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The Last Days of the Space Age hit Hulu on Oct. 2, telling the story of three ordinary families living in 1979 Western Australia when a power strike looms in the background, threatening to take away the region’s electricity. The city also hosts the Miss Universe pageant, and the U.S. space station, Skylab crashes just outside the city.

Created by David Chidlow, the show stars Radha Mitchell, Jesse Spencer, Deborah Mailman, Jacek Koman and more. The retro soundtrack plays a key role in the show as well, setting the tone of the series and signaling coming change for the characters and the Australian city.

Find the stacked soundtrack, by episode, to The Last Days of the Space Age below.

Episode 1: “Only Kids Dream About Being Spacemen”

“Xanadu” by Olivia Newton-John “Ca Plane Pour Moi” Deevox “Love Is a Beautiful Song by Barry Crocker “Jive Talkin” by the Bee Gees...

Perth in 1979 served as the vivid backdrop to the intricate drama of Last Days of the Space Age. In this Western Australian city, momentous real-world events overlapped—a long-running labor dispute at the local power plant simmered as the Miss Universe pageant visited town. Meanwhile, the fate of NASA’s Skylab space station hung in the balance as it hurtled toward reentry.

Against this historical stage, everyday lives and relationships occupied the foreground. Multiple interwoven families populated a closely knit coastal community. The Bissetts found their marriage tested as financial stress mounted. Daughter Tilly nursed big dreams of becoming an astronaut despite discouragement. Neighbors like the Buis and Wilberforces also experienced their own ups and downs while navigating cultural clashes, gender issues, and social change.

Beneath a summery surface, undercurrents of unease stirred. Uncertainty clouded what tomorrow might bring as conventions were questioned. Through the highs and lows of this bustling cast,...

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Hulu is ready with an entertainment-packed October this year. The upcoming month will see the return of some brilliant comedy series Abbott Elementary and also new original movies like Hold Your Breath. Just like every month, Hulu is ready to overload you with great content. So, we’re here to tell you about the 13 new movies and TV shows coming to Hulu in October 2024.

Last Days of the Space Age Season 1 (October 2)

Last Days of the Space Age is an Australian drama series created by David Chidlow. The upcoming Hulu series is set in 1979 in Perth, Western Australia and it revolves around three families after the American space station Skylab crash landed on earth just outside the city. Last Days of the Space Age stars Sam Delich, Jesse Spencer, Deborah Mailman, Iain Glen, Linh-Dan Pham, Thomas Weatherall, and George Mason.

Set in the dusty wheatlands of Western Australia, Runt centers on the bond between a stray dog and a young farm girl struggling through hard times. Directed by John Sheedy and based on Craig Silvey’s beloved children’s book, the film brings viewers into the world of the Shearer family—parents Bryan and Susie, kids Annie and Max, and grandmother Dolly—as they battle drought and financial troubles on their struggling property.

When 11-year-old Annie takes in a scrawny brown mutt called Runt, she sees a potential way to help her family. Runt possesses an uncanny skill for navigating obstacle courses, so Annie enters him in the upcoming agricultural fair’s dog competition, with the cash prize in mind. But Runt has one problem: he suffers from stage fright, only performing at his best when no one watches but Annie.

This review will discuss how Runt, through its heartwarming story,...

Jesse Spencer will be returning to TV screens very soon!

The 45-year-old former Chicago Fire actor stars in the upcoming new limited series Last Days of the Space Age for Hulu.

This marks his first TV job since leaving Chicago Fire in season ten, though he has returned to the NBC drama a few times.

Keep reading to find out more about his new show…

Spanning across eight episodes, Last Days of the Space Age is set in 1979 Western Australia, when Perth was at the center of the world’s headlines. A power strike threatens to plunge the region into darkness, while the city hosts the iconic Miss Universe pageant and the US space station, Skylab, crashes just beyond the city’s suburbs. Against this backdrop of international cultural and political shifts, three families in a tight-knit coastal community find their marriages, friendships and futures put to the test.

In addition to Jesse,...

Hulu has revealed the official trailer for Last Days of the Space Age, an eight-part series that will premiere on the streaming service on October 2, 2024.

Starring Radha Mitchell and Jesse Spencer, Last Days of the Space Age is a dramedy series set in 1979 Western Australia, when Perth was at the center of the world’s headlines.

A power strike threatens to plunge the region into darkness while the city hosts the iconic Miss Universe pageant and the US space station, Skylab, crashes just beyond the city’s suburbs.

Against this backdrop of international cultural and political shifts, three families in a tight-knit coastal community find their marriages, friendships, and futures put to the test.

The series is led by Radha Mitchell (Olympus Has Fallen) and Jesse Spencer (Chicago Fire) as wife and husband, Judy and Tony Bissett. Deborah Mailman (Total Control) and Linh-Dan Pham (The Beat That My Heart Skipped...

