Exclusive: Australian streamer Stan has today unveiled a 25-strong slate, adding scripted titles from Matchbox Pictures and the producers behind Colin From Accounts, acquisitions from the UK and U.S. and a new version of Drag Race to its ranks.
Content from the likes of All3Media, AMC, Banijay, the BBC, Fremantle, ITV, Lionsgate, Universal Internatational Studios, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros Discovery is on the slate, which was showcased at the iconic Sydney Opera House as Stan’s latest salvo in Australia’s competitive streaming market.
Among the key scripted originals is Critical Incident, a psychological crime thriller from Matchbox, the Australian production subsidiary of Universal Studio Group-owned Universal International Studios. Written by Sarah Bassiuoni (The Secrets She Keeps), it recently completed production in Western Sydney, with major production investment from Screen Australia.
The six-part show depicts life in the Western suburbs of Sydney and delves into the complex...
Content from the likes of All3Media, AMC, Banijay, the BBC, Fremantle, ITV, Lionsgate, Universal Internatational Studios, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros Discovery is on the slate, which was showcased at the iconic Sydney Opera House as Stan’s latest salvo in Australia’s competitive streaming market.
Among the key scripted originals is Critical Incident, a psychological crime thriller from Matchbox, the Australian production subsidiary of Universal Studio Group-owned Universal International Studios. Written by Sarah Bassiuoni (The Secrets She Keeps), it recently completed production in Western Sydney, with major production investment from Screen Australia.
The six-part show depicts life in the Western suburbs of Sydney and delves into the complex...
- 3/12/2024
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
A teenager in 70s New Zealand dreams of starting a band in Jonathan Ogilvie’s nostalgic comedy, which opens Rotterdam’s international film festival
Jonathan Ogilvie is the New Zealand film-maker who made the gangster drama The Tender Hook (2008) and also Lone Wolf (2021), a postmodern spin on Conrad’s The Secret Agent. Now he hits a lighter, gentler and much more personal note in this coming-of-age comedy, which opens the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) – a nostalgiafest romance from the 70s post-punk era about a kid in New Zealand mooching around in his uncool school uniform, hanging out in the local record shop (which still has its prog-era name of Middle Earth Records) and dreaming of starting a punk band called the Daleks – though wondering if just Daleks sounds cooler — and obsessing about an unattainably sexy girl who sneers at him.
It will have all of us of a certain...
Jonathan Ogilvie is the New Zealand film-maker who made the gangster drama The Tender Hook (2008) and also Lone Wolf (2021), a postmodern spin on Conrad’s The Secret Agent. Now he hits a lighter, gentler and much more personal note in this coming-of-age comedy, which opens the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) – a nostalgiafest romance from the 70s post-punk era about a kid in New Zealand mooching around in his uncool school uniform, hanging out in the local record shop (which still has its prog-era name of Middle Earth Records) and dreaming of starting a punk band called the Daleks – though wondering if just Daleks sounds cooler — and obsessing about an unattainably sexy girl who sneers at him.
It will have all of us of a certain...
- 1/25/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Joining a long line of filmmakers who’ve fictionalized their comings-of-age in one regional punk scene or another, veteran New Zealand writer-director Jonathan Ogilvie turns the clock back to 1979 Christchurch in “Head South.” Its protagonist is the classic shy but would-be rebellious teen boy dared into starting his own band, whose first gig naturally provides an underdogs-triumphant climax. Pleasant but awfully thin, feeling like a short insufficiently fleshed out to feature length, this modest nostalgic exercise provides a lightweight opener to this year’s Rotterdam fest.
Angus (Ed Oxenbould) is a high-schooler intrigued by new U.K. sounds as yet little-heard hereabouts —though he can barely summon the courage to enter Middle Earth Records, where proprietor Fraser (Jackson Bliss) is the obvious go-to source for such breaking intel. Even more intimidatingly cool is mysterious Holly (Roxie Mohebbi), a Debbie Harry-esque bottle-blonde bombshell who claims to be from London. Amongst his own,...
Angus (Ed Oxenbould) is a high-schooler intrigued by new U.K. sounds as yet little-heard hereabouts —though he can barely summon the courage to enter Middle Earth Records, where proprietor Fraser (Jackson Bliss) is the obvious go-to source for such breaking intel. Even more intimidatingly cool is mysterious Holly (Roxie Mohebbi), a Debbie Harry-esque bottle-blonde bombshell who claims to be from London. Amongst his own,...
- 1/25/2024
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
“Head South” director Jonathan Ogilvie is all about underdogs.
“It’s not a story about winners. It’s a story about also-rans, to use this racing term, because there is nothing to win,” he tells Variety about the International Film Festival Rotterdam opener, which sees schoolboy Angus (Ed Oxenbould) falling for a girl and for post-punk music in 1979’s New Zealand.
“There wasn’t a real music industry, so you couldn’t become a rock star. Back in those days, we often talked about ‘the tyranny of distance.’ We felt so removed from everything. But it was the triumph of distance, because it allowed people to interpret things in a new way. It’s a film about music, yes, but also about art and creative expression.”
Praising Oxenbould, he adds: “On the page, Angus could seem like a nasty little brat. But Ed was also in a band; his brother was also living in London.
“It’s not a story about winners. It’s a story about also-rans, to use this racing term, because there is nothing to win,” he tells Variety about the International Film Festival Rotterdam opener, which sees schoolboy Angus (Ed Oxenbould) falling for a girl and for post-punk music in 1979’s New Zealand.
“There wasn’t a real music industry, so you couldn’t become a rock star. Back in those days, we often talked about ‘the tyranny of distance.’ We felt so removed from everything. But it was the triumph of distance, because it allowed people to interpret things in a new way. It’s a film about music, yes, but also about art and creative expression.”
Praising Oxenbould, he adds: “On the page, Angus could seem like a nasty little brat. But Ed was also in a band; his brother was also living in London.
- 1/23/2024
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
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