(L-R) David Wade, Barbara Taylor, Siobhan Mulready, Sebastian Chan and Madeleine Dyer.
Screenworks, Jungle Entertainment and Midwinter Films have selected five regional writers/directors to develop the sci-fi comedy feature film Croak with Nash Edgerton and Christiaan and Connor Van Vuuren.
Sebastian Chan from Higgins, ACT, David Wade from Whyalla, SA, Barbara Taylor from Lennox Head, NSW, Madeleine Dyer from Townsville, Queensland and Siobhan Mulready from Maroochydore, Queensland will spend four and half days workshopping the project in Gladstone, Queensland starting November 4.
The Screenworks initiative has received funding through Screen Australia’s Enterprise Ideas Program with investment support from Screen Queensland, delivered in partnership with Jungle Entertainment and Midwinter Films.
Nash Edgerton will work with Jungle Entertainment producer Chloe Rickard, Midwinter Films’ Bridget Callow-Wright and the Van Vuurens to guide the participants through the late development stage of the feature.
Croak is an original concept written by Shane Brady and co-written by Priscilla Cameron for Jungle Entertainment and Midwinter Films with the Van Vuurens to direct.
The plot sees Josh and Stacy’s family forced off their farm by coal seam gas fracking. Subsequently their mother takes a job in Galston, a booming coal and gas port. Josh, a sensitive nature boy, and Stacy, a knockabout country girl, are pitched into a new school in a new town amidst strange goings-on: pets vanishing and cars mysteriously crushed in the night.
Rickard said: “These five breakthrough director/writers are perfectly poised to help shape the timely questions that Croak raises, as well as load it with laughs, rebellion and relatable moments.
”It was a hugely competitive process and their applications rose to the top because of their distinctiveness and impressive track record.”