Hulu on Tuesday released a trailer for the Australian drama Last Days of the Space Age, led by Chicago Fire vet Jesse Spencer.

The limited series, which hails from writer David Chidlow (Moving On), is set in 1979 Western Australia, “when Perth was at the center of the world’s headlines,” according to the official synopsis. “A power strike threatens to plunge the region into darkness, while the city hosts the iconic Miss Universe pageant and the U.S. space station, Skylab, crashes just beyond the city’s suburbs. Against this backdrop of international cultural and political shifts, three families in...

Disney+ Australian original series Last Days of the Space Age will premiere on the streaming platform in October. The eight-part series, starring Radha Mitchell, Jesse Spencer, and Deborah Mailman, is set in 1979 Western Australia. The show follows three families in a tight-knit coastal community, exploring how their marriages, friendships, and futures are put to […]

Disney+ Unveils Last Days of the Space Age: Australian Original Series Set to Launch in October...

“Bluey” fans are in for a treat this weekend as a supersized episode drops on Disney+. The Season 3 finale episode, titled “The Sign,” features a couple of exciting storylines. There are changes in store for the Heeler family, and Bluey is not prepared. Gather your kids around to see what’s next for Bluey, Bingo, Bandit, and Chilli. The new release, which is the longest “Bluey” episode yet, is 28 minutes long, while most clock in at seven minutes. You can begin streaming the “Bluey” special, “The Sign” on Disney+ on Sunday, April 14. You can watch with a subscription to Disney+.

How to Watch 'Bluey' Special 'The Sign' When: Sunday, April 14, 2024 Where: Disney+ Stream: Watch with a subscription to Disney+. Sign Up Now$7.99+ / month disneyplus.com

Get Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ for just $14.99 a month ($12 savings).

About 'Bluey' Special 'The Sign'

In the “Bluey” special,...

“Ark: The Animated Series”, directed by Jay Oliva, is based on Studio Wildcard’s action-adventure video game “Ark: Survival Evolved”, streaming April 19, 2024 on Paramount+:

“…in a sweeping saga spanning eons of human history, 21st century paleontologist ‘Helena Walker’ finds herself resurrected on a mysterious primeval island populated by prehistoric beasts.

“Now she must learn to survive with new allies from throughout time, while trying to uncover the true nature of this strange new world…”

Cast includes Gerard Butler, Russell Crowe, Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Karl Urban, Jeffrey Wright, David Tennant, Monica Bellucci, Madeleine Madden, Elliot Page, Deborah Mailman, Zahn McClarnon, Devery Jacobs, Cissy Jones, Malcolm McDowell, Juliet Mills, Ragga Ragnars, Alan Tudyk and Ron Yuan.

Click the images to enlarge…...

“Ark: The Animated Series”, directed by Jay Oliva, is based on Studio Wildcard’s action-adventure video game “Ark: Survival Evolved”, streaming April 19, 2024 on Paramount+:

“…in a sweeping saga spanning eons of human history, 21st century paleontologist ‘Helena Walker’ finds herself resurrected on a mysterious primeval island populated by prehistoric beasts.

“Now she must learn to survive with new allies from throughout time, while trying to uncover the true nature of this strange new world…”

Cast includes Gerard Butler, Russell Crowe, Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Karl Urban, Jeffrey Wright, David Tennant, Monica Bellucci, Madeleine Madden, Elliot Page, Deborah Mailman, Zahn McClarnon, Devery Jacobs, Cissy Jones, Malcolm McDowell, Juliet Mills, Ragga Ragnars, Alan Tudyk and Ron Yuan.

Click the images to enlarge…...

“House of the Dragon” Releases Dueling Season 2 Trailers

Are you Team Green or Team Black?

HBO has released two new trailers for the upcoming second season of its “Game of Thrones” spinoff series “House of the Dragon.”

The new trailers, which set the series’ return on the cabler and Max late this spring, respectively focus on Princess Rhaenrya Targaryen (played by Emma D’Arcy), Prince Daemon (Matt Smith), and their black faction, and on Alicent Hightower’s (Olivia Cooke) green King’s Landing team of Alicent.

The fantasy drama series, based on author George R.R. Martin’s book “Fire & Blood,” details the history of House Targaryen nearly 200 years before the events of “Game of Thrones.” Season 1 followed Rhaenyra in her fight to be named the chosen heir of King Viserys I (Patty Considine) and the lead-up to the Dance of the Dragons.

Watch the Official Black Trailer below:

The returning cast includes D’Arcy,...

The animated series based on Studio WildCard’s “Ark: Survival Evolved” video game finally has a platform attached. The first six episodes of Season 1 surprise dropped on Paramount+ on Thursday, with the remaining seven episodes set for a later date.

