Character: Josh McGuire
Director: Alister Grierson
Genre: Adventure/drama/thriller in 3D
Filming: December 2009 – March 2010
Release date: February 4th, 2011
Budget: $30 million
Cast: Richard Roxburgh, Ioan Gruffudd, Rhys Wakefield, Allison Cratchley, Daniel Wyllie, Alice Parkinson, Christopher Baker
An underwater cave diving team experiences a life-threatening crisis during an expedition to the unexplored and least accessible cave system in the world.
Photos
Trailer
Trivia
• Sanctum is based on the the real-life experience of writer and co-producer Andrew Wight.
• The film has been made on location on the Gold Coast and inside the sound stage at Warner Bros studio, where a $2.1 million water tank has been built for the project.
• It was so cold on set (necessary for the 3D camera to work) that the cast had to use space blankets and take push ups to keep warm between takes.
• Rhys hadn´t done any scuba diving before he started training for the movie.
Quotes in character
«Assumptions is the mother of all fuck ups.»
Quotes about the movie
Richard Roxburgh (plays Frank McGuire): «We had to wear a full face mask and breathing apparatus that only allows you to take and expel mini-breaths. When you’re doing action sequences underwater it’s pretty scary ‘cause you feel like you’re not going to get enough air. The cough, cold, nosebleeds and 3am finishes were pretty taxing.»
Alister Grierson (director): «It has been physically demanding for the actors and quite dangerous.»
Alister Grierson (director): «We’ve got this amazing set that we’ve built, we’ve been shooting in jungles, we’ve been shooting in caves, we’ve been shooting underwater. It’s very physically challenging – they’ve been training really hard.»
James Cameron (producer): «Sanctum is really about the psychology of survival, and of people stretched right to the edge of what they can stand, and then beyond.»
James Cameron (producer): «With Sanctum, we want audiences to be left with a certain experience where they feel involved with the perils faced by the characters… It’s not action like in an ‘Indiana Jones’ movie or even in a thriller where you have fight scenes and gun play.»
Alister Grierson (director): «We sent him (James Cameron) Rhys, and Rhys was almost instantaneous. He was great. For the young boy role, we looked at almost every young boy actor in Australia and almost anywhere else. Really we looked at anyone around the world.»
Alister Grierson (director): «There were scenes in the movie, where you would think this would normally be a stunt guy, but it is all Rhys. In fact, I was underwater one night and the understudy did the same thing and I said, “Hey, that’s pretty average.” Then Rhys did it. He got to a point where he was so much better than the trained people.»
Rhys: «The preparation leading up to the shoot was quite an ordeal. Very intensive. I was required to learn scuba-diving, rock-climbing, ropes-training and a bunch of other crazy things. I was doing two hours of swim training a day, doing breath-holds to enhance my lung capacity, and on top of that I was hitting the gym five times a week just to bulk up for the role.»
Rhys: «There was a point when we were shooting, and they turned off the lights and it all went pitch black. It was terrifying — especially when you’re holding your breath and your entire trust is in the safety guy. At the end of a scene, I’d put my fist out and expect to have a regulator in my hand within moments.»
Rhys Wakefield is an australian actor best known from Sanctum, The Black Balloon and Home and Away. 
Rhys was last spotted at 9th Annual Teen Vogue Young Hollywood Party at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California on September 23, 2011. 
