The Eye of the Storm (Fred Schepisi, 2011)

[GaryC]

The IMDB lists this as being in post-production, but it received its classification (MA 15+) from the OFLC in March. It opens in Australian cinemas in September. I don't know if and when it'll be shown elsewhere, such as in a festival. In the UK, I'd be surprised if it doesn't show at the London Film Festival or at the Barbican's Australian Film Festival.

I'm looking forward to this one - I've liked most of Fred Schepisi's films, and it has a strong cast (Charlotte Rampling, Geoffrey Rush, Judy Davis, Colin Friels), and the first film roles in a very long time for Helen Morse and Elizabeth Alexander. The screenplay is the work of another actor, namely Judy Morris.

Also, this is the first of Patrick White's novels to have a screen version. There were plans to film Voss in the 1960s, from a David Mercer script with Maximilian Schell in the title role. (My mid-80s dream casting would have been Klaus Maria Brandauer opposite Judy Davis.) I did hear talk of a film of The Aunt's Story, again with Judy Davis in the lead. But so far, White's only involvement with the cinema was the 1978 film The Night The Prowler, for which White wrote the script based on his own play. I read a lot of White in my teens, but for one reason or another I never got round to The Eye of the Storm or The Vivisector (which recently was on the Lost Booker Prize shortlist), his two longest, 600 pages each.

So, after all that, let's hope it lives up to expectations!

[GaryC]

Variety isn't too impressed, but Hollywood Reporter is much more positive. No word of a UK release as yet, though it comes out in Australia on 15 September.

[GaryC]

Twelve AACTA award nominations, including six in the four acting categories. And still no sign of a UK release.

My guess - and it's total speculation on my part - is that it will come out in May 2012, firstly as that's when the Barbican (London) has its annual Australian film festival, and secondly as that month is Patrick White's centenary. We'll see if I'm right or not.

[pc342]

Twelve AACTA award nominations, including six in the four acting categories. And still no sign of a UK release.

My guess - and it's total speculation on my part - is that it will come out in May 2012, firstly as that's when the Barbican (London) has its annual Australian film festival, and secondly as that month is Patrick White's centenary. We'll see if I'm right or not.

I've been waiting for this film to come out in the USA, but it seems to have a hard time finding a distribution deal for the US/UK market. Not enough sex/violence/nudity, no car crashes, not of the thriller genre, no George Clooney, no Brad Pitt, no Meryl Streep, no Leonardo Dicaprio, I gather.... A film dealing with old age/dying. Not very commercial. Some US critics who saw the film at TIFF11 mentioned it as having Oscar potential, one to look for in the coming months. But without a US deal, it can't qualify for Oscars. Sadly, it's already too late for 2011. "The Eye of the Storm" recently screened in competition at the Rome International Film Festival where it was awarded a Special Jury Prize. A positive sign but still no distribution deals to be had. Now it's up for 12 of Australia's revamped AFI awards, the AACTA (Australia's Oscar's). If it doesn't win Best Film there, I think it's chances of getting a US/UK deal will go down, unfortunately. Judging from the myriads of reviews and user comments all over the net and comparing to those for other films (The Hunter, Snowtown, Red Dog, etc...) in contention for Best Film, IMO, it deserves to win. Fingers crossed.

[GaryC]

Given the literary source and the cast, I would have thought it would play in cinemas such as the Curzon chain in London, presuming the distribution rights are in the sort of price range to support such a release. Unfortunately, despite being a Nobel Prizewinner, Patrick White is out of favour in the UK. When I read most of his work, he was still alive and you could find his novels in the library and the bookshops. Now he's still in print, but in the central fiction store in Hampshire's library system rather than on the shelves in my local branch. So I do wonder how much White is "saleable" to a UK audience, bearing in mind that this is only the second cinema version of his work. (And the other one, The Night The Prowler, was made way back in 1978 and never had a UK cinema release.)

I have now taken the novel of The Eye of the Storm out of the library, and I will be reading it over Christmas. It's about time that I did, as along with The Vivisector, it's the major White novel that I haven't yet read. (I didn't get on with his last and shortest novel, Memoirs of Many in One, and didn't finish it - I should try it again sometime. I haven't read his first novel, Happy Valley, but that's been out of print for decades as White wouldn't allow it to be reprinted, and used copies on Abebooks start at £700. But I've read all the other novels.) I don't know if White's centenary in May will help The Eye of the Storm film's distribution prospects.

Anyway, at the very least I suspect the Barbican's Australian Film Festival will show it - by which time the Australian Blu-ray and DVD will be out.

If anyone from the BFI Southbank is reading this, isn't it time to do a Fred Schepisi retrospective and Guardian Interview?