Spanning eons of human history, “Ark: The Animated Series” follows 21st century paleontologist Helena Walker (voiced by Madeleine Madden), who finds herself resurrected on a mysterious primeval island populated by prehistoric beasts. There, she must learn to survive with new allies from throughout time while trying to uncover the true nature of their strange new world.

Along with Madden, the voice cast includes Michelle Yeoh, Russell Crowe, Gerard Butler, David Tennant, Jeffrey Wright, Elliot Page, Vin Diesel, Karl Urban, Zahn McClarnon, Devery Jacobs, Elliot Page, Deborah Mailman, Ragga Ragnars, Malcolm McDowell, Monica Bellucci and Alan Tudyk.

Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak executive produce “Ark: The Animated Series” alongside Marc Diana...

Warner Bros.’ “Dune: Part II” continued its reign at the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second weekend in a row with £5.9 million ($7.5 million), according to numbers released by Comscore.

Denis Villeneuve’s anticipated sequel has an all-star cast including Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Charlotte Rampling and Javier Bardem reprising their roles from the first film, with Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken and Léa Seydoux joining them. After two weekends, the film’s total stands at £19.4 million in the territory.

In second place, Studiocanal’s “Wicked Little Letters” collected £898,390 in its third weekend for a total of £6 million. In its fourth weekend, Paramount’s “Bob Marley: One Love” earned £830,382 in third position for a total of £15.1 million. In fourth place, Universal’s “Migration” took in £671,666 in its sixth weekend for a total of £18.3 million.

Lionsgate’s “Imaginary” debuted in fifth...

An overly fast animation about a chameleon taking over the world with computer wizardry feels bizarrely inappropriate for children under five

‘By analysing the digital behaviour of our users we’ve generated a profile as unique as a fingerprint,” says Lenny the chameleon, with a sinister mwah-ha ha in his voice, blue eyes intensifying into lasers. Lenny is a smirkingly evil tech genius dressed in a Steve Jobs polo neck and is the villain of this U certificate animation; it’s a movie aimed at really small kids, but with a wildly inappropriate plot. Like Black Mirror for preschoolers, it’s a tech dystopia involving the invention of a new virtual reality system that threatens chaos on a massive scale.

The movie is a sequel to 2020’s Combat Wombat, and there’s an unintelligible sequence at the start to introduce superhero wombat Maggie (voiced by Deborah Mailman) and her perky...

"After a shaky start, he is learning to read and write. He has a passion for Christ." Yes he does. Signature Entertainment in the UK has revealed a new official UK trailer for The New Boy, the latest feature made by acclaimed Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton. This initially premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival last year, though without much buzz. It opened in Australia last year and we posted the first official trailer back then. The New Boy depicts the mesmeric story of a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun. The boy's presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival. Cate Blanchett stars as Sister Eileen, Aswan Reid as the boy, plus Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair. The reviews in Cannes for this were mixed, some good,...

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) handed out its 2024 awards on Saturday, and Talk to Me won big, including for best film and best director, while Margot Robbie was honored with the Trailblazer Award.

Barbie, Oppenheimer and The Bear were among the Hollywood honorees, with big Australian winners including the likes of The Newsreader, Deadloch and The New Boy.

“Talk to Me is the biggest winner of the night, adding a further three awards to its collection and taking its total wins to eight, following the Aacta Industry Awards earlier in the week,” the Australian Academy noted. The honors include the one for best direction in film for sibling-YouTubers-turned-directors Danny and Michael Philippou.

Among acting talent earning trophies, rising star Sophie Wilde won the best lead actress in film award for her performance in Talk to Me, while Aswan Reid got the best lead actor in film...

“Talk to Me” was the runaway winner at this year’s main awards from the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts.

The native production, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival last year and was acquired by A24 for North American distribution, scored three of the evening’s top prizes, including wins for best film, best lead actress for Sophie Wilde and best direction for the filmmaking duo of brothers, Danny Philippou and Michael Philoppou.

Other winners from this year’s edition include “The New Boy” stars Aswan Reid and Deborah Mailman in lead actor and supporting actress, respectively, and Hugo Weaving in supporting actor for “The Rooster.”

The Aacta Awards were held Saturday evening at the Home of the Arts, Gold Coast in Queensland. Rebel Wilson served as host, while Australian star Margot Robbie was honored with the group’s trailblazer award.

See the full list of winners below.

Talk to Me was named Best Film at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, which were handed out today on the Gold Coast. The teen horror pic also won Best Director for Danny and Michael Philippou and Best Lead Actress for Sophie Wilde.

Talk to Me took eight total statuettes, including five from the Aacta Industry Awards earlier in the week. The Newsreader and Deadloch also won five AACTAs each, including the Industry nods.

