Kim Farrant is attached to direct a UK psychological thriller produced by Michael Winterbottom's company and a US indie drama as well as developing an ambitious TV anthology series.
The technicians' union and the producers of the Australian mystery drama Strangerland have signed an industrial agreement which the union hopes will set a precedent for Australian films.
Rialto Distribution is the first independent to take advantage of the earlier release window, a concession which until now had been restricted to the US majors.
John Maclean’s Slow West and Kim Farrant’s Strangerland will debut in Palace cinemas and in select regional locations in June immediately after being launched at the Sydney Film Festival.
It’s not a done deal but talks between distributors and exhibitors are progressing, perhaps inexorably, towards a far more flexible regime for releasing films theatrically and on home entertainment in 2016.
Teenage Australian model Maddison Brown makes her acting debut in Strangerland, the Kim Farrant-directed mystery drama which has started shooting in Sydney.
Ariel Kleiman's Partisan, Kim Farrant's Strangerland and John Maclean's New Zealand-shot Slow West will compete in the world cinema dramatic section of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
The gambit of launching Kim Farrant's Strangerland and John Maclean's Slow West in a limited number of cinemas immediately following their Sydney Film Festival premieres looks like paying off.