#the superior adelaide horror movie out this year

[pynkhues]

I don’t know much about that industry but I don’t understand sn**k’s attachment to Rabbit. Like why she was in it

Why was she in Run Rabbit Run? I think plenty of reasons.

I think when she and her agent were pitched the project, it probably felt like a really exciting film.

It's the debut screenplay of a really 'hot' Australian author, Hannah Kent, who wrote the enormously internationally successful Burial Rites, as well as The Good People and Devotion (which are all dense historical fiction novels, which is a part of why I was suspicious of such a vast genre switch for screen which was basically confirmed for me when Kent said she doesn't watch horror) and the second feature of a really 'hot' Australian woman director, Daina Reid, who's worked extensively on really 'good' genre TV - The Handmaid's Tale, The Shining Girls, Romper Stomper, The Spanish Princess, Offspring.

That is, on paper, a really exciting creative team! I can see why her agent would recommend it and why she'd think it was going to be something that's more than what it is as a film.

I also think it probably had both personal and strategic benefits for her since she's moved back to Australia. The first one's pretty easy to see, I think - she's from Adelaide originally, Run Rabbit Run was shot in Adelaide / South Australia. Shooting a movie there means she gets to stay for a longer period of time and spend time with the friends and family she has there.

A lot of actors take jobs in their hometowns for that reason - a sort of working homecoming, as well as a way to support the industry you originally came from. A friend of mine who's a theatre director has actually just accepted a job directing a play back in her hometown pretty much for that reason exactly. It's a level below what she'd normally do, but she's really looking forward to spending a lot of time with her Dad around the play as he had a health scare not too long ago and this gives her the opportunity to spend three months there.

The strategic benefit is speculative, of course, and a bit more specific to the Australian industry, so bear with me as I try to explain it, haha.

Each state here has their own screen agency, and these screen agencies play an enormous role in funding and supporting local production, while also attracting overseas production with specific local advantages. Queensland for instance, my home state, sells itself on its beaches, Warner Brothers' large studio, and the fact they have some of the biggest water tanks for shooting underwater sequences in the Southern Hemisphere. It's why things like Aquaman, Pirates of the Carribbean and every mermaid show you've ever heard of are shot there.

Because they are state funded though, these films and tv shows have state talent quotas attached to them. In other words, they have to have a certain amount of both Above the Line Talent (these are producers, directors, writers and principal actors), and Below the Line Talent (all crew, extras, stunties, craft services, etc.) that are considered as being 'from' that state.

These quotas are designed so that interstate and international productions can't just ship in crews or whole casts from interstate or overseas, and effectively makes them invest in local talent.

But what local talent means can vary a little.

Using myself as an example, I'm from Brisbane, so I automatically qualify as local talent for Screen Queensland, but I live in Melbourne, which doesn't actually mean I automatically qualify as local talent for VicScreen. To qualify, I had to live in the state of Victoria consistently for two years, and be able to supply evidence of that, which I can, and is why I am now on the talent registers both in Queensland and Victoria.

For Sarah, she's from South Australia, but she also lives in Melbourne, which means she's considered basically a talent asset for both the South Australia Film Corporation (which funded Run Rabbit Run), and VicScreen (which interestingly enough actually was involved in developing Run Rabbit Run). Her last Australian productions were Winchester (2018), The Beautiful Lie (2015), Oddball (2015), The Dressmaker (2015) and The Secret River (2015), all of which are VicScreen, meaning they were all filmed in Melbourne / Victoria (which makes sense! Melbourne has a much bigger industry than Adelaide).

With her moving back to Australia, and moving back with the status that means she's always going to be a principal actor, I think it makes sense that she'd want to strategically show that she can qualify as Above the Line Talent in both Melbourne and Adelaide. It shows her off a bit as supporting her home state's industry / remembering her roots, but also makes her appear as available / accessible for filmmakers there and the state's funding body.

Given she's heading to London's West End again for theatre too, I think it probably was a pretty smart strategic move to sort of stake such a local claim like that before she goes international again too.

#i also think there's a case to be made about this sort of genre shift at the moment with suburbia in australian cinema #and maybe wanting to be a part of that a little #but that's a whole other thing and probably not one other people will find as interesting as i do hahaha #anyway watch talk to me! #the superior adelaide horror movie out this year #sarah snook #succession cast #film asks #industry asks #welcome to my ama