Splice and dice baby

Readers, feel free to marvel at my multitasking skills if you will because on top of covering the Australian International Movie Convention (AIMC) on the Gold Coast this week and attending screenings, premieres, interviews, seminars, panel discussions and orgies with Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell, I have still managed to get up my weekly online video movie review. This week looked at Splice and you can take a geeze at the video here.

Also, my straight-to-camera piece on the AIMC is also worth a look, albeit only for comedic purposes. For more serious news hounds, the Australian federal election is coming up on Saturday and the Coalition announced their Arts Policy with BIG boosts to the Aussie film industry. Get the lo-down here.

Stay tuned for my interviews with Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell and coverage from the red carpet Australian premiere of The Other Guys. It will be posted this afternoon.

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We still call Australia home?

The stars of Tomorrow When The War Began swapped Molotov cocktails for alcoholic ones when they celebrated the Queensland premiere of the film at Jupiters Hotel and Casino tonight.Writer/director Stuart Beattie walked the red carpet along with producers Andrew Mason and Michael Boughen, and stars Caitlin Stasey, Lincoln Lewis, Phoebe Tonkin and Andy Ryan, who play guerrilla soldiers in the film. The glitzy premiere launched the start of the Australian International Movie Convention, which is being held at the casino this week.

Beattie said it held special significance to him to hold the premiere at the convention. “It’s great to be back here again, because this is where I first announced that we would making the film last year,” he said. “It’s a real honour to be able to adapt these books and I was grateful for John (Marsden) trusting me with this.” Despite having penned blockbusters such as the Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy and G.I Joe: Rise Of The Cobra, this is the directorial debut for Beattie.

The film is based on the best-selling series of novels from John Marsden, which follow a group of teenagers who decide to become guerilla soldiers when Australian is invaded. Lincoln Lewis, son of rugby league great Wally Lewis, plays one of the film’s protagonists and said it was `awesome’ to have a premiere in his home state. “I’m so happy to have the premiere not just in Queensland, but on the Goldy where I grew up,” he said. “I’m pretty nervous actually. I was very lucky to be cast in this, I was happy to just audition for it. But all of the reviews we have been getting so far have been really positive.” Lewis said he would be interested in appearing in the film’s sequels, but it would depend on `box office results and audience reaction’.

Former Neighbours actress Caitlin Stasey plays the film’s heroine Ellie Linton and said it was `incredible’ as there are rarely opportunities to play a female action hero. "Every girl wants to feel they can amount to someone of this calibre,” she said. “Most of the action movies are for males, so it’s great to play Ellie and prove that you don’t have to be a romantic heroine to be a heroine.”

More than 1000 people packed Jupiters Theatre to watch the movie, which was introduced by Beattie and the cast and crew. Last week the Hollywood Stock Exchange – an artificial money market which allows punters to trade ‘movie stocks’ and ‘star bonds’ using imaginary dollars, tipped Tomorrow When The War Began as one of the five Australian films likely to gross more than $US20 million each at the US box office.

The film itself was, I'm glad to say, truly fantastic. My full review is coming tomorrow sometime and I'm interviewing Tonkin, Lewis and Beattie in the morning so stay posted for that. Besides speaking to them on the red carpet, I chatted with the cast at the after party tonight and everyone, seriously everyone, is lovely and sincerely passionate about what they are putting out.

Speaking of passionate, you may remember at the start of this year I did and extensive interview with the Spierig Brothers, Peter and Michael. As a massive fan of their work, I saw one of them at the after party tonight (I have no idea which one) and totally made a fool of myself by doing the gushing fan thing. He remembered me, but by then it was too late as I had already exploded into a ball of geekiness and had to apologise and excuse myself. He thought it was funny. Me? Mortifying. AND when I went to leave, who should I get stuck in the elevator with? Both of the bloody Spierig Brothers! I said "I'm sorry for before, I will try to gush from a distance this time" and they laughed. But instead of taking the opportunity to ask about Dark Crystal, what did we talk about? Shoes. And the colour purple. Please excuse me now while I get the shotgun and take myself out the back.

