News

Stars: Teressa Liane, Saskia Hampele, Tim Ross, Ann Truong, Kate Lister, Saskia Archer | Written and Directed by Andrew Traucki

Despite the title and presence of writer/director Andrew Traucki, The Reef: Stalked is not a sequel to The Reef. Rather, like his films Black Water and Black Water: Abyss they’re unrelated films that share only a common monster, crocodiles in Black Water, and sharks in The Reef.

This time around we’re introduced to diving enthusiast Nic. After she finds her sister Cath dead, drowned in the bathtub by her abusive boyfriend Greg however that changes.

Nine months later she can’t even see water let alone resume diving, without imagining her sister’s death. Hoping it’ll be therapeutic she joins her old diving crew Jodie and Lisa, and her other sister Annie (Saskia Archer; Bali 2002) at the beach. Their kayaking trip turns out to be anything but...

Photo: ‘This Little Love of Mine’/Netflix Welcome To Sapphire Cove New to Netflix this week is a romance film from director Christine Luby, ‘This Little Love of Mine’. The film follows a business lawyer named Laura, played by Saskia Hampele, as she returns home to a tropical island, Sapphire Cove, to convince an old friend, Chip played by Liam McIntyre, to replace his grandfather as the head of a billion-dollar company. When returning home and a reunion with Chip sparks feelings Laura did not expect, she must make a choice as to what path she will choose for her life to take. ‘This Little Love of Mine’ is a very easy-breezy film. The movie feels very much like a Hallmark film which I do not mean as a negative, just an assessment of the tone and plot conventions. The film has a clear audience and a very specific story it wants to tell.

Awards

After taking 2020 off, BAFTA’s Children’s Awards are set to return in November 2022 following a review starting in May of last year. The upcoming awards will place a stronger focus on engaging young audiences through updated categories and a ceremony to be held at the end of a larger weekend of BAFTA Kids activities. Entry to the awards will open in May of next year with an extended eligibility period reaching back to July 1, 2019. Details for the revised categories, eligibility and rules will be announced in due time. BAFTA was recently recognized, alongside children’s mental health charity Place2B, by Action for Children’s Arts with an outstanding contribution award.

Documentary

Discovery Plus has commissioned a new docuseries with former England striker-turned-pundit and podcaster Peter Crouch, “Save Our Beautiful Game.” Banijay’s Workerbee will produce the eight-part series, which follows Crouch as he returns to grassroots soccer...

One of the first films to go into production in Australia during the pandemic will have its worldwide debut on Netflix next month.

Christine Luby’s romantic comedy This Little Love of Mine be on the streaming service from July 7 following its premiere at the Gold Coast Film Festival in April.

The story follows Laura Price (Saskia Hampele), a successful San Francisco lawyer on the cusp of promotion – a far cry from her childhood growing up on a tropical island with best friends Chip (Liam McIntyre) and Gem (Lynn Gilmartin).

When the firm’s biggest client – Chip’s grandfather – asks Laura to travel to the island and deliver a contract to make Chip his heir, she leaves behind her practice and fiancé Owen, to convince her childhood friend to sign a contract that will make him a billionaire. As Chip and Laura grow closer, she questions whether she’s engaged...

Christine Luby’s romantic comedy This Little Love of Mine stars Saskia Hampele as Laura Price, San Francisco lawyer on the cusp of promotion – a far cry from her childhood growing up on a tropical island with best friends Chip and Gem.

However, when the firm’s biggest client – Chip’s grandfather – asks Laura to travel to the island and deliver a contract to make Chip his heir, she leaves behind her practice and fiancé Owen to convince her childhood friend to sign a contract that will make him a billionaire.

A Steve Jaggi Company film, This Little Love of Mine will make its world premiere at the Gold Coast Film Festival, Friday April 16, 7pm @ Hota.

The post ‘This Little Love of Mine’ (Trailer) appeared first on If Magazine.

Georgia Flood and Ezekiel Simat.

Georgia Flood and Ezekiel Simat are starring in The Dog Days of Christmas, a romantic comedy directed by Don’t Tell’s Tori Garrett, which is now shooting on the Gold Coast.

Produced by the Steve Jaggi Company and scripted by American Holly Hester, the US-set movie revolves around Flood’s Annie Blake, an aid worker who has just finished an international mission and heads home to North Haven, Vermont, to spend the holidays with her family.

When the local animal shelter closes, Annie steps in to save it with the help of Dylan (Simat), the local vet and old school nemesis.

