‘BROKEN HILL TO BE THE INAUGURAL FEATURE FILM FOR A MAJOR NEW AUSTRALIAN FESTIVAL’

To all those who have been won­der­ing about delayed tim­ing and the why’s and wherefore’s of a major release of Bro­ken Hill the movie, here is our defin­i­tive answer.

After doing exten­sive test mar­ket­ing in the USA, plus a very suc­cess­ful run around the inter­na­tional film fes­ti­val cir­cuit, and after observ­ing how many qual­ity inde­pen­dent films dis­ap­pear between the cracks of the film world, Audi­ence Alliance Pic­tures and the pro­duc­ers of Bro­ken Hill deter­mined that wait­ing and build­ing a solid plat­form was bet­ter than a fast run into the real world obliv­ion of so many films.

This was an impor­tant deci­sion from Audi­ence Alliance Pic­tures point of view, but it was also intended to honor and do jus­tice to every­one who has worked on the film — all the cre­ative tal­ent, the extras and other will­ing sup­port­ers in Aus­tralia and else­where. We also made a fun­da­men­tal deci­sion to make sure that our films are sup­port­ing sub­stan­tial and worth­while causes as well as pro­vid­ing good entertainment.

We are pleased to announce that Bro­ken Hill will launch in the first week of Sep­tem­ber in Bro­ken Hill and will be in approx­i­mately 300 venues around Aus­tralia dur­ing Sep­tem­ber. That means that almost every­one, any­where in Aus­tralia, who wants to see the movie will be able to.

After exten­sive nego­ti­a­tions, Bro­ken Hill has been selected as the inau­gural film for a major new national edu­ca­tional ini­tia­tive in Aus­tralia aimed at schools, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties. The details of the ini­tia­tive have not been made pub­lic yet, the for­mal announce­ment will hap­pen July 23 in Syd­ney, so we will hold fur­ther details until then. But count on September.

The num­ber of loca­tions is excep­tional for any film shown in Aus­tralia other than a hand­ful of major pro­duc­tions such as, “Aus­tralia” and “Happy Feet”, or Hol­ly­wood block­busters. To every­one who has been a part of the Bro­ken Hill movie project: thanks for your efforts, thanks for your patience, this result makes it worthwhile.

Fur­ther, Audi­ence Alliance Pic­tures is devel­op­ing sev­eral new films to be pro­duced in Aus­tralia. And finally, a major video dis­trib­u­tor will be releas­ing Bro­ken Hill on DVD in the USA in Octo­ber 2010, along with a num­ber of national US tele­vi­sion appoint­ments, and dis­tri­b­u­tion deals in other inter­na­tional mar­kets ramp­ing up too. The DVD will be released in Aus­tralia to coin­cide with the the­atri­cal release.

Posted on 06.05.10
Source: Broken Hill Official site

Just found this on the official Broken Hill website (I know it’s old news!) about the Australian cinema release of Broken Hill.

Just thought I’d tell you that I’ve found a behind the scenes video and a interview with Rhys at the official Broken Hill website. Screencaps have been added to the gallery :)

Gallery links
Movies » Broken Hill (2009) » Character B Roll
Movies » Broken Hill (2009) » Interview

DAGEN Merrill’s Australian film Broken Hill, starring Timothy Hutton and Rhys Wakefield, won the audience choice award on Sunday at the TriMedia Film Festival in Colorado. And seven Australian films have been selected to screen at the influential Pusan International Film Festival. The South Korean event will screen Claire McCarthy’s The Waiting City, Granaz Moussavi’s My Tehran for Sale, Last Ride, Balibo, Jane Campion’s Bright Star and Mary and Max in its world section. The feature film debut from director Rupert Glasson, Coffin Rock, will screen as part of Midnight Passion, the sidebar dedicated to genre films. Heaven knows what South Koreans will make of that diverse lot.

SOURCE: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26078413-15803,00.html

Australian film, Broken Hill, opened to the U.S. audience of Dallas, Salt Lake City, Fresno and Greenville, SC. on September 11th. If your an American fan, you should go and check it out! The film also opens on the 18th in Orlando.

“Broken Hill” features an appealing performance from Luke Arnold. The rest of the movie is a mess, though

Giving “Broken Hill” a bad review is sort of like scolding a cute puppy for piddling on the carpet: You feel bad about it, but you just have to do it or you’ll be cleaning up messes for years to come.
First the good. The movie features an appealing performance from Luke Arnold, who plays an Australian teen dreaming of attending a prestigious music school. He’s charming and slightly geeky and shows flashes of big-screen charisma. And his sweet romance with an American teen (Alexa Vega) is the best part of the movie.

The rest of “Broken Hill” is a mess, though. Overly earnest, frequently corny and featuring a clunky screenplay that telegraphs every event from miles away, the film sputters to its inevitable conclusion.

The story revolves around Australian teenager Timmy (Arnold), who lives in the Outback on a sheep station with his taciturn rancher father (Timothy Hutton, sporting a solid Australian accent), who also coaches the high school’s Australian rules football team.

Timmy’s interest isn’t in football or sheep, though, much to his father’s disapproval. He dreams of composing music and attending a prestigious music school in Sydney. But Dad doesn’t share his son’s dream.

An interesting, if familiar, premise? Sure; it sounds like “Billy Elliot” — the British film about a boy who dreams to go to ballet school — set in the Outback, but the exotic location could be interesting.

Unfortunately, director Dagen Merrill decides to throw in a eye-rolling plot twist that has Timmy trying to turn a group of convicts in a local prison into a sort of orchestra.

So we get a lot of scenes with the fresh-faced and innocent Timmy working with a bunch of hardened criminals. Timmy’s goal: To take his “orchestra” to a national competition of other prison bands, which will impress the music college he wants to attend so much that the school will offer him admission.

Aside from the wrong-headed “let’s start a prison band!” plot, we also never really get to hear what makes Timmy’s music so special until the final moments. You wish Merrill would have included more material about the music.

Aside from Arnold’s strong central performance, Merrill does include some nice moments when Timmy daydreams about leading an orchestra in the middle of the Outback. But those moments are just that: fleeting.

Disappointing too is the way Merrill utterly wastes the talented Rhys Wakefield, who was so good in last year’s superb “The Black Balloon.” Here Wakefield plays Timmy’s best friend, who apparently exists only to be a cheerleader for the budding musician.

So if you want to see a good Australian film, our advice is to rent “The Black Balloon,” “Muriel’s Wedding” or “The Castle” — which are all vastly superior to “Broken Hill.”

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I do apologize that this article wasn’t exactly focused on Rhys, but news has been slow lately. Hopefully something pops up soon!

SOURCE: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20090911/ENTERTAINMENT02/90911005