kilmer.
I missed the Doors the first time round, when they probably were pretty magical (the more naive you were in 1967, the more appealingly dangerous they would have seemed; they were born to foment high-school revolution), but I was around for the first big revival, in 1980, not seven years after Morrison, bearded, bloated and blasted, expired aged 27 in his Parisian bathtub. That summer the Doors' Greatest Hits album, lately unleashed, enjoyed wall-to-wall play on suburban radio stations across America,...
- 6/25/2010
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
In 1974, a time when the Australian film industry seemed more concerned with creating whimsical Australian pictures, director Sandy Harbutt created one of the most uncompromising, violent and gritty portrayals of an Australian subculture with his bikie flick, Stone. Revered by many as a watershed moment in Australian cinema, the film is currently in line for a contemporary adaptation by Richard Cartwright. In adapting the film Cartwright wants to ensure he creates a film that will do the original justice. "We're going to stick with the gritty feeling that made the 1974 Stone such a powerful piece of cinema - it's going to be no-holds barred, that's for sure.
- 2/22/2010
- FilmInk.com.au
There are two essential books that celebrate region-specific horror films both well-known and obscure. One is Stephen Thrower’s Nightmare USA (with a companion volume planned). The other is They Came From Within, Caelum Vatnsdal’s history of Canadian horror movies. What these two books suggest is that the best of the cinema’s independent horror films are really regional works. Three of the most famous horror films of all time, Night of the Living Dead, Carnival of Souls, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are really regional films, independently financed and shot far from Hollywood with local actors and crew members. Thus they have a flavor not found in mainstream genre movies, spices of quirkiness, unpredictability, and rigorous bleakness that mainstream movies can’t or won’t allow themselves.
As far as I know there isn’t a book about Australian genre cinema yet, but now there is a film:...
As far as I know there isn’t a book about Australian genre cinema yet, but now there is a film:...
- 10/7/2009
- by dkholm
While I still haven't taken the time to write a review for his remake of Long Weekend, Jamie Blanks (Urban Legend, Storm Warning) is already out prepping his next horror film. During an interview with Inside Film, Australian producer David Hannay announced he would be teaming up with Anthony Egan to bring us a new 3D horror film entitled Flies, which will be directed by Blanks from a screenplay by Egan. Veteran and legendary producer David Hannay (Stone, The Man from Hong Kong) is teaming up with editor/writer Anthony Egan to produce what could potentially be Australias first feature film in stereoscopic 3D.
- 12/10/2008
- bloody-disgusting.com
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