The Spierig Brother and Greg McLean represent Australia’s heaviest genre hitters, but even big shots like them have trouble finding financing for movies in this world economy. The Spierigs’ sci-fi action film PREDESTINATION and McLean’s sequel WOLF CREEK 2 both experienced stagnation earlier this year thanks to a lack of funding. Thankfully Screen Australia has announced it will be investing $5.6 million into three new feature films, two of which happen to be the Ozzie exploitation films in question.
WOLF CREEK 2’s plotline gives human hunter Mick Taylor (John Jarrett) a fresh batch of backpackers to torment. Said concept sounds like a retread of the first one, but I welcome the film as an opportunity to offer some closure to the disturbingly open ended original.
PREDESTINATION is a beast of an entirely different sort. Adapted from a short story by Robert A. Heinlein, the film has Ethan Hawk attached to play “a time-travelling government agent who recruits his younger self to pursue an particularly elusive criminal.”It will likely garner comparison upcoming LOOPER in terms of the story’s hook, but the Spierigs’ approach combined with Heinlein’s source material should provide the film its own unique footing.
What say you, Schmoes? Are you pumped for a fresh batch of Ozploitation, or what? Crack open an oil can of Fosters and talk back below.
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