Wish (feature film)
Currently in development with writer/director Shane McNeil, Wish is an adaptation of the classic novel from one of Australia’s most acclaimed novelists, Peter Goldsworthy. An entrancing and strikingly original story, Wish explores the relationship between animals and humans, and asks the fundamental question – just how different are we?
Born to deaf parents, John James (“JJ”) has always been more at home in Sign language than in spoken English. Recently divorced, he returns to school to teach Sign. His pupils include animal liberationists Clive Kinnear and Stella Todd, foster-parents to a very unusual daughter who is not deaf, but dumb. It’s not long before JJ meets the beautiful, sensitive and highly intelligent ‘Eliza’, and is drawn into a bizarre chain of events…
A thoughtful exploration of love, language and the boundaries of personhood centring on the unusual relationship between a sign-language teacher and a genetically-engineered gorilla, the film adaption is also about storytelling. About being ‘heard.’ It’s the simple story of a lonely man conveying a painful and tragic memory of lost love to us, in his native tongue. A sad, often silent memory confided to us – the audience – as a ‘confession’.
Wish is due to go into production in early 2019 to premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2019.
The Crew's Ship
The Crew’s Ship is a short-form mockumentary comedy series that revolves around the crew of a ‘luxury’ international cruise ship – Platinum Pacific’s ‘Crystal Blue’. It follows Cruise Director Peter Peterson, a has-been magician now running the Entertainment Department, and his offbeat team of performers, all of whom consider Peter to be a “solid gold, top-shelf moron”.
Nobody with a nice life, a stable family, a great job and a planned weekend Ikea visit decides to work on a cruise ship for twelve months at a time.
This is a hidden world that attracts outliers, the socially awkward, the questionably talented, the psychopathically ambitious, the fiscally desperate and anyone who needs to hide out for a while. Take 2000 people from 25 countries, 9 religions and countless sexual affiliations, then put them in very close quarters with large waves and cheap booze and what you get is an endless supply of incredible stories. And that’s just the crew. When you add passengers ranging from barefoot racists to Russian high-rollers, the result is a floating hotbed of sex, conflict and mobility scooters.
The Crew’s Ship is a bit like The Office set on a cruise ship, with the weekly guest star bit of Extras, and a touch of the upstairs/downstairs element of Downtown Abbey. Oh, and it’s got the ‘boat’ part of The Love Boat.
The Crew’s Ship is due to go into production in early 2018 in its initial iteration as a web series.