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The “Tomorrow:When The War Began” producers can confirm that Kieran Darcy-Smith is currently working on a script for the second “Tomorrow: When The War Began” film, currently under the working title “TWTWB 2″. Kieran’s debut feature, “Wish You Were Here” was recently selected to open the Sundance Film Festival.
Source: Official Tomorrow When The War Began Movie Facebook Page
The NSW Government says it will fight to keep production of Tomorrow When The War Began 2 in the Hunter after reports the Gold Coast was trying to lure the movie sequel to Queensland.
Gold Coast City Council was reported last week to be negotiating with producers of an unnamed production based on a work by an Australian author of teen fiction.
Tomorrow When the War Began , the No.1 Australian film at the box office last year with $13.5million in ticket sales, was based on the teen adventure novels by John Marsden.
The $27million action movie was shot around the Hunter in 2009, with Raymond Terrace, Dungog and Maitland providing backdrops.
Starring Lincoln Lewis and Phoebe Tonkin as country teens fighting an invading foreign army, the film brought $2.9million and 230 jobs to the region during 43 days of shooting.
Former NSW premier Kristina Keneally announced before Labor’s March election loss that Tomorrow 2 would be filmed in the Hunter from September.
The second movie’s bigger budget would add $5million to the region economy, generating 450 jobs, including cast, crew and extras.
Screen Hunter Central Coast manager Annette Hubber said that Tomorrow production company Omnilab Media had not advised if the sequel would begin filming in September as planned.
Production plans have reportedly been complicated by the first film’s disappointing box office takings overseas and writer-director Stuart Beattie signing to direct his first US film, I, Frankenstein later this year.
Omnilab managing director Christopher Mapp said last month he was committed to the Tomorrow franchise.
“We’re still absolutely keen to see some form of the franchise existing and that will definitely happen,” Mr Mapp told Inside Film magazine.
Omnilab originally proposed making two films and a spin-off TV series.
A company spokeswoman said there were ‘‘no further updates on this project at this stage’’.
The Gold Coast Bulletin reported last week that film scouts from an unnamed Melbourne production company would assess sites and facilities there following talks with Gold Coast council.
But the NSW Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services told the Newcastle Herald that Omnilab had advised that it had no plans to move production of Tomorrow 2 to Queensland.
‘‘The NSW Government remains committed to ensure the production of Tomorrow When the War Began 2 takes place in NSW,’’ a department spokesman said.
Industry sources told the Herald the Gold Coast project might be a Movie Networks TV series based on Gabrielle Lord’s Conspiracy 365 teen novels.
The next movie adaptation in John Marsden’s Tomorrow When the War Began book series could be the latest blockbuster film made on the Gold Coast.
Gold Coast City Council has confirmed it is negotiating with a Melbourne film company about plans to make a movie here based on work by an Australian author who writes teenage fiction.
Film industry sources confirmed it was most likely the second in the Tomorrow series, which started with Marsden’s best known book Tomorrow When The War Began and includes seven volumes.
Councillor Susie Douglas confirmed there had been talks with members of a company recently and representatives would soon travel to the Gold Coast to look at sites and facilities.
”They are interested in looking at the the Gold Coast and we would love to get another film made here,” she said.
Council released figures yesterday that showed attracting the Bait 3D and Singularity films, along with the fifth Sea Patrol television series had translated into $62 million of investment and 1100 jobs for the Gold Coast in two years.
PJ Hogan’s film Mental, starring Toni Collette, is expected to boost the economic benefits of the film industry further when filming starts on the Gold Coast in July.
Council offered cash payments of between $50,000 and $150,000 to companies involved in the productions to establish themselves on the Gold Coast as part of its Investment Attraction Program.
Other companies, including IBM and SurfStitch, have relocated to the Gold Coast since the program started and are claimed by council as part of its success story.
Gold Coast film industry member Ryan Makepeace was thrilled to hear about negotiations relating to the Tomorrow series, particularly since he counts himself among Mr Mardsen’s biggest fans.
”I was considering moving to Sydney to work on the second film,” he said.
“I would love it if the film came here.”
The first film, which cost $27 million to make, was released last year.
The future of the sequel to last year’s highest grossing local film, Tomorrow, When the War Began, will be decided over the week at the Cannes International Film Festival.
Omnilab Media managing director Christopher Mapp told IF magazine that it remained committed to the franchise despite disappointing overseas box office results. Both the format of the sequel and the involvement of writer-director Stuart Beattie (who is set to helm US film I, Frankenstein later this year) have yet to be decided.
“We’re still absolutely keen to see some form of the franchise existing and that will definitely happen,” Mapp said, just before boarding a flight to Cannes this week. “What shape that takes due to a few things, like Stuart Beattie moving on, is not locked in stone so there will be a number of discussions at Cannes over the next ten days, or the next week really, around that.”
The $27 million action-thriller, which was largely funded by media conglomerate Omnilab, grossed an impressive $13.48 million in Australia last year.
However, its overseas results fell flat with the film grossing just $US140,707 on its opening weekend in the United Kingdom across 205 theatres, according to Box Office Mojo.
“The word-of-mouth wasn’t quick enough to lift the box office in all the foreign territories and you know the results – they weren’t good enough,” Mapp said.
Despite Omnilab’s offer to subsidise the North American cost of prints and advertising (P&A) last year, the film has still not been released in the US. At the time, even Academy Award-winning Australian director Peter Weir endured months of difficulties finding US distribution for his epic drama The Way Back as the market remained particularly risk-averse.
Tomorrow will probably now have a limited North American theatrical release aimed at driving home entertainment and DVD sales, Mapp said.
“It’s one of those films that got very close – everyone loved the film but it’s a challenge to get people to see it in the foreign territories,” he said.
“No-one will ever know but I still say if it had gone out wide, it had a chance in English speaking territories, but it needed to go out really hard with the marketing. In the UK they gave it a decent shot through Paramount and it didn’t find the audience. Now if they had gone a bit harder with the audience would they have a better chance of finding it? We’ll never know.
“But everyone is baffled by the result out of the UK – there’s obviously a number of things with the weather but that’s not enough to give it that excuse.”
In contrast, Omnilab has already secured a major distributor, Open Road Films, for its upcoming action-thriller Killer Elite. It will be distributed across more than 2000 theatres and, in a departure from Omnilab’s previous strategy, it will not put up any of the $25 million in P&A costs for North American distribution.
Tomorrow is not alone in its struggle to find an offshore audience – the highest grossing film of 2009, Mao’s Last Dancer, also posted subdued business overseas.
The $25 million dance epic grossed more than $15.4 million in 2009 and more than $US4.8 million in the US. It also topped Australian DVD sales in 2010, selling more than 100,000 copies. Screen Australia recently revealed that it had received $352,403 back from its initial $4 million investment. It has not received a return from its $3.5 million investment in Tomorrow.