‘The Naked Wanderer’
Alan Lindsay’s The Naked Wanderer, a romantic comedy starring Angus McLaren, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Megan Hajjar and John Cleese, will have its world premiere at CinefestOZ.
Scripted by Callan Durlik and backed by the WA government’s Royalties for Regions program, the film shot on the state’s South West coast will premiere in Bunbury on August 30.
It’s the first film announced for the festival which will run from August 28 to September 1 in Bunbury, Busselton, Margaret River and surrounds.
McLaren plays Jake, who decides to walk 4,000 km up the coast of Western Australia, clad only in a loin cloth. His purpose ostensibly is to raise money for charity but his ulterior motive is to win back his former girlfriend Jasmine (Hajjar), who jilted him.
Durlik is his best mate Cameron King, whose uncle is UK-based media mogul Brian King (Cleese). Brian offers to sponsor the trip to try to counter some bad press he had been getting in the UK.
BAFTA winner Sophie Kennedy Clark (Philomena) plays Angel, Brian King’s assistant, with Natasha Liu Bordizzo (The Greatest Showman, Detective Chinatown 2) as Valerie, a backpacker.
Callan Durlik (l) and Josh Horneman.
CinefestOZ chair Helen Shervington said: “This is a film made in Western Australia by West Australians and it is an absolute honour to have it screen at a festival that shines the spotlight on and celebrates local and Australian film.”
Durlik said the Bunbury premiere will bring the film full circle, observing: “We had five or six actors read the script for the film in front of an audience at CinefestOZ back in 2015. That gave us the chance to get audience feedback and it ended up rating really well.
“This is a real feel-good film that is guaranteed to make you happy as you leave the cinema.”
Umbrella Entertainment will release the film produced by the Vue Group’s Lindsay with Durlik and his Rookies Ambush business partner Josh Horneman as associate producers.
The full CinefestOZ film and event program and ticket sales go live on July 26. Early bird tickets will be on sale from July 5 at cinefestoz.com