Right o, I don’t want to spoil the experience for you guys, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet.

On June 16, 2009, Screen Australia announced that John Marsden’s “Tomorrow, When The War Began” was to be made into a film. After a short bout of unintentional girlish squealing, similar to what I’m told is commonly seen throughout Twilight films, I managed to calm myself and began thinking about what this means to the thousands of fans. A story that means so much to so many people was about to be reinvented for the big screen. Many concerns were voiced from fans, and admittedly, I had my own.

Ellie (played by Caitlin Stasey) is Tomorrow’s protagonist. For me, Ellie was what had to be right in the film adaptation, above anything else. It’s her story, and if she wasn’t played right, the film would fall apart. After “officially” waiting since 2004 for a Tomorrow film, my concerns were well and truly quashed, when I saw the film a week ago at its world premiere in Sydney.

Caitlin, we want to hug you.

The chemistry between the cast was outstanding, from the very faithful, perfectly written and delivered dialogue, to the subtle glances and natural reactions between each actor.

The locations were beautiful. The opening shots of Wirrawee and the surrounding land, following Ellie’s camcorder introduction, particularly stuck with me.

Each character is introduced early on, faithfully to how they were in the novel, and what surprised me more than anything throughout the film was how funny certain scenes were. Homer’s (Deniz Akdeniz) introduction in the beginning, where he exits a police station wearing a t-shit with “F#@K THE POLICE” printed on the front, particularly comes to mind. As we know, upon returning from Hell (which was breathtakingly beautiful, needless to say), the group finds their homes deserted, and make their way into town to suss things out. This is the turning point for the film, where the group and the audience are violently thrown into the war.

Stuart Beattie has put a lot of emphasis on giving each character a strong personality. The humour present in the novel has been really accentuated, along with the characters’ transitions into living in a war zone. Several scenes were changed, and several scenes were written from scratch, but it all works. Chris (Andy Ryan) and Robyn (Ashleigh Cummings) have been altered in several ways in the film, as mentioned by John Marsden, but this also works. Chris is uniquely loveable in a way that wasn’t really present in the novel, and Robyn has been given a much more obvious point of normal-life to war-life transition, which was incredibly moving.

Being objective is almost impossible for me, having waited for a Tomorrow film for so long, having had my own ideas on how it should be done, and seeing the ideas of many other people. I did however manage to walk into the cinema with a clear mind, hoping for something good but having no expectations… and I left the cinema jumping. I’ve been buzzing since, and will be seeing Tomorrow: When The War Began many more times, when it’s officially released.

Nick

The first news on sequels, plus a little info on possible international releases for Tomorrow: When The War Began.

Also, coming soon: Tomorrow-Movies.com’s review of the film, plus our interview with the cast!

Tomorrow: The Dead Of The Night – On its way?

The team behind the film adaptation of John Marsden’s novel Tomorrow When the War Began has plans to extend the property to three films and a television series.

“What we’re trying to create is a franchise, with a potential for three films and a television series. To create that opportunity we need to see the Australian audience embrace it and the international marketplace recognise the strength of the film,” executive producer and managing director of Omnilab Media Christopher Mapp told Encore.

According to Mapp, there is no minimum box office result that would guarantee production of the sequels and the TV series.

“I won’t be able to give a number on that, because it will be a blend between box office success, foreign sales and the DVD, which won’t be that long down the track. The social media out there is certainly strong enough to suggest that DVD numbers will also be reasonably strong.

“The first film is a film in its entirety. It’s a great story, with wonderful moments of drama, action and romance – everything that a wide film going audience would appreciate. If the audience embrace that, we’re ready for expanding on [the series’] potential,” explained Mapp.

Tomorrow… is writer Stuart Beattie’s first feature as a director. It will be released by Paramount Pictures in Australia on September 2. The international sales agent is Inferno Entertainment, and although they’ve “certainly had interest”, there is no confirmed deal for a US release.

“We’re continuing to pursue that. There are a couple of approaches that we could take; it could be a wide release, or a medium-wide release. We haven’t locked in the strategy yet for North America,” said Mapp.

Another Omnilab production, Rachel Perkins’ musical Bran Nue Dae, still holds the title of highest-grossing Australian film of 2010. It will be released in the US by Freestyle Releasing on September 10.

“Bran Nue Dae is a platform release. We’ve committed to at least 50 screens, but we will go through stages depending on whether audiences embrace it and to what level, so we can then think of an expansion plan,” added Mapp.

From Encore Magazine

Looks like John is happy with how the film turned out! An excellent sign. Some of his concerns match those of which many people here had, who commented on the various updates since the movie’s announcement.

