An Australian movie featuring Ryan Kwanten, Toni Collette, Robin McLeavy, David Wenham, Rufus Sewell, Richard Roxburgh, Deborah Mailman, Barry Otto and Barry Humphries sounds like a casting director’s dream.
All are lending their voices to The Blinky Bill Movie, Flying Bark Productions’ CGI feature now in production in Sydney.
The script is by Fin Edquist, whose Maya the Bee Movie opens here on November 1. The co-directors are Deane Taylor (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Maya’s Alexs Stadermann.
Kwanten voices the title character with McLeavy as the koala’s best friend Nutsy. The plot sees the duo racing across the outback to find Blinky’s missing father and save his hometown.
Collette will voice emus Beryl and Cheryl with Sewell as The Cat, Humphries as Wombo the wombat, Wenham as Jacko the frill-necked lizard, Mailman as Blinky’s mother and Otto as the mayor of Green Patch.
“The Blinky Bill Movie will introduce a whole new generation to Blinky Bill and his Australian bush friends,‘ said producer Barbara Stephen. ‘We are so excited that we’ve been able to attract such an impressive cast to the project.”
Casting director Kirsty McGregor concurs,"This is our dream cast."
Yoram Gross Film Studios – now Flying Bark Productions – produced the first Blinky Bill feature in 1992, based on the Australian classic book by Dorothy Wall.
Studiocanal will distribute the family movie in 2015.