The group also revealed its winners in TV, online and other categories. See the full list from both Aacta Awards ceremonies below.

Aswan Reid took Best Lead Actor in a Film for The New Boy, and his co-star Deborah Mailman won the Supporting Actress prize. Hugo Weaving scooped Best Supporting Actor for The Rooster and added a Best Lead Actor in a Drama trophy for Love Me.

On the TV side, The Newsreader took Best Drama Series,...

The Australian drama premiered at Cannes and stars Cate Blanchett.

Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy leads the nominations for the 2024 Aacta (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) Awards with 12 nods, closely followed by horror Talk To Me with 11 nominations.

The New Boy is up for best film, actress for Cate Blanchett and actor for newcomer Aswan Reid while Australian Indigenous filmmaker Thornton is nominated for best director, screenplay and cinematography.

The film is set in 1940s Australia and stars Blanchett (who also serves as a producer) as a nun who takes in a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy. It...

Netflix has debuted the trailer for the upcoming Australian series ‘Boy Swallows Universe.’

An epic coming-of-age story set in 1980s Brisbane that blends the magic and innocence of youth with the brutal reality of the adult world. A lost father, a mute brother, a recovering addict mum, a heroin dealer for a stepfather, and a notorious criminal for a babysitter. Eli Bell is just trying to follow his heart and understand what it means to become a good man, but fate keeps throwing obstacles in his way.

Adapted from Trent Dalton’s iconic Australian novel, the series explores the crossroads where a boy becomes a man, good toys with evil, and the everyday meets the extraordinary.

The series stars Bryan Brown, Anthony Lapaglia, Deborah Mailman, Simon Baker, Travis Fimmel, Phoebe Tonkin, Felix Cameron, Sophie Wilde, Lee Tiger Halley, Zac Burgess.

Also in trailers – “I must go punch that baby…” New...

Heartfelt adventure film about a young girl overcoming her fears has half-baked environmental messages and mistakes colour for creativity

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Scarygirl is one of those animated productions so loaded with colour and bling, so lit up like a pinball machine, that merely absorbing it makes you feel old. While watching I couldn’t help but wonder if today’s youth consume too many flashing lights and loud noises – and, by the way, keep it down, some of us have to work in the morning.

Once accustomed to the film’s retina-straining shininess, it became increasingly clear the creative elements conjured by the directors Ricard Cussó and Tania Vincent are relegated almost entirely to the surface, because under the hood it’s very familiar indeed. An archetypal hero’s journey in which a youngster heeds the call of adventure, steps out of their comfort zone...

Studiocanal has boarded the big screen adaptation of Australian author’s Craig Silvey’s award-winning 2002 bestseller Runt, about the friendship between a young girl and a stray dog she takes under her wing.

Child actress Lily Latorre, whose credits include feature Run Rabbit Run and TV series The Clearing, has been signed for the lead role, to star alongside by a rescue dog called Squid.

The actress’s real-life sibling Jack Latorre will also join her in his big screen debut as a daredevil younger brother.

The all-Australian adult cast includes Jai Courtney, Celeste Barber, Deborah Mailman, Matt Day and Jack Thompson.

Set in the country-town of Upson Down, the comedy drama follows eleven-year-old Annie Shearer and her adopted stray dog Runt, as they try to save the family farm by competing in the Agility Course Grand

The production is led by Sydney and Perth-based See Pictures, with the backing of Screen Australia,...

Best-selling Australian novel, Runt” is to be adapted as a feature movie that will begin shooting from next month. Studiocanal is handling international rights sales and local distribution in Australia and New Zealand.

The story is a heartfelt, contemporary Australian tale, set in the country town of Upson Downs, where eleven-year-old Annie Shearer and her best friend, an adopted stray dog called Runt, try to save their family farm by competing in the Agility Course Grand Championships at the prestigious Krumpets Dog Show in London.

The book was released in 2022 and won a clean sweep of the major Australian literary awards including the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s book of the year for young readers, book of the year for younger children at the Australian Book Industry Awards, and overall book of the year at the Australian Indie Book Awards.

The movie is adapted for the screen by...

Studiocanal handles international sales.

Jai Courtney, Celeste Barber, Deborah Mailman, Matt Day, Tom Budge, Genevieve Lemon and Jack Thompson have been cast in director John Sheedy’s second feature Runt, with cameras rolling on Monday (October 23) in Western Australia.

However it is Lily Latorre, who plays 11-year-old Annie, and adopted stray dog Squid in the title role of Runt, who will be the stand-out stars as their characters make up the champion dog agility double-act that might just save the family’s sheep farm. Latorre’s brother Jack is also in the cast.