Have a read…:

John Marsden isn’t much of a moviegoer and when he penned the first book in his hit teen series, Tomorrow When the War Began, he didn’t picture it ending up on the big screen.

But the $20-million Aussie film, directed by Stuart Beattie and starring Caitlin Stasey, will premier in cinemas on August 8. And Marsden loves it.

“I am totally non-movie orientated. I don’t see films, I am not visually literate,” he says.

“(But) I saw the film two weeks ago and was stoked and thought it was extraordinarily good.”

Based on the first novel in the seven-book series, the movie follows eight teenagers who are on a camping trip when foreign invaders take over Australia.

The group, including friends Ellie, Fi, Robyn, Homer, Chris, Lee, Kevin and Corrie band together and become guerilla fighters hiding out in the bush and carrying out attacks and raids on the invading forces who occupy their town.

Marsden had no involvement in the making of the movie but after watching a day of filming he had “high hopes” for the project.

“(I) was quite enchanted by the whole atmosphere which was so positive,” he says.

While some of the characters have been changed significantly, the film is quite faithful to the books.

“As a movie I think it works, as a fair reflection of the book I think it works,” Marsden says.

“I would have like Fi to have been a little more sophisticated and Robyn to be a little less preachy and nerdy and Chris to be a little more morose, because that is the way I wrote them. But if they choose to play them differently so they work better on film then I can’t criticise their decisions.”

But Marsden admits he did have a few concerns.

The main one was that the film gave the invaders in his book a racial identity, something Marsden had carefully avoided.

“I suppose on balance I would have preferred them not to (have made the invaders Asian) but I am not overly stressed about it because it’s not a race type I suppose,” he says.

While Marsden suggests using Eurasian faces could have been an option he admits that there are a couple of hints in the books that the invaders are Asian.

“Realistically, if we are looking at potential invaders of Australia we would be silly to kind of look at Europe or North America,” he says.

Another concern was the casting of Caitlin Stasey – known for her role as Rachel Kinski in the soap Neighbours – as the lead character of farm girl called Ellie Linton.

Stasey was too good looking, he says.

“She is really quite amazing, she doesn’t look like the way I had imagined Ellie much at all, I thought she would be a bit broader and thick set and fairly plain,” he says.

“But Caitlin, when I watched her acting … I thought ‘Christ, she has become Ellie’ she has an amazing presence and power.”

While Marsden doesn’t make time to watch movies, joking that he only recently learned who Robert De Niro is, he is always busy.

His old love, writing, has been cast aside for several new loves which include his partner of several years, her six sons and the school he founded.

In an unexpected plot twist, Candlebark, the alternative school Marsden set up started in 2006, led him to the woman that has changed his life.

“She was actually a single mother of some kids at the school… we had had a few terse interviews about her older son’s poor behaviour, what could possibly go wrong after that?” he jokes.

The pair now live in a nunnery not far from Marsden’s bushland estate in regional Victoria.

“I knew my life had changed when after a few months I was shaving in the bathroom one morning and one of the kids was standing on my left foot cleaning his teeth with my toothbrush and another one was standing on my right foot trying to spit into the sink. I thought, ‘geez, things sure are different’.”

And he is far too happy to be writing.

“I think my need to write has always been an emotional thing and I think emotionally now I am very happy in other ways.

“I even wrote comedy when I was feeling depressed.”

While Marsden can think of plenty of things he would rather do than watch a film he is hoping plenty of other people will be happy to spend a few hours in the dark and watch the war begin again.

From The Courier Mail

Tickets to THE premiere of Tomorrow: When The War Began are available at the Event Cinemas website.

Where:
George Street Cinemas, Sydney

When:
Sunday 8th August (in about a week!) at 5:30pm

Get in quick, tickets are selling out fast!

Stuart Beattie and several cast members will be making appearances in the near future in NSW, VIC and QLD.

Not 100% sure which specific cast members will be there, but Rob, our beloved Paramount insider, has advised us…:

“If you have any questions about the locations themselves, naturally liaise with the store, or even drop by if you’re a local, and get a feel for how to best tackle the day to ensure you get the best chance at seeing the cast and maybe getting something signed!”

So who’s going?!

Check out the dates and locations below!

NSW

When
Monday 9th August at 4pm

Where
Borders Bondi Junction
Level 4, Near Centre Court
Westfield, Bondi Junction

VIC

When
Thursday 12th August at 4:30pm

Where
Borders Jam Factory
Shop 1, 500 Chapel St
South Yarra

QLD

When
Tuesday 17th August at 4.30pm

Where
Main stage, Queen Street Mall, Brisbane