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Life in 2006, but not as we know it
By LYALL JOHNSON
Monday 11 October 1999
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| "There is still time" bellowed the sign hanging over the steps of Parliament House in yesterday's early morning drizzle - perfectly appropriate weather for making a film about the end of the world. |
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| One could have been forgiven in these politically uncertain times for imagining the sign was, in fact, a cheeky ALP slogan revival, but it had less to do with politics than a final defiant call for repentance. |
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| During the making of the 1959 film On the Beach, a similar sign was strewn across the front of the State Library (being a Salvation Army sign, it read: "There is still time ... brother"). It overlooked the shanty town that formed on the forecourt steps below, the final destination for thousands of northerners fleeing the quickly approaching radiation cloud that was engulfing the globe after a nuclear holocaust in the northern hemisphere. |
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| Not far off, at the Distribution Centre, those desperate souls seeking a less painful death gathered to collect their suicide pills as Julian Osborne, played then by Fred Astaire, scorched past to his death in a red Ferrari. |
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| Yesterday, Melbourne's streets were again closed for the shooting of these scenes, which are among the movie's final sequences, for the long-awaited $13million TV mini-series version of the book, written by Neville Shute in 1957. |
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It was the end of the world in front of Parliament House yesterday and it had nothing to do with politics.
Picture: JERRY GALEA
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This time, legendary Australian actor Bryan Brown is reprising Astaire's racecar-driving scientist as he drives through an almost deserted, post-apocalyptic 2006 ghost town (not too unlike La Trobe Street on any given Sunday morning, a local crew member joked), past the sad throng and destroyed car hulks.
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| Brown is appearing with his wife Rachel Ward, who has the role of Moira Davidson (formerly played by Ava Gardner) while Armand Assante plays Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck), the United States submarine commander who falls in love with Moira. |
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| The 1959 On the Beach captured the imagination of Melbourne, as much for its star line-up of Peck, Astaire and Gardner, as a quote attributed to Gardner that "On the Beach is a story about the end of the world, and Melbourne sure is the right place to film it". (Despite probably never having uttered the line - indeed, journalist Neil Jillet was later to admit it had been an embellishment on the part of an over-zealous sub-editor - the sharp-tongued Gardner was said to have been pleased she had been attributed with such a choice witticism.) |
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| Yesterday a small crowd of on-lookers watched the first day of shooting on La Trobe Street, among them Father John Frawley from St Francis' Catholic Church in Lonsdale Street, who remembered the making of the original and, in particular, a famous face in one of the Sunday masses. |
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| "Gregory Peck went to the church, he was there with his wife, who was a devout catholic I'm told," Fr Frawley said. "One morning they even put the collection plate in front of him." And did he contribute? "Oh yes, he put some money in, I'm told. I didn't see it myself, so I don't know how much he gave." |
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| The mini-series is one of the first jobs since returning to Australia for director Russell Mulcahy, who has spent the past eight years living and making movies in the US and Britain. Mulcahy said he was thrilled to be offered the job and promised the mini-series, re-worked by playwright David Williamson, will remain true to the original. By lunch-time, however, the first day of shooting was beginning to have its own "end of the world" feel. First, the Ferrari wouldn't start, then the helicopter refused to tick over, followed by the motion control camera not budging. To top it off, a call came from Sydney that Rachel Ward had a "grass tick" in her eye and may have to go to hospital to have it removed."It's all happening," he joked. "That's movies." |
(theage.com.au) |
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