Adhering to strict Covid Safe filming practices and guidelines set by the Queensland government, the production is shooting at Warner Bros. Movie World and the hinterland.

All crew members are wearing personal protective equipment and the nurse on set is taking daily temperature checks,...

The final season of Sbs’s The Family Law, the first series of ABC’s The Heights and the Sbs miniseries The Hunting have won the 10th annual Equity Ensemble Awards.

The actors who starred in these programs were voted the most outstanding Australian small screen ensembles in their respective categories by the Meaa Equity National Performers’ Committee (Npc).

Equity president Chloe Dallimore, who was among the 33 Npc members who selected this year’s finalists and winners, said: “I can’t think of a better way to spend lockdown than re-watching the incredible small screen performances of the last 12 months. What phenomenal talent we have in this country, both in front and behind the camera.

“It emphasised what’s at stake if we don’t continue to vigorously defend our local content quotas, and why we must continue to remind our government how the arts contribute to our Australian cultural identity.

(L-r) Christine Luby, Liam McIntyre and Saskia Hampele on set (Photo credit: David Fell).

Saskia Hampele and Liam McIntyre (The Flash) are starring in the romantic comedy This Little Love of Mine, one of the first feature films to roll in the post Covid-19 era.

Now shooting in Cairns and produced by the Steve Jaggi Company, the film follows Hampele as Laura, a successful Australian-born lawyer in San Francisco who is on the cusp of promotion.

McIntyre and Lynn Gilmartin play Chip and Gem, her childhood friends. The firm’s biggest client, Chip’s grandfather (Martin Portus), asks Laura to travel to the Australian island where she grew up to deliver a contract to make Chip his heir.

The contract promises to make Chip a billionaire and Laura a partner in the firm. When she gets to the island there is immediate chemistry between Laura and Chip, making her question where it she truly belongs.

Emma Fletcher on ‘The Heights’ set.

Viewers won’t know it when the second season of The Heights premieres on the ABC next year, but the 30-episode drama is being enhanced in both production design and cinematography.

The production is using a third studio in addition to the ABC’s two Perth studios which now houses the set of a pub (previously filmed on location in Northbridge) and a new community centre for the Arcadia Heights High School.

All that has enabled the writers to “grow our story world,” according to Matchbox Pictures’ Warren Clarke, who co-created the show with Que Minh Luu.

“By grouping these sets together we are able to shoot far more efficiently which then allows the show to get a bit bigger,” says Clarke, who produces the serial with For Pete’s Sake Productions’ Peta Astbury-Bulsara.

“We’re still heavily studio-based but splitting our studio time...

The cast of ‘The Heights’ season 2 (Photo credit: Ben King).

Backed by Screen Australia, the second season of the ABC’s ground-breaking drama serial The Heights will start shooting in Perth on August 26, providing more opportunities for emerging directors, writers and actors.

Jub Clerc, whose short Storytime is featured in the horror anthology Dark Whispers – Volume 1 curated by Megan Riakos and Leonie Marsh, and Kelli Cross (Aussie Rangers) are joining the cohort of directors under the production’s mentorship program.

They will be mentored by Karl Zwicky, alongside another addition in Tenika Smith (Neighbours) and Renée Webster, who made her TV drama directing debut on the first season.

Season one writers Romina Accurso, Hannah Carroll Chapman, Megan Palinkas, Peter Mattessi, Dot West, Magda Wozniak, the showrunner/co-creator Warren Clarke and Katie Beckett return.

They are joined by recruits Tim Williams, Nora Niasari, Nayuka Gorrie, Cassandra Nguyen, Jane Allen, Alex Cullen,...

The cast of ‘The Heights’.

With the exception of flagship serials Home and Away and Neighbours, for the last few years, long-form adult drama has all but disappeared from our screens, replaced by high budget, short-run shows.

With that has also come a reduced number of training opportunities for emerging writers and directors, something that producers, writers and directors alike have lamented.

Given the landscape, it was somewhat of a surprise to see the ABC announce last June that it had commissioned a 30 x 30” serial drama in The Heights.

Produced by Matchbox Pictures and For Pete’s Sake Productions, The Heights is set in the fictional suburb of Arcadia Heights and explores the relationships, work lives and everyday challenges of six families living in a social housing tower and the rapidly gentrifying inner-city community that surrounds it.