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War, Sanctum, Mark Wahlberg . . .it's going to be a crazy week

Hello beloved children! I have some exciting news for you; the Australian International Movie Convention kicks off at Jupiters Hotel and Casino, Gold Coast, Australia tonight and I will be there covering all the exciting juice to come out of it. The convention runs until Thursday with executives from all the top studios in the world coming to screen their films, hold panels on issues affecting the industry, seminars, trade shows, premieres and sneak peeks. It’s going to be a crazy, but very exciting period and I will be posting as often as I can. Here are some of the things to look out for:

-The event launches tonight with the Queensland premiere of Tomorrow When The War Began with all the stars and crew walking the red carpet. I will update you later tonight with what happened at the premiere and after party, but you will have to wait for the review in a few weeks time (sorry). On Monday morning I will be hanging out with the film's writer, director and producer Stuart Beattie (the lad behind screenplays for Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise and G.I Joe: Rise Of The Cobra) and the film’s stars Lincoln Lewis and Phoebe Tonkin, so stay posted for extended interviews of that.

-Later on Monday I will be trotting back to the convention command centre to find out what else has been happening and I will attend a screening of the sure-to-be-brilliant The Girl Who Played With Fire. Insert excited squeal here.

-Tuesday will kick off with a screening of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, followed by some other exciting things which I can’t really tell you about just yet.

-Wednesday is the big one and I mean BIG one. I got an unexpected call from Alister Grierson last week, who’s the director of James Cameron’s underwater 3D epic Sanctum (Cameron, Grierson and Wight pictured above on set). He’s a pretty awesome dude and after meeting with him dozens of times over the past year and a half, we’ve stayed in touch and he is surprisingly not a douche baggy film type and actually ENJOYS keeping the progress updates coming.

Anywho, he told me exclusively that they will be screening the first-ever footage from Sanctum at the event on Wednesday morning. It makes sense, Cameron blew delegates away when he showed exclusive footage from his blockbuster Avatar last year, now, 12 months later, he is set to do the same. Star of the Sanctum, Rhys Wakefield, and producer Andrew Wight will attend the event when Universal Studios will present the scenes. Sanctum, filmed on the Coast earlier this year, is in post-production in Melbourne where the visual effects and final touches are being added.
 Grierson said it will be 'very exciting' to have people see the footage.

''It won't be the fully finished version but what you will see will be in 3D. Universal pictures are really excited and pumped up to do the release and it's rare an Australian film gets this amount of positive review and anticipation before it's out. We're doing some pick-up shots and have built a mini set here for visual effects, so we're very close to finishing.''

Although he and executive producer Cameron will not be attending the convention, Grierson reckons they've had amazing support from their American partners.

"I flew over to LA and screened a version for Jim about a month ago and he really enjoyed that. He had some tips on how to improve it and a few nips and tucks.''

So following that world exclusive screening, I will then get to interview Will Ferrell and MARK FREAKIN’ WAHLBERG when they come to the convention for the Australian premiere of The Other Guys at Event Cinemas, Robina. Excited as I am about seeing the film and meeting Ferrell, it’s no secret I’m slightly obsessed with Wahlberg and it has been one of my dreams to meet him in person so. . . eeeeeeeekkk!

-Thursday is the final day and I will still be coming down from the combined Wahlberg/Ferrell high of the night before. However, I do have an interview locked in with schlock kind George Hamilton about his new 3D film Bait. Yes, you may have heard of it, a tsunami washes a bunch of sharks into a supermarket and people need to escape. So bad it’s good, you know.

That’s a rough outline of what I have planned and what you can expect from me over the next few days. Like I said, I’ll be posting regularly, but I will also be tweeting like a mad dog and you can follow me here. There are a few things I can’t divulge, so be sure to stay tuned as there’s a bunch of exciting stuff happening that will blow your peuny minds. For the full lo-down on AIMC and the agenda, click here.

In the mean time, to catch up on Tomorrow When The War Began you can read my previous posts here, here and here, on Sanctum here, here, here and here, and The Other Guys here. Enjoy.

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