Screen Australia presents a Wild Eddie Production In association with Fulcrum Media Finance, Screen NSW Frame Set and Match and Exit Films NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN Media Kit Film Publicist ICON Film Distribution Catherine Lavelle Kasha Tabaka T 02 9405 2880 T 02 8594 9072 E [email protected] E [email protected] As at 12.3.12v3 NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN The Feature Directorial Debut of Academy Award and BAFTA nominated Director Peter Templeman Written by Michael Lucas and Produced by Jodi Matterson A Modern Romantic Comedy Starring Ryan Kwanten Sarah Snook Ryan Corr and Bojana Novakovic When a freewheeling guy in the prime of his life learns he will be infertile in a month - he has to find someone to have a baby with before it’s too late. SCREEN AUSTRALIA PRESENTs A WILD EDDIE PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH SCREEN NSW FRAME SET & MATCH AND EXIT FILMS “NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN” RYAN KWANTEN SARAH SNOOK RYAN CORR AND BOJANA NOVAKOVIC MAKE UP DESIGNER JENNIFER LAMPHEE CASTING DIRECTOR NIKKI BARRETT MUSIC SUPERVISORS NORMAN PARKHILL ROB SCOTT SOUND DESIGNER BROOKE TREZISE SOUND SUPERVISOR ANDY WRIGHT COSTUME DESIGNER GYPSY TAYLOR PRODUCTION DESIGNER ELIZABETH MARY MOORE COMPOSER MATTEO ZINGALES JONO MA FILM EDITOR MATTHEW WALKER DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY LACHLAN MILNE LINE PRODUCER BARBARA GIBBS EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS BRUNA PAPANDREA GARY HAMILTON DARREN ASHTON STORY BY MICHAEL LUCAS AND PETER TEMPLEMAN SCREENPLAY BY MