ABC South West WA has posted a great interview with Tim Duffy, one of the producers of the upcoming World Wide Mind Films movie ‘Drift’ which will star Sam Worthington and Myles Pollard.
Here are a few Sam relevant extracts:
In what could possibly be the understatement of the year, Tim describes his reaction to signing one of the biggest stars in Hollywood at the moment as “very exciting”.
The connection came about through actor Miles Pollard who is Tim’s partner in the production company World Wide Mind Films. “He was looking at to moving into producing,” says Tim.
Miles’ reaction to seeing the script was immediately one of wanting to be on board both as a producer and an actor. “I have a good relationship with Sam,” he told Tim. “I think Sam would be interested in this.”
“Sam responded within 24 hours,” Tim laughs. “I think he still holds the record for the quickest response.”
The script ticked several boxes for the star of Avatar, Tim believes. Firstly, Sam is a surfer.
Australia has always been at the forefront in surfing, says Tim, and not just in the water. “Someone’s never really made a film about the history and how we became prominent in that sport, in that culture.”
Drift is a dramatisation of an Australian story, namely how we came to develop surfing brands which are still iconic brands today- brands like Quicksilver and Billabong. “Sam saw that as something very close to his heart and it was set in West Australia. He’s a hometown boy.
“He’s obviously been offered lots and lots of scripts in Australia but this is something very personal for him.”
Filming for Drift will take place mainly “between the Capes” says Tim. Around 100 technicians will work on the project and with principal filming about six weeks away, he’s busy hiring heads of department – hair, makeup, costume, camera and the like.
Set in the 1972 when surfing was in its infancy, Drift is the story of two brothers scraping out a living on the WA coast. “The only thing they’ve got in life is surfing. They start to manufacture in their back shed and that turns into a global business.”
Dramatic tension is supplied by the very sceptical locals who see no legitimacy in any business connected to surfing.
On the other side are the bikies who have every reason to want surfing to remain the domain of drifters and dropouts.
There’s also tension between the brothers, says Tim. “Sam’s character causes division within the group because he’s not sure whether this is legit or not. They don’t know themselves most of the time.”
Drift is Tim’s first feature film script. “Both Miles and Sam said we should bring in someone experienced.” Australian actor, writer, producer and director Morgan O’Neill (Sea Patrol, Water Rats, Solo) came on board after the initial draft. “His changes have been to structure the film so it has a clear set of goals and ambitions and that it also has enough action for a non-surfer.”
Sounds like the ball is well-and-truly rolling with this one so we can’t wait to hear more about it in the near future.
