FEATURE
On the set of ‘taboo breaker’ The Grandmothers, starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright
Hopscotch jump-starts production T
he fi rst productions from Hopscotch Features certainly meet the company’s key aims: to make fi lms in Australia with Australian talent
and international scope. Los Angeles-based Aussie Stuart Beattie (Tomorrow, When The War Began) is directing the gothic epic I, Frankenstein starring Aaron Eckhart and Bill Nighy, and France’s Anne Fontaine is directing Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville in the Aus- tralia-France co-production The Grandmothers (working title). “There is no better indication of the spread of
fi lms we will make than these two,” says Andrew Mason, a producer on both. “The Grandmothers is a performance and character piece based entirely around that director and that cast. I, Frankenstein is a very high-concept fi lm… it has another layer.” Mason’s three equal partners in Hopscotch Fea-
tures are Troy Lum and Frank Cox from distribu- tion company Hopscotch Films/eOne, and writer John Collee. Rachel Okine oversees development. Lum sees the move into production as an exten-
sion of acquisitions: “As an aggregator of content, you have to be open to as many projects as possi- ble.” Australian directors Gregor Jordan, Stephan Elli-
ott, Clayton Jacobson, Robert Luketic and Ray Law- rence are attached to some of the dozen features in development; two or three are expected to go into production annually. Next in line is likely to be Paris-set The Seduction from director Rachel Ward, about a French woman reunited with the son she left in Australia years earlier. Also well advanced is The Water Diviner, the
debut feature of Anthony Maras with a script by Andrew Knight and Chris Anastassiades. It tells the story of a man returning to Gallipoli to seek recon- ciliation three years after the First World War battle. “There is a shortage of projects that come to us
■ 42 Screen International at Cannes May 20, 2012
HOPSCOTCH FEATURES FACTFILE
■ John Collee wrote, with others, Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World, Happy Feet, Creation and animated feature Walking With Dinosaurs, which is in production. He has written three novels and worked as a doctor in fi ve countries.
■ Frank Cox established distribution company New Vision Films in 1983. Its library was folded into Hopscotch Films when he formed that company in 2002 with Troy Lum and Sandie Don.
■ Troy Lum spent six years at Dendy before opening Hopscotch Films in 2002. He remained managing director after eOne’s 2011 purchase of Hopscotch.
■ Andrew Mason began his feature fi lm career on Dark City and The Matrix. He has since produced or executive produced fi lms including Queen Of The Damned, Silent Hill and Tomorrow When The War Began.
John Collee Frank Cox
with real international appeal, but part of our task is to look at them and see if we can give them interna- tional appeal,” said Mason. The 2008 introduction of Australia’s producer
offset, a rebate giving producers equity in fi lms, was a factor behind the establishment of the company, which accessed funds from Screen Australia’s Enterprise Program in 2009. This backing (part loan, part grant) has principally gone towards development.
Troy Lum Andrew Mason eOne, the new parent company of distributor
Hopscotch Films, is not offi cially tied to Hopscotch Features but is infl uencing production. Mason was a producer on The Cave with Lakeshore Entertain- ment, and was looking for a project for Stuart Beat- tie at the same time Lakeshore was looking for a director for I, Frankenstein. When eOne did an out- put deal with Lakeshore, it seemed obvious for Lakeshore and Hopscotch Features to join forces. Lakeshore has sold most territories — including the US to Lionsgate — and Hopscotch Films/eOne will handle Australian distribution. The Grandmothers (sold internationally by Gau-
mont) came to Hopscotch via French producer Philippe Carcassonne, who had another project simmering with Mason at the time he began con- sidering Australia as a location. The Grandmothers is about two lifelong friends who fall in love with each other’s teenage sons. “It is a story that breaks social taboos but everyone looks good, the land- scape looks ravishing and it all seems very natural,” says Lum. This fi lm has investment from Screen Australia
and, while diffi cult to predict, Hopscotch Features executives hope to secure fi nance for up to half of its projects from the government agency. ■
s
Fledgling production company Hopscotch Features is quickly fulfilling its mission to make films in Australia with international reach. Sandy George talks to the four partners
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