Jacki Weaver, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Magda Szubanski, Eric Bana and French actor Dominique Pinon are among the voice cast of writer-director Adam Elliot’s next stop motion feature, Memoir of a Snail.
Now in production in Melbourne, Memoir of a Snail is set in the ’70s and described as a bittersweet remembrance of Grace Puddle; a lonely hoarder of ornamental snails who is addicted to romance novels.
Grace’s life is plagued by misfortune and loss. When her family unit is ripped apart and she’s separated from her twin brother, she finds herself in a spiral of anxiety and depression, which she soothes with an addiction to collecting snail ornaments. But suddenly her life is filled with colour and hope again when she strikes up an enduring friendship with an elderly eccentric woman called Pinky, through which she starts to find her confidence and the courage to learn to love and let go of the things that clutter her home and her mind.
Memoir of a Snail marks the third stop-motion feature made in Australia, after Elliot’s own Mary and Max in 2009 and $9.99, directed by Tatia Rosenthal, in 2008. Elliot won an Oscar in 2004 for his stop-motion short film Harvie Krumpet.
Arenamedia has been developing the project with Elliot since 2016, with Liz Kearney the producer and Robert Connolly and Robert Patterson executive producing. More voice cast are expected to be announced soon, including who will be the voice of Grace.
Memoir of a Snail reunites Eliot with a number of his Mary and Max collaborators, including DOP Gerald Thompson, animation technical director John Lewis and editor Bill Murphy.
Kearney tells IF there is also “an incredibly talented and hard working team of animators, sculptors, props makers, set builders and production and camera crew many of whom are new to the world of stop motion animation.”
The Paris-based Charades and the London-based Anton are partnering on the worldwide sales and will shop the film at the Marche du Film next week.
Screen Australia has provided major production investment in association with the two sales companies. Memoir of a Snail was developed and produced in association with VicScreen and financed with support from Soundfirm, Mind the Gap Finance, Jameker and the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund (MIFF).
The shoot will take place for 30 weeks and the film expected for release in 2023.
Madman has the ANZ distribution rights.