The Australian feature film industry is about to have another boost to its image as renowned historian and documentary maker, Dr Tony Matthews, gets set to put his screenplay Ghost River Station, onto the big screen. Although intended to be fiction, it is loosely based on the history of regions in South East Queensland, and encompasses many of the real life stories Dr Matthews has encountered during his life-time of historical research. The beautiful haunting tale is destined to be popular for both its cinematographic majesty and it’s haunting tale of love, murder, and ghostly intervention.
The story centers around a gracious homestead, “Ghost River Station”, so named because of the legends surrounding it following a terrible Aboriginal massacre in the 1860's, and an ongoing history of bloodshed that seems to be attracted to the property. It will be filming in the Kingaroy region, which has already offered support, and hopes to draw it’s indigenous cast from the local Cherbourg Community. Most of the extras will be sourced from the local theatre groups.
Ghost River Station Producer Ramona Rai is very positive about the future of Australian Film. “Australian cinema is finally being recognized internationally, and filmmakers are embracing the uniqueness of our landscapes. Investors are recognizing the salability of our talent, and as Red Dog clearly illustrates, the international audience is hungry for unique Australian stories. This is a great era for film in this country.”
Although highly experienced in other areas of film and television, producers Bigger and Better Productions are considered relative newcomers to the Australian Independent Film Industry. Within just 3 years they have already won short film awards and accolades, have a feature, “Alien Sons” scheduled for release at the end of 2011, and have completed a number of charity projects including a documentary for the Jay Larkins Paralympic Project. They have four features and a tv series in various stages of production, and Ramona has also recently been nominated for the ASIN (Australian Screen Industry Network Awards) in Qld, with a forthcoming feature “Lucky Valentine”, and Director of “Alien Sons” Ozzie Devrish, also receiving multiple nominations.
Ramona names Producer Ross Grayson Bell (Producer, Fightclub) as her inspiration. “Ross imparts his wisdom and experience freely and passionately. With such a positive introduction to the film industry, failure just isn’t an option, so when others complained work was dropping off, we went out and used our skills to develop what is proving to be a highly successful formula for the creation of successful films”.
Ghost River Station will be filming in October 2012 and will hit the big screen early 2013.
