DEER Park will share the silver screen with some of this country’s most famous actors, when the growing 21st century suburb passes itself off as 1920s Sydney in a new Australian film due out next year.
Producers of the Australian period film The Tender Hook are using a nondescript industrial site in Deer Park, littered with old brick buildings, wide-open spaces and some large warehouses, as the studio site for the film shoot, which began earlier this month.
For the past two weeks, Australian actors Hugo Weaving, Rose Byrne and Pia Miranda, along with a cast and crew of up to 70 others, have spent some of their working days at the old industrial site on Deer Park’s Tilburn Rd.
According to co-producer Michelle Harrison, the site was perfect for recreating the atmosphere of the early 20th century, and a lot cheaper than the alternative, Melbourne’s Docklands Film and Television Studios, which didn’t offer easy access to the range of buildings and sets in the one area.
“When we first arrived in Melbourne we were despairing a bit at finding the right warehouse space,” Ms Harrison said.
“We looked at quite a few buildings and we didn’t find exactly what we wanted. We negotiated with productions offices here and looked at the other buildings and thought, ‘This is perfect’, ” she said.
Written and directed by Jonathan Ogilvie, the film centres on a love triangle between Rose Byrne’s character, her English lover and a young boxer (Matt Le Nevez).
The producers have turned the various buildings on site into costume and wardrobe departments, and are basically using the entire area as one big studio.
When Star turned up last Wednesday during the second week of filming, the cast and crew were rehearsing a boxing scene in the “McHeath and Co” warehouse – a disused brick building that had been turned into a boxing training studio for the production.
Hugo Weaving, wearing a striped blue shirt, tie, grey vest, and sporting a period pocket watch, watched as Mr Le Nevez’s character sparred with another boxer in the makeshift ring.
Behind the ring, up on the rafters, hung what looked like bear skins, while a boxed motorbike sat against the far wall.
The training studio is only one of the many sets created for the six-week shoot, due to finish in about a month.
The film should be in cinemas in 2008, and co-producer Ms Harrison said she hopes the film will be picked up at some of the international film festivals before it’s released in Australia.
Film Finance Corporation Australia, Film Victoria and the UK film company Parkland Pictures are all financing the production, which will be distributed by Dendy Films when it hits Australian cinemas.