Prolific author Craig Silvey wrote the script...

Signature Entertainment has acquired U.K. and Ireland rights to writer-director Warwick Thornton’s Australian drama “The New Boy” from The Veterans.

The film follows a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun, disturbing the delicately balanced world.

Debutant Aswan Reid leads the film in the titular role, alongside Cate Blanchett, Deborah Mailman (“Sapphires”) and Wayne Blair (“Rams”).

“Inspired by Thornton’s own experience of growing up as an Aboriginal boy in a Christian boarding school, this is ambitious, tonally tricky filmmaking, bringing an unexpected dose of whimsy to social interests more austerely explored in Thornton’s excellent previous features “Samson and Delilah” and “Sweet Country,” Variety critic Guy Lodge said in his review of the film.

“The New Boy”

The film is produced by Kath Shelper (“Samson & Delilah”) for Scarlett Pictures, Blanchett and Andrew Upton (“Stateless...

Cate Blanchett is about to meet a child who will change her life forever.

Blanchett stars as a nun in Warwick Thornton’s “The New Boy” who takes in a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy (Aswan Reid). IndieWire debuts a new clip from the film, featuring Reid and Blanchett in a lyrical moment.

“The New Boy” premiered at Cannes and will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, September 14. It’s set in 1940s Australia, and follows the Aboriginal orphan boy (Aswan Reid) who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun (Blanchett). His presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival. Deborah Mailman, Wayne Blair, and Kenneth Radley also star, with Nick Cave covering the score.

Oscar winner Blanchett produced the film through her Dirty Films banner, with Roadshow Films distributing for Australia and New Zealand,...

"We shouldn't have to change... No one should." Madman Films in Australia has unveiled an official trailer for a new animated movie called Scarygirl, based on an original idea by creator Nathan Jurevicius. This recently premiered at the 2023 Sydney Film Festival in Australia, hence why this new trailer is out now to follow up that debut. Arkie is an adopted 12-year-old girl, blind in one eye and with a tentacle-like arm, who lives on an isolated peninsula with her over-protective father Blister, a giant octopus. When her world is threatened by a loss of sunlight, a young girl must overcome her fears and journey to a fantastical city, save her father from a mysterious scientist and prevent the destruction of her planet. Starring Jillian Nguyen as the voice of Arkie, plus Sam Neill, Tim Minchin, Anna Torv, Liv Hewson, Mark Coles Smith, Deborah Mailman, and Dylan Alcott. Wow this looks way better than expected.

"He has a passion for Christ. And I feel he may even follow in my footsteps..." Roadside Films in Australia has unveiled an official trailer for The New Boy, the latest feature from acclaimed Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton. This recently premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival playing in the Un Certain Regard section, but didn't end up with any awards or much buzz. The New Boy depicts the mesmeric story of a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun. The boy's presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival. Cate Blanchett stars as Sister Eileen, Aswan Reid as the boy, plus Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair. The reviews in Cannes for this were mixed, some good, some bad, saying it's "ultimately unmoving" and "turgid." Though it certainly looks gorgeous,...

Australian actors Deborah Mailman and Rachel Griffiths have begun production on the final six-episode season of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s award-winning female-led political drama series “Total Control.”

With screenplays by Stuart Page, Julia Moriarty, Pip Karmel and Meyne Wyatt, season three picks up almost two years after the explosive events of the second season.

Outsider turned kingmaker, Alex Irving (Mailman), is completely at home in the nation’s capital. While Rachel Anderson (Griffiths), now an occasional ally, is threatening to upend the entire system by establishing her own political party. However, as Alex attempts to carve out a nation changing legacy, a controversy engineered by her enemies threatens to destroy her career and public reputation. In the final season, Alex must make a choice: either she can stay true to her principles and accept defeat, or she can get her hands dirty and fight back.

Directed by Wayne Blair and Jub Clerc,...

The spark of life that gave Warwick Thornton what is now “The New Boy” took 18 years to flicker, and then fully glow. The Australian filmmaker looked to his own childhood, raised by monks, to find the spiritual fairy tale that now manifests via the film’s eponymous Aboriginal child in a sweeping and poetic portrait of stifled faith and the threat of monopoly on religion.

Thornton’s cinema is one of enormous, orchestral music and vast landscapes that envelop and invite us in, even if you feel like you don’t know where you’re going or shouldn’t be allowed to look around. It’s the kind of culturally specific filmmaking that somehow immediately gains universality in that ambition to connect, to understand the empathy and sensitivity to listen in to these conflicts and this bright spark of a boy who speaks to struggles of faith however you were raised.

Aussie filmmaker Warwick Thornton joked that Cate Blanchett “elbowed” her way into his crafty sixth feature, The New Boy, as he introduced the pic at Deadline’s Cannes Studio shortly before its festival premiere.

In the pic, which debuted this week at Cannes, Blanchett plays Sister Eileen, a mysterious nun who runs an orphanage for lost boys; however, the role was originally written as a priest, to be played by a male actor, until the two-time Oscar winner came along.

“The character of sister Eileen wasn’t in the script at that time, but Cate coming along actually made it beautiful,” Thornton said.

Blanchett told Deadline that she initially reached out to Thornton during the pandemic and the pair began a virtual workshop to discuss opportunities they could create to work together.

“Like a lot of people during the pandemic, I thought well look, who do I really want to be a dialogue with?...

’200% Wolf’, ’Combat Wombat: Back 2 Back’ and ’Richard The Stork 2’ have all been picked up for the UK and Ireland.

Signature Entertainment has picked up UK and Ireland rights to a trio of family animations – 200% Wolf, Combat Wombat: Back 2 Back and Richard The Stork 2 from Studio 100, Sola Media and Indie Sales respectively.

Theatrical releases are planned from the summer onwards.

200% Wolf is directed by Alexs Stadermann and produced by Barbara Stephen, Alexia Gates-Foale and Carmen Pérez-Marsá. It is the sequel to 2020’s 100% Wolf and follows a heroic poodle who is struggling to maintain the respect of his werewolf pack.

For about half an hour or so, Warwick Thornton’s “The New Boy” could almost fool you into thinking that it’ll be a gentle, evocative and beautifully atmospheric movie about a small group of people who mean well. But then things change, and an understated film that might have quietly dealt with Australia’s original sin – the decades-long removal of indigenous children from their parents – turns complex, spiritual and surpassingly unsettling, a mixture of religion and magic that doesn’t really trust in either.

It’s still beautifully composed, but it cuts that beauty with some thorny ideas and puzzling turns; it starts out beguiling, but it may end up getting under your skin.

Best known for “Samson and Delilah,” which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009, Warwick has largely been working in television since then, with the notable exception of 2017’s “Sweet Country,...

Warwick Thornton is a master maker of images. The first frames of The New Boy – a sweep of dusty ground; a flash of a small boy on a policeman’s back, strangling him; a pre-war telegraph pole, all drenched in the searing white midday light of the desert – create a collage of inland Australia, a world of open spaces. The boy is duly pulled off of the policeman, put in a sack and delivered in the dark to a mission; a nun opens the door to receive the delivery. At that point, the gallery of Thornton’s frame becomes a series of golden brown interiors that could have come from Rembrandt, except that they are peopled with Indigenous boys – Lost Boys, as Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett) describes them to God – and the trio of adults who look after them.

Out in the world, their compatriots are embroiled in the Second World War.

The new boy doesn’t get a name, and he doesn’t give one. Arriving at an isolated orphanage in rural South Australia in the early 1940s, he’s taken in with brisk kindness by the two nuns who oversee the place, but privileges like names are for children a little further along in their understanding and acceptance of this establishment’s firm Christian principles: Until he’s ready for baptism, the shirtless, mostly wordless Aboriginal newcomer will be acknowledged but not identified. It’s a limbo state that evocatively represents the tension between Australia’s Indigenous population and even the most notionally inclusive of their colonizers; in Warwick Thornton’s thoughtful magical-realist fable “The New Boy,” spiritual differences aren’t treated with violence, but echo bloody territorial conflict just the same.

Inspired by Thornton’s own experience of growing up as an Aboriginal boy in a Christian boarding school,...

Back in 2017, Warwick Thornton landed in Venice with a western that offered some corrective to the white-savior narratives of countless others in the genre. Sweet Country, his third feature, chronicled the real-life story of an Aboriginal stockman arrested and tried for the death of a white ranch owner in 1920s Australia. Hardly the first to foreground racial tensions within a period setting, the film stood as a refreshing departure from others that only ostensibly acknowledged Indigenous peoples’ experience under colonialism, but wound up prioritizing the redemptive arcs of their white heroes. Six years later, along comes The New Boy, a film that shares the same ethos of its predecessor. Here, too, Thornton digs up a chapter of his country’s past to subvert and ultimately reappropriate the white man’s iconography: where Sweet Country took on the western, The New Boy tackles colonialism through the prism of the Church. But...

Warwick Thornton has been doubling as cinematographer on his projects since back before his debut, Samson & Delilah, won the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2009. But the Indigenous Australian director’s command of visual storytelling has possibly never been as striking as it is in the rural setting of his third narrative feature, The New Boy. Frequently, the rolling hills and wheat fields, the harvest scenes, shots of a fire tearing through crops or even a steam train chugging across the landscape seem a direct tip of the hat to the descriptive beauty of Néstor Almendros’ influential work on Days of Heaven.

If Thornton’s screenplay at times smudges the focus in charting the uneasy intersection between Christian dogma and Indigenous spirituality, the core of personal experience, of learning to straddle those two worlds in the director’s own childhood, gives the film sincerity and heart.

Its flaws, strangely enough,...

Warwick Thornton’s “The New Boy” has been set as the opening title of next month’s Sydney Film Festival, which will celebrate its 70th edition, June 7-18. The film, a tale of sprituality and survival in 1940s Australia, starring Cate Blanchett, Deborah Mailman, Wayne Blair and Aswan Reid, will also play in the festival’s competition section.

Other titles in competition include: the world premiere of Australian documentary feature “The Dark Emu Story,” directed by Allan Clarke; Christian Petzold’s previously announced “Afire”; Charlotte Regan’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner “Scrapper”; Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “Monster”; Aki Kaurismäki’s compassionate comedy “Fallen Leaves”; Kim Jee-woon’s “Cobweb”; Asmae El Moudir’s “The Mother of All Lies”; Alice Englert’s directorial debut “Bad Behaviour”; Celine Song’s Sundance and Berlinale 2023 selected romance “Past Lives”; Liu Jian’s 2023 Berlinale-selected animation “Art College 1994”; Devashish Makhija’s “Joram,” a thriller about an...

Cate Blanchett is donning a habit in her next role post-“TÁR.”

The Academy Award-winning actress leads Warwick Thornton’s latest film “The New Boy,” which is set to debut at 2023 Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section.

Per the official synopsis, set in 1940s Australia, “The New Boy” is the story of a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy (Aswan Reid) who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun (Blanchett), where his presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.

Mezi Atwood, Deborah Mailman, Wayne Blair, and Kenneth Radley also star.

Blanchett’s Dirty Films and Scarlett Pictures partnered to co-produce “The New Boy,” with Roadshow Films distributing for Australia and New Zealand, and CAA Media Finance and UTA handling sales for North America. The Veterans on board to manage the rest of international sales.

Sola Media has acquired international distribution rights for the next three animated features in the “Sanctuary City” franchise, produced by Australian production house Like a Photon Creative.

First up will be “Combat Wombat – Back 2 Back,” which will be released theatrically by Universal Pictures in Australia in spring 2024. Sola Media will be selling worldwide rights, excluding Australia/New Zealand and Latin America. First footage will be shown at next week’s European Film Market in Berlin.

“Combat Wombat – Back 2 Back” follows caped crusader Maggie Diggins (Deborah Mailman) and trusty side-kick Sweetie (Ed Oxenbould), who face dastardly tech genius Lenny Glick, played by David Wenham.

Lead animator, Rebecca O’Brien, previously worked on Disney’s “Monsters at Work,” “Elena of Avalor” and “Alice’s Wonderland Bakery.” The film will be directed by Ricard Cussó and Tania Vincent, and is produced by Ryan Greaves, Kristen Souvlis and Nadine Bates. The film will be ready for...

Blanchett is among producers on the feature, which has been backed by Fremantle and Screen Australia’s First Nations department.

First Nations filmmaker Warwick Thornton’s anticipated new drama The New Boy has wrapped production in South Australia.

The feature has received major funding from Screen Australia’s First Nations department, alongside Fremantle and Gretel Packer’s Longbridge Nominees, who join producers Kath Shelper for Scarlett Pictures; and Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton, Georgie Pym and Coco Francini for Dirty Films.

Newcomer Aswan Reid has been cast as the lead, alongside Blanchett, The Sapphires star Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair, who directed The Sapphires.

Hollywood star Cate Blanchett has wrapped up shooting for ‘The New Boy’, a drama film by Australian Indigenous filmmaker Warwick Thornton. Blanchett takes both a starring role and a producer credit in the film, reports ‘Variety’.

Set in 1940s Australia, ‘The New Boy’ is the story of a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy (portrayed by newcomer Aswan Reid) who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun (Blanchett). There his presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in a story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.

Other established names in the cast include Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair. An ensemble of new faces including Shane Brady, Tyrique Brady, Laiken Woolmington, Kailem Miller, Kyle Miller, Tyzailin Roderick and Tyler Spencer round out the cast.

Thornton is one of Australia’s most celebrated filmmakers. His ‘Samson And Delilah’ won the Camera d’Or for best...

Production wraps this week on “The New Boy,” a drama film by Australian Indigenous filmmaker Warwick Thornton on which Cate Blanchett takes both a starring role and a producer credit.

Set in 1940s Australia, “The New Boy” is the story of a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy (portrayed by newcomer Aswan Reid) who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun (Blanchett). There his presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in a story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.

Other established names in the cast include Deborah Mailman (“The Sapphires”) and Wayne Blair. An ensemble of new faces including Shane Brady, Tyrique Brady, Laiken Woolmington, Kailem Miller, Kyle Miller, Tyzailin Roderick and Tyler Spencer round out the cast.

Thornton is one of Australia’s most celebrated filmmakers. His “Samson And Delilah” won the Camera d’Or for best first film at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Netflix’s series adaptation of Australian novel Boy Swallows Universe has unveiled its cast, and first images from the shoot have been released.

Travis Fimmel, Simon Baker and Phoebe Tonkin topline an ensemble cast for the eight-part limited series, which is based on Trent Dalton’s book and is now in production in Brisbane, Australia.

Deadline first revealed news of the project in May 2019, and Netflix boarded it earlier this year.

2022 Netflix Pilot & Series Orders

The book, set in the violent working-class suburban fringe of Brisbane in 1983, follows Eli Bell, an articulate 12-year-old boy, and his mute brother Gus. A synopsis for the novel reads: “Eli Bell’s life is complicated. His father is lost, his mother is in jail and his stepdad is a heroin dealer. The most steadfast adult in Eli’s life is Slim — a...

Exclusive: Australian actor Sam Delich, who is currently appearing in Netflix’s Joseph Kosinski feature Spiderhead, has landed a major recurring role on Disney+’s comedy-drama series Last Days of the Space Age.

Details of his role are being kept under wraps, but we understand he will essentially play the villain of the piece, which is a tentpole of Disney+’s Australia and New Zealand 2022/23 slate and was unveiled in Sydney last month.

Last Days of the Space Age is an eight-part dramedy series set in 1979 Perth in Western Australia, as a power strike threatens to plunge the region into darkness, while the city hosts the iconic Miss Universe pageant and the US space station Skylab crashes just beyond the city’s suburbs. Against this backdrop, three families in a tight-knit coastal community find their marriages, friendships and futures put to the test.

Delich will appear in the supporting role...

The Walt Disney Company in Australia and New Zealand Tuesday unveiled a slate of nine new Australian original films and series. These represent the company’s biggest wave of local content commissions and acquisitions for Disney+ and will launch on the platform in 2022-23.

The slate includes three scripted drama series: “The Clearing,” “The Artful Dodger,” “Last Days of the Space Age”; four documentary series, “Matildas: The World at Our Feet,” “Shipwreck Hunters Australia,” “Chasing Waves,” “Fearless: The Inside Story of the Aflw”; and two lifestyle and factual general entertainment series “Donna Hay Christmas” and competition format series “What’s Your Toy Story?”

“It was important to us to have that scale to share so we could demonstrate to the marketplace that we are truly serious in this space,” Kylie Watson-Wheeler, senior VP and MD of The Walt Disney Company in Australia and New Zealand told Variety.

She confirmed that...

Miranda Otto, Jesse Spence and Guy Pearce are among the high-profile stars featuring on Disney+’s debut slate in Australia and New Zealand.

Announced at an event at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the 2022/23 slate comprises three dramas, four documentaries and two lifestyle/general factual entertainment series. Several are for Disney+’s adult vertical Star.

On the scripted drama front, The Clearing is adapted from Jp Pomare’s novel ‘In the Clearing’ and is inspired by Australian cult The Family and its founder Anne Hamilton-Byrne, one of the few female cult leaders in history.

Teresa Palmer (A Discovery of Witches), Miranda Otto (The Usual Suspects) and Guy Pearce (Jack Irish) lead the cast, alongside the lies of Hazem Shammas (Safe Harbour), Mark Coles-Smith (Mystery Road), Tom Budge (Bloom).

Written and created by Matt Cameron (Jack Irish) and Elise McCredie (Stateless) alongside co-writer Osamah Sami (Ali’s Wedding), it comes from...

Cate Blanchett is set to star in and produce the feature ‘The New Boy’ from award-winning Indigenous Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton.

Set in 1940s Australia, the film tells the story of a 9-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun (Blanchett), where his presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.

Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair will also star in the project.

Also in news – Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz & Shailene Woodley cast in Michael Mann’s ‘Ferrari’

Written and directed by Thornton, Blanchett, Andrew Upton and Georgie Pym will produce the project for Dirty Films alongside Scarlett Pictures principal Kath Shelper.

“What a joy to finally be collaborating with Warwick — a filmmaker whose warmth, wit and humanity we have admired for so very long,” Blanchett said on behalf of Dirty Films.

Hollywood star Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films and Scarlett Pictures have teamed up to co-produce ‘The New Boy’, from award-winning Indigenous Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton. Blanchett will star in the film, set in 1940s Australia, alongside Deborah Mailman and Wayne Blair. Written and directed by Thornton, ‘The New Boy’ depicts the story of a nine-year-old Aboriginal […]...