Maggie Gyllenhaal and Paul Bettany Recover in Tasmania
There were some subscriber-only hints about this movie over at THR earlier this year, and now the cats out of the bag. Variety reports that Maggie Gyllenhaal and Paul Bettany are heading to Australia for director Shirley Barrett's South Solitary. The feature is one of many that is going to be funded by Film Finance Corp., as it gears up to join the Australian Film Commission and "make a super agency called Screen Australia."According to IMDb, the film will focus "on a disgraced young woman and a soldier suffering from the ongoing effects of shell shock who discover a great need for companionship and hope in the face of hostile elements." I have a feeling you can tell who will play what role. There is no word on when this will be set, but it could be either present-day or the past, since one of the other films being funded focuses on Australian SAS soldiers in Vietnam (The Last Man).
What's confusing me is the claim that this will be set in Tasmania. South Solitary is a small island with a light house off the coast of New South Wales, which is part of the mainland. It's location is south of Brisbane, and north of Sydney, so I don't see how Tasmania fits into this. (Is there another lighthouse island called South Solitary?!) If you drove to the tip and took a ferry to Tas, it would be almost 2,000 km. That's not exactly IN Tasmania or off the coast of it. Any Aussies out there who could clarify?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-05-2008 @ 1:16AM
Glenn@StalePopcorn said...
My only theory is that it's set in the past. Tasmania is still very much "stuck in the past" and the actual South Solitary is probably too constructed or built up to act as this place decades ago so they film it in Tasmania to save having to CGI erase all the buildings and such.
...just a guess. I live in Victoria (the state between NSW and Tas) so what would I know?
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6-29-2008 @ 9:37PM
The Brad said...
Yep, we're definitely back in the stone age here in Tasmania. I can't wait for them to connect up the Internet so we can communicate with the outside world. Oh wait a minute... That happened in 1994 the same time it happened everywhere else...
4-05-2008 @ 2:29AM
Walter van Praag said...
I do live in Tasmania and can assure you that South Solitary Island is conveniently located in a lovely temperate climate pretty much off-shore from where most really famous people live including movie stars such as Russell Crowe. Tasmania is an ideal place for filming though :)
Walter----
Devonport, Tasmania
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4-05-2008 @ 5:51AM
Walter van Praag said...
Further research... The tiny rocky island off the coast of NSW has a lighthouse which is not only a landmark, it is considered to be the most isolated on the New South Wales coast. It was the first and the last New South Wales lighthouse to use kerosene. The island is maybe 500m in diameter and about 2km off the coast. I put info on it here: http://vanpraag.info/cofe/lighthouse.htm
4-08-2008 @ 12:36AM
Nathan said...
Tasmania is really beautiful so I'd say that might be a reason, also they might need it to be windy and cold as well.
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