The diverse ensemble cast includes Marcus Graham, Shari Sebbens, Roz Hammond, Fiona Press, Dan Paris,...

(L-r) Shari Sebbens, Calen Tassone, Siria Kickett and Marcus Graham in ‘The Heights’ (Photo: Ben King)

When Shari Sebbens graduated from Nida and Waapa she expected her fair complexion would mean she would be cast mostly as white characters in shows about Indigenous people.

Happily she was wrong. After making her screen debut in Wayne Blair’s 2012 hit The Sapphires she starred in a bunch of series including Redfern Now, The Gods of Wheat Street, 8Mmm Aboriginal Radio and Black Comedy, all true to her cultural identity.

“I think The Sapphires confused the hell out of everybody as they thought, ‘She looks white but she says she’s Aboriginal,’ she tells If. “It’s something our community has known since colonisation: our people come in very different shades. I call it the Fifty Shades of Black.”

The actress will next be seen in the Matchbox Pictures/For Pete’s Sake Productions 30-episode drama serial The Heights,...

Los Angeles- based The Australian Film & Television Academy (Tafta) is introducing two new programs later this year, one designed to coach teenage actors, the other involving workshops with top casting directors.

In another innovation, the Academy is opening its La Experience course, which started several years ago to enable Australian actors to display their skills to managers, talent agents and casting directors, to international students from around the globe.

The Teen La Experience will run twice a year, based on the La Experience but condensed to 10 days and aimed at teens aged 12-17 years.

The Casting Director Intensive (Cdi) workshops will enable actors to sharpen their audition and cold reading skills and time management over two days in six individual sessions with six different casting directors, including David Rapaport and Lyndsey Baldasare.

Founded by John Orcsik in 1994, Tafta is dedicated to teaching and helping develop the craft of acting in...

Neighbours star James Mason has said that there could be more rocky times ahead for his character Chris Pappas's relationship with Aidan Foster. Erinsborough nurse Aidan (Bob Morley) faces a big career setback in an upcoming storyline as he is suspended from the hospital for submitting Andrew Robinson's recent blood tests under a fake name. Aidan's unprofessional act is uncovered by newcomer Georgia Brookes (Saskia Hampele) when she is given the task of cleaning up incomplete patient files (more)...

Neighbours has cast a fashion model and former reality TV show contestant in a two-month guest role, it has been confirmed. Rhys Uhlich, a winner of Make Me a Supermodel in 2008, will appear as Scotty Boland, a love interest for newcomer Georgia Brooks (Saskia Hampele). Scotty - described as a "country boy" - will arrive on Ramsay Street with a secret that gets people talking and changes things for Georgia, who is cousin to Toadie (Ryan Moloney). "Ever since I got into modelling, acting has been something I've wanted to pursue," Uhlich explained to TV Tonight. "It sounds cliché, but it's a natural progression (more)...

Neighbours has cast a fashion model and former reality TV show contestant in a two-month guest role, it has been confirmed. Rhys Uhlich, a winner of Make Me a Supermodel in 2008, will appear as Scotty Boland, a love interest for newcomer Georgia Brooks (Saskia Hampele). Scotty - described as a "country boy" - will arrive on Ramsay Street with a secret that gets people talking and changes things for Georgia, who is cousin to Toadie (Ryan Moloney). "Ever since I got into modelling, acting has been something I've wanted to pursue," Uhlich explained to TV Tonight. "It sounds cliché, but it's a natural progression (more)...

Neighbours star Ryan Moloney has disclosed details regarding Toadie's cousin Georgia. The Ramsay Street legend described the new regular character as being "a pain in the neck" when she moves into Toadie's home that he shares with pregnant girlfriend Sonya Mitchell (Eve Morey). Saskia Hampele was cast in the role of Georgia earlier this month, and will make her arrival towards the end of the year. Moloney told MSN: "It's another mouth to feed. She comes in and ends up staying at our house. It's (more)...

Neighbours bosses have today (August 1) announced that Toadie Rebecchi's cousin Georgia Brookes is heading to Ramsay Street as a new regular character. Saskia Hampele has been cast in the role and will make her arrival on screens towards the end of the year.

Pictured: Neighbours newcomer Saskia Hampele. Hampele was in the wilderness of Kakadu in Australia's Northern Territory when her agent contacted her over the role, as she had travelled with her TV presenter boyfriend Kayne Tremills while he was filming there. Under pressure to record an impromptu audition for the show's producers, the actress was forced to create the all-important video during (more)...