With The Dry fast approaching the $20 million mark at the Australian box office – now one of the most successful Australian films of all time – the appetite for local material is at an all-time high.
Looking to emulate that success, The Dry director Robert Connolly is reuniting with leading man Eric Bana for Blueblack, a timely tale about the ocean, a beautiful marine creature, and a young girl’s power to change the world.
Based on the novel by Tim Winton, cameras have started rolling on the feature across the Great Southern region and Ningaloo Reef, with Mia Wasikowska, Radha Mitchell, Erik Thomson, Liz Alexander, Clarence Ryan and Pedrea Jackson rounding out the cast. Newcomers Ariel Donoghue and Ilsa Fogg have also joined the family-friendly film which centres on Abby, a child who befriends a magnificent wild groper while diving. When Abby realises that the fish is under threat, she must take on poachers to save her friend.
To bring “Blueback”, the hero of the film to life, the production will use a specialised team of underwater camera operators, who have worked on major features and documentary series including Blue Planet, in combination with state-of-the-art animatronic puppetry created by Creature Technology Company (King Kong: Alive on Broadway and arena show Walking with Dinosaurs) with further CG by Soundfirm (Peter Rabbit, Paper Planes) in Melbourne.
Robert Connolly said, “It’s fantastic to be working with Tim Winton again on an iconic Australian story, with such a talented cast of actors, and filming in an extraordinary part of the world. The story of Blueback is a beautiful tale of life, love, belonging and with the fragility of our oceans and sea life as an underlying thread, it couldn’t be more timely.”
Blueblack will be distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Roadshow Films, with international sales handled by HanWay Films.
