For three years after The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Stephan Elliott was in development hell, as he calls it. "Every studio, sub-studio, mini-Major and Major was taking an interest." But somehow nothing happened.
Elliott finally realised he had to go back to work as a director for hire and started looking for other people's scripts. "I got stuck at the BAFTAs one night, pissed as a fart with Nick Powell, who introduced me to Finola Dwyer. I said I just can't find a decent script here even if I did want it, and Nick sort of pulled one out of the bag and said: 'Have a read of this.' And lo and behold it was pretty good."
But that draft - The Big Red, as it was then called - was to undergo major surgery before it came to be shot. "I got a very dark script, it was very tough looking, quite a mean look at Australia and a lot of people thought it was very cool. On reading through, I took one look and I realised it was a black comedy and not big on the comedy.
"Having been through the experience of making a black comedy [Frauds], I didn't really know whether people would be interested. So I just said we have to broaden this out, and I began to put the Steph stamp on it and literally twisted everything around, even the perceptions that (screenplay writer) Michael Thomas gave me, and then twisted it to a much more funny way rather than a cruel way of looking at it."
HELLO, DADDY-O
Welcome to Woop Woop is at once a fish-out-water story, a love story and a redemption fable. Elliott's bravura style will no doubt offend many. Indeed, this may well go down as another "midnight screaming" at Cannes. It is the story of Teddy (Johnathon Schaek), a young New York hustler on the run who ends up in Woop Woop, Australia's equivalent to Timbuktoo, a tiny desert community run by Daddy-O (Rod Taylor). Teddy's first problem is Daddy-O's daughter Angie (Susie Porter), a sex-crazed tomboy with big plans for Teddy.
Woop Woop is a sort of open prison, under the personal control of Daddy-O, whose grand vision and patriotic fervour stir the hearts of his community. Except for Teddy. And then there is the big red...
Elliott has not only twisted the bla story into a romp, he has added music so inappropriate that events soon tumble from the derailed to the surreal. "It's not a musical comedy, it's a comedy with music. That's the best way to describe it," he says.
There is Rodgers and Hammerstein everywhere. While getting the rights was a feat in itself, the use of the music, as Elliott readily admits, is risky: "It's incredibly subversive - much more than anything I've done before..."
The film is a showcase for some almost fossilised Australiana. "It'blowing one last big kiss goodbye to the mass of old Australian culture which is disappearing; 50s, 40s, 60s culture which is just about to go - there is beer guzzling, there is sexism and there is racism and there is more beer guzzling... you name it, istill exists out there. But slowly the city is trying to pretend that it doesn't. It will eventually disappear; it is disappearing. This is my homage, my goodbye to a great piece of Australian culture that I think is just terrific."
The mantra on set has been, "Go for it!" Nothing is too outrageous, nothing is too risky, no invention too fantastic, no line too vulgar. But Elliott is ready to defend it all. "People will look at this film and say, 'Oh he's pressing the old buttons again,' but they're damn fun buttons. People will just roll their eyes and go: "Here we go again" - but you know, who cares... it's funny."
Andrew L Urban
Prod cos Scala Productions and Unthank Films
Prod: Finola Dwyer
Dir: Stephan Elliott
Scr: Michael Thomas
Ph: Mike Molloyrt
dir: Owen Paterson
Cos: Lizzy Gardiner
Ed: Martin Walsh
Cast: Johnathon Schaech, Rod Taylor, Susie Porter, Dee Smart, Barry Humphries,
Running time: 103mins
Int sales: Samuel Goldwyn Co
