HISTORY OF ‘THE NOTHING MEN’

In 1998 THE NOTHING MEN script won a writer’s grant from the Australian Film Commission. After further development the script won another two grants on the strength of the well developing story and its potential of becoming a major Feature Film.

The next year one of THE NOTHING MEN script editors, Gregor Jordan was in line to direct the film, however his own film (Two Hands) finally got the green light and Gregor moved on to direct it.

Next Producer John Brousek jumped on board, John’s energy and vision for THE NOTHING MEN opened up new ideas for the project. Alas, John was enticed away by another project (Wogboy).

Then Peter Hardi of Mirage Entertainment read the script and optioned it. Peter got the script to Hollywood and was immediately offered a deal by Pacific Western’s Gale Anne Hurd (Armageddon, Terminator, Aliens). Billy Bob Thornton wanted to direct it. Jeff Goldblum contacted us wanting a role in it. It was all so surreal. We decided to stay true to the Australian flavor of the story and turned down the offers.

Peter brought on board Anthony Buckley, Australia’s most successful and respected Producer who saw great strength in THE NOTHING MEN and became its new producer. A few months later Anthony had to drop most of his projects for personal reasons, needless to say The Nothing Men was one of them.

Exciting young director Elissa Down saw something magical about THE NOTHING MEN and decided she wanted to direct it. She brought with her producer Andrew Williams who also saw something special in the story. I was beginning to think the project was cursed when Elissa’s own project (The Black Balloon) gathered momentum and would soon go into preproduction. THE NOTHING MEN went back into the drawer.

Just when we thought the project was destined to forever gather dust we received a knock at our door. Martin Dingle Wall and Andrew Windsor stood there asking could they produce THE NOTHING MEN with myself as director. They had known about the project for many years and were surprised it hadn’t been made yet.

It wasn’t hard finding Australia’s best actors for the title roles. Colin Friels and David Field had read the script years before and were waiting impatiently for the film to go into production. They threw themselves into the roles, complementing the story brilliantly with wonderful performances, which brings us here today.