Billy Zane in sci-fi action pic in Canberra
It has a futuristic story featuring Mad Max-style vehicles, a car chase with the DeLorean from Back To The Future and Titanic‘s Billy Zane as a villain. A new sci-fi action movie that has just finished shooting in Canberra, Blue World Order, is a bid to establish a film industry in the national capital. While it is set in the near future, producer and co-screenwriter Sarah Mason says the “rollicking adventure” is not set specifically in Canberra so there are no glimpses of Parliament House or Lake Burley Griffin. “We have some Telstra Tower shots but it doesn’t give it away that that’s the location.” The film, directed by feature debutants Ché Baker and Dallas Bland, was privately financed through what Mason calls an “angel investor community” in the ACT. “They were enthusiastic about bringing a film industry to Canberra,” she says.
Executive producer is novelist Matthew Reilly who lent his replica DeLorean for a chase scene and contributed feedback on the script. The film has Jake Ryan(Underbelly, Wentworth) as a reluctant hero who discovers an unknown civilisation called The Order that might the key to curing his comatose daughter. The cast includes Jack Thompson, Bruce Spence and Stephen Hunter. The filmmakers landed Zane through a friendship with Baker, who worked on television crews in the US. He plays a villain called Master Crane and reputedly thrived during his week in Canberra. “He’s one of those actors that never stops working,” Mason says. “He really enjoyed seeing the gallery and the space and the architecture and the food”.
Garry Maddox
Writer