AUSTRAILIA - IS IT THE NEW HOLLYWOOD?
By Clint Morris

I am from Australia and even I am surprised that all of a sudden the land down under is being occupied by some of tinseltown's biggest talents, including George Lucas, Ewan McGregor, Anthony Hopkins and Tom Cruise. A couple of years back, Australia was well known for it's more eccentric pictures like "Muriels Wedding", "The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert" and "Strictly Ballroom". It was also well known for exporting some of it's best talents into the big wide world, sending them off for bigger and better things. Most notably, this list includes Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Heath Ledger and Colin Friels. Those actors may not have needed to leave altogether, with the huge potential that Australia is showing at the moment for all the big budget productions. Big stars, Big directors, Big Money and Big studio facilities are now in Australia. Most notably, thanks to The "Fox" studios in Sydney.

Prior to the establishment of the Fox studios in Sydney, the main place to make movies was at "Warner Bros. Movie World", a Village Roadshow extension on the Gold Coast. Parts or all of some half decent productions were filmed there. These include ooodles of TV series, some of the "Mission : Impossible" TV episodes, "Streetfighter" with Jean Claude Van Damme and a slew of TV Movies, starring a range of people including Scott Bakula, Sigrid Thornton and Robert Loggia.

In 1993, I visited one of the sets in "Movie World" to see just how it was all going. The name of the film I was watching in production was "Trapped in Space" (TV movie, 1995) which starred Sigrid Thornton and Jack Wagner (Melrose Place). What I saw was a very second rate production, yogurt cups used for exteriors of a spaceship and shopping centre red lights as the main fx. Australia, I decided had a long way to go until it made movies like the big guns in America.

That was until 1996. I was lucky enough to meet actress Mellisa George, who told me all about a movie she had just made called "Dark City". It was to be the first major picture made by the "Fox" studios in Sydney. State of the art facilities that could do what Hollywood does, for a percentage of the cost. George told me about the heavy duty actors she had starred with - Kiefer Sutherland, William Hurt, Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connelly. What a step up!

"Dark City" was very well made, it's Sci/Fic elements were classy and intrigiung and a movie was made that could rival many of the Sci/Fic films from overseas. 1998 seemed to be the big year for productions though and Australia has proved itself with some excellent efforts.

"The Thin Red Line", released last year, was a huge scale war epic that starred one of the finest all star casts ever, everyone from John Travolta, Sean Penn, George Clooney and Nick Nolte starred in the film. And it also helped Australia's unemployment problem, by adding to the macroeconomic objective of full employment in the country. "The Thin Red Line" was one of the year's best films.

1999's big standout was "The Matrix", a multi million dollar earning blockbuster starring Keanu Reeves. It is tipped to be one of the biggest and most popular films of the year, and it is surprisingly from Australia, as it is one of the best films of it's genre we have seen, a great warm up to the recent "Star Wars" film.

Other projects going ahead around the same time included the Harvey Keitel / Kate Winslet film "Holy Smokes", a new Ewan McGregor film and "Cut", an upcoming Teen Horror film featuring Kylie Minogue, that is set to rival the American blockbuster "Scream" (1996).

As I speak, Tom Cruise is in Sydney doing what he does best on a new "Mission Impossible" sequel. It has a great all star cast and will no doubt be one of next Xmas's biggest films. The super sequel is in good hands, Australia is also playing host to hit films like "Babe" and it's sequel, "Chicken Run" from Mel Gibson and there's even talk of a new "Mad Max" film. The big news is that "Star Wars Episode Two" is coming to Australia too. George Lucas is coming here because of the cost effectiveness of the country, and joining him will all the major cast members for the film including Ewan McGregor, Samuel L.Jackson, Natalie Portman and Kenny Baker. This is the movie that is going to make Australia into the new Hollywood, and the "3rd" episode is also due to be made here too.

No wonder, there is rumours of Mad Max returning, even Batman relaunching himself here, even Superman has been rumoured to be filming here. "Star Wars : Episode Two" won't be out for a couple of years, but it will do wonders for Australia.

I for one, will be putting my hand up to be a stormtrooper! So, what do u think, is the land down under the new "Hollywood"?

I guess we will see.

Visit Clint's webpage at http://www.members.tripod.com/~Clint_3/cinema.html