The head-to-head clash between Universal’s 'Palm Beach' and Transmission Films’ 'Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan' last weekend was far from ideal, but both films are positioned to have leggy runs thanks to word of mouth.
The box office results for the Australian films and feature docs released in cinemas this year underline yet again the deep polarisation in the indie film market between the higher earners and the also-rans.
When Sam Cotton landed the title role in the ABC/RevLover Films dramedy 'Diary of an Uber Driver', he approached the job with some trepidation.
IF has 10 in-season double passes to give away to director Kriv Stender's' Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan', courtesy of Transmission Films.
Late afternoon August 18, 1966 South Vietnam – for three and a half hours, in the pouring rain, amid the mud and shattered trees of a rubber plantation called Long Tan, Major Harry Smith and his dispersed company of 108 young and mostly inexperienced Australian and New Zealand soldiers are fighting for their lives, holding off an overwhelming enemy force of 2,500 battle-hardened Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers. With their ammunition running out, their casualties mounting and the enemy massing for a final assault, each man begins to search for the strength to triumph over an uncertain future with honour, decency and courage.
The 18 Australian films and feature docs released in cinemas since the start of the year, plus holdovers, have racked up a modest $14.3 million.
Anthony Hayes has been acting since he was nine. While there is no danger of him giving up that stellar career, for the present he is concentrating more on his other passions: writing and directing.