A classically Western Australian story from Tim Winton comes to the big screen with a star-studded cast including Mia Wasikowska and Eric Bana. Eric Bana: I sort of knew Robert was developing it, because we have an office together. The supporting players are given even less to work with. And they are the most Interview: Tim Winton, 27 Oct 2012; The Guardian - Waiting for the new wave: an interview with Tim Winton, 28 Jun 2008; The Age - The sea side of Tim Winton, 26 Apr 2008 . * making compost for their garden from left over food scraps; Star of this marine parade is a huge western blue groper christened Blueback by eight-year-old Abby (Ariel Donoghue) who befriends the fish after being persuaded its not about to swallow her whole. Using straightforward prose and stark, uncomplicated characters it carries a clear environmental and conservationist message. Read it now. * Blueback is published by Macmillan as a hardback, by Pan as a Your support will help us continue the important work of InReview in publishing free professional journalism that celebrates, interrogates and amplifies arts and culture in South Australia. Other visual effects came from Soundfirm (Peter Rabbit, Paper Plane) and Surreal World. he helps his mother each day and loves to dive. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories. childhood once available to us. Until the day he meets Blueback, the fish that changes his life. in later but at the time it was very, very hard. Listen back to his conversation with The Book Show's Claire Nichols. "And I don't think it's worth going mad over, or tormenting your family.". He would have discovered an unpretentious freedom I had as a kid, a sense of wide-open spaces, the kind of Australian Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2013. On an idyllic stretch of coast whose waters teem with fish, he lives a simple, tough existence. sometimes sulkily terse communiques. "There's an uneasy encounter between art and commerce which I don't know Everything I learned about the ocean was at the end of a spear or hook and I became interested in marine conservation in the early 1990s and got very active. He produced the anthology film, The Turning (2013), based on Wintons short story collection. "I feel very specifically that I benefited from growing up where I did, avoiding or recovering from" and (b) "something I do for myself and because I Two jam-packed days of conversations with writers you love and others you're going to love, on August 6 and 7 on your radio, online and ABC listen. Abbys friendship with the underwater extrovert allows her to put a fishy face to the preciousness of the reef and inspires her to take a stand against the destructive forces of commerce much like her activist mother Dora (Radha Mitchell). Photo: Roadshow, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google, InDaily uses cookies. * preventing people from overfishing in the area that they own. Connolly and Winton stay close to the original. disconcerting. Blueback like the great big fish it is named for is a story that needs a few decades to make its purpose known. This short. Thank you to Penguin Books Australia. Blueback is a story about love, loss, growing up, and above all, living with respect for our beautiful and natural environment. Abel Jackson lives with his mother, Dora, at Longboat Bay, an isolated stretch of coast whose waters teem with fish. Publisher's Summary. "And she came home at four o'clock and I was still there unwrapping it, wrapping it. Bana and Wasikowska hadnt seen a Blue Groper prior to filming, in fact. We havent seen Eric do this for a while. seductions of fame. "I reckon it took me ten years to not feel bad about doing well.". We also wanted the audience to see the actors jump off boats and swim 20 metres down. And we can see that Erik Thomson is up to mischief even before he turns up in a white suit. If the sea is ultimately where we come from, and it seems we did, Blueback sa prevodom| Based on the best-selling novel by Tim Winton, Blueback is a timely tale about the ocean, a beautiful marine creature, and a young girl's power to change the world. I wanted to make the film in an analogue way. Like the excellent, more adult-oriented Breath also based on a Winton novel this wholesome and modestly affecting coming-of-age story is set on the west coast of Australia, in a fictitious community called Longboat Bay. Tempting to dismiss as Winton Peter Pan-ing on again about his lost Abby is played as a child by Ariel Donoghue. cataclysm to learn the value of sacrifice. We meet the pair when Abby is an eight-year-old, obsessed with diving, then again when she is a teen ditto, just deeper and then with Abby in her 30s or so, working as a marine biologist, when she learns Dora has fallen in ill. Eric Bana: Yeah, we shot the follow up which is called Force of Nature last year, and were just finished in the post-production phase, literally within the last couple of weeks. His second novel, The plot is driven by just one desire an overwhelming urge to save the wonders of the marine world from climate change and over-fishing. Every day while fishing, Abel and his mother would go out and play and feed Blueback. Mia Wasikowska: Thats true. Blueback / Tim Winton Children's novel published 1995. It seems somewhat simplistic, but I think its the way to go, and I think people relate to that. Winton says he learned a valuable lesson from this "dark, dark time". Creative Writing: 'Blueback' by Tim Winton Goal Step 3: Dialogue Creative Writing #4 Techniques: Step 2: Setting Step 1: Characterisation Try a technique: Varied sentences Alphabet Challenge: A story can become repetitive and boring if you always begin a sentence the same way, As an adaptation comes to the silver screen, he reflects on how the book's protagonist has haunted him all the way to Ningaloo Reef. My Blueback is now screening in cinemas nationwide. emotions. Despite being a fish, rather than a person, Blueback is very much a key character in the novel. Winton's first novel, An Open Swimmer won an award and it marked the beginning of Winton's literature career. Throughout the inevitable rise in interest in him, he has guarded his notion that you have to earn belonging, to earn some kind of comfort and ease expected to be read by more than a couple of thousand people, and when you get Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning. As VFX (visual effects) developed, Connolly who describes himself as more an analogue filmmaker was ready. But no really, really excited. Blueback was originally conceived as an animated film due to the state of CGI technology in the late 1990s, and the risks of having a big, wild fish in the water with children. Perhaps it's that simplicity which makes Blueback so powerful for readers young and old. (A screen adaptation starring Mia Wasikowska and Eric Bana is slated to hit cinemas in January). Toggle navigation Pocetna Filmovi Filmovi Akcija Avantura Animacija Biografija Komedija Krimi Dokumentarni Drama then it's our source, our ancestral life and we are obliged to nourish it.". I felt surrounded by nature. There are so many different messages in the film, and I loved being a part of it.. There was almost no rewriting, it just came out formed.". But just to meet them and get a sense of who they were. Abel realises his mother is looking older; she asks him does he think she should sell up and he is shocked. On the other hand, however, the English teacher may find themselves . Nevertheless, Blueback may disconcert some. I was so proud of it when I saw it. I mean, its a bigger topic that hopefully inspires people, especially the younger generations to sort of be a bit more conscious and use their energies in a positive way for the for the whole environment. 37, the Fremantle-based author has always been an enigmatic figure in Ozlit. I am delighted by the magic that those performers were able to give., Young actors Ilsa Fogg and Pedrea Jackson on set. Blueback is an achingly beautiful story about family, belonging, and living a life in tune with the environment, from Tim Winton, one of Australia's best-loved authors.Abel Jackson's boyhood belongs to a vanishing world. My Year 7 English teacher introduced us to Lochie Leonard and the rest as they say is history. "I never had a desire for a public life, never But when the awards started coming in, Winton was more embarrassed than proud. He forms a connection with a fish - Blueback - while diving. McPhee, Hilary (editor) Tim Winton: A Celebration, National Library of Australia. Blueback. It could be the right film at the right time, theres definitely a gap in the market seeing as its the first major underwater movie to release since Avatar: The Way of Water. YouTube. Robert. Winton says the journey of adaptation to the screen "has been a long one". Interestingly, in southern Australia, the Western Blue Groper is the largest carnivorous bony fish species found living on reefs. So it is universal, and then also quite focused locally. These three strands of story are woven against a backdrop of the fight to preserve the womens community and the surrounding ocean from the predations of over-fishing and a boo-hiss property developer. Few writers have been as welcomed or as sought after. back. In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and has won the Miles Franklin Award four times. "And if we lose these places, we've lost everything.". Longboat Bay is like a paradise because of the crystal clear water, the way that the sun is always up and the different and the unique types of fish that are there. Tim Winton is appearing as part of ABC RN's Big Weekend of Books. The directors other family film, 2015s Paper Planes, reflects a similar commercial mindset as Blueback, providing a broadly appealing if a little indistinct experience that doesnt speak down to younger audiences but certainly hands them unambiguous moral lessons. Winton has proved a magnet for Australian film-makers. A feature film adaptation of Tim Winton's 1997 novella Blueback (Penguin) has received production funding from Screen Australia in its latest funding round.. Writer/director Robert Connolly of Arenamedia will work with producers Liz Kearney and James Grandison on the adaptation, which follows a young girl (changed from a young boy in the novel) who befriends a wild groper while diving, and . Connolly describes him as a wonderful man to work with. persuasive effect. Connolly oscillates between three versions of Abby: child, teen and adult. It was just I loved the film. . obligation of stewardship, which requires sacrifice.". commercially feted, from the first, An Open Swimmer, which was joint Even when the day came to submit the final manuscript, Winton wasn't convinced he'd nailed it. Starring Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, Crimson Peak), Eric Bana (The Dry, Dirty John), Radha Mitchell (London Has Fallen, Pitch Black), Liz Alexander (The Secret She Keeps), and newcomers Ariel Donoghue, Ilsa Fogg, and Albert Mwangi, Blueback is a coming-of-age story, through and through. I liked this film immensely. And to see the fish, which was a puppet, really come to life. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday. The big readers are the kids. Remove Ads Cast Crew Details Genres Cast Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). Its achieved with elegance; temporal displacements feeling less like flashbacks or flash forwards than different refractions of the same prism. Editon Published June 25th 2014. lead a Pynchon or a Salinger existence and become completely anonymous. In the book, for example, Abby is a 10-year-old boy, Abel. I wanted the actors to do their own swimming rather than stunt people. At 21 he won the Vogel's Literary Award for his first book, An Open Swimmer. Much of the story is told in flashback. She meets ol mate Blueback as a youngster (played as a child by Ariel Donoghue and as a teenager by Ilsa Fogg) and, as an adult (Mia Wasikowska), becomes a marine biologist caring deeply about the state of the reef. Blueback is told straight from the heart by everyone on either side of the camera, which is an approach you dont really see often enough anymore, and one you both clearly gravitated towards. their children will have to experience nature in a virtual sense - landscapes It asks us, without ever lecturing, how it is we have designed a world so completely insane, that the concept of "money" is somehow worth more to us than the actual water, air and land that keeps us all alive. Blueback is a novel written by Australian author Tim Winton. Blueback, a heartbreaking allegory about a boy, his mother and a blue groper, was written "inside a business week," Winton says. doesn't involve sacrifice. Blueback Tim Winton 3.93 3,094 ratings285 reviews From the author of the bestselling novel The Riders comes a bewitching fable sure to delight readers of all ages. I have some ideals, even if these days ", "I don't think art needs an excuse to exist. something to the future, to define limits on what we'll exploit and how we'll We did as best we could to made sure that didnt happen. As Winton and his wife held his mother in the ocean, they were both very aware that this was a scene that Winton had imagined, and committed to paper, more than 20 years earlier. With the always superb Radha Mitchell doing the heavy lifting as Dora and a deeply likeable Eric Bana, as local rogue and ally Macka, Blueback has talent to burn on screen. Think art needs an excuse to exist, dark time '' perhaps it 's worth mad! To meet them and get a sense of who they were my Year 7 English teacher find! Weekend of books a story that needs a few decades tim winton blueback interview make film! 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