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To Hell and Back
Dan Castle, writer/director of Newcastle
(from 2008 Tribeca Film Festival) I'm sure most writer/directors look back on their initial inspiration for a film idea and wonder, "How could I have thought of such a crazy idea and yet somehow have managed to get it made?" Well, Newcastle is certainly no different. It was October 2001 that I was first brought to Newcastle, Australia, by a filmmaker friend of mine, Jolyon Hoff. I had told him that I wanted to write a teen surf flick, and he had looked at me and said, "Mate, you gotta see Newcastle," so off we'd gone. Before arriving in Newcastle, I had thought it would be a great place to see for ideas, and when I returned to the States I would find a sensible little surf town like San Clemente, California, or Pacific Beach in San Diego. Well, that was not to be. Newcastle was a dream location come true. The industrial port, the dozens and dozens of details - I mean, like, 40 coal ships that lined the horizon, remnants of broken-down store fronts and the air of change as new development and infrastructure was underway - got my head spinning with ideas. And that was only what I had seen in the dark of night when we arrived. The next day, we walked out of the house to a beautiful Saturday, and I then saw Newcastle for the first time. Incredible surf breaks right there! A huge salt-water, sea-side pool and a lighthouse on a headland. Then we traveled, and I saw the dunes of Stockton, and Red Head Beach and its ominous shark tower. That was it - Newcastle's fate was sealed and so was mine. By the time September of 2002 rolled around, I had a first draft of the script and was planning a trip back to Australia that October to ferret out interest. Everything worked out great once I got there, and everyone agreed the film should be made right away. Not! When I returned to Australia with a feature-length script to be shot in Newcastle, Australia, I was met with so much resistance it was almost amusing. "Can't," "Won't," "Never," "Won't happen...ever" were the words that greeted the script and me - and no one had read the script. Just the concept of an American writer/director coming to Australia to make an Australian story... Officially and unofficially, the whole Australian film community balked at the very mention of it. Being American, I just couldn't quite stomach this word, "can't." It's just not in the American Independent Film lexicon. Every great film that I've loved wasn't supposed to be made, so I soldiered on and went in and out of Australia over the course of two years trying to drum up interest. |
| Luckily, I wasn't alone on this quest. I had met our executive producer, Charles Hannah, through a mutual friend on my first trip to Sydney, and he had really responded to the short I made earlier, The Visitor, and also really liked the script for Newcastle. Charles tried to raise the money in a very non-traditional way, searching high and low for potential investors. He also presented the project to his production partners in 3 Dogs & A Pony. They loved the script and wanted to find a way to make it. Over the course of another two years, and after aligning with Producer Naomi Wenck, Newcastle was finally able to gain some traction as a legitimate cause in the eyes of the Australian film community. n 2005, Naomi suggested we submit the project again for a 10BA certificate in Canberra. She thought that, given all the time I had spent in Australia, having the entire crew and cast be Australian would give us a stronger case for support from the Australian government. She was right! We got the 10BA and were now, at last, a bona fide Australian project, and we could apply for funding. Not so fast! Armed with our 10BA Certificate, we met with the FFC and AFC, the Australian film-funding bodies, along with potential private equity investors and sponsors. Unfortunately, we were still met with a lot of doubts about the project's legitimacy as an Australian film, since I wasn't yet an Australian resident. As disheartening as this was, I totally understood their position. But I also knew that Newcastle was a quintessential Australian story. Fortunately, Charles was able to secure real interest from Japanese investment firm CINV and with Becker International, our international sales company. We kept our budget low and, after a few FFC board meetings and aligning with Secret Fire Entertainment, we were able to finally piece together the funding for the film after four years. In 2006, Newcastle was greenlit! I knew deep down that Newcastle was meant to be, and I had been to Hell and back to prove it. The fun part of it all, the actual making of the film and all that went into it - finding a cast of newcomers who could surf and act; dealing with water, wave and weather issues and a challenging edit due to the action scenes - that was all easy. World premiering Newcastle with so many of the cast and crew beside me, along with my parents at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC (where I graduated from NYU) - golden! Photos courtesy of the filmmaker. Newcastle screens at 2008 Tribeca Film Festival (click for information on times and tickets). Festival runs April 23-May 4. Screenings:
April 25 - Village East Cinema 1 at 9:00 PM
April 27 - Village East Cinema 6 at 5:30 PM
April 29 - AMC Village VII Theater 7 at 9:45 PM
May 1 - AMC Village VII Theater 5 at 4:30 PM
May 3 - AMC Village VII Theater 2 at 1:30 PM
Q&A session with filmmakers and cast will immediately follow each screening. Castle, an American-Australian filmmaker, has written and directed a number of critically acclaimed short films, including The Visitor starring Barry Otto, which received awards at national and international festivals, among them an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Short Fiction Film in 2003. Newcastle is a Film Finance Corporation Australia and IFF/CINV presentation in association with 3 Dogs & A Pony and Shadowfire Entertainment of a Newcastle Pictures production. For more information about Newcastle, please visit www.newcastlemovie.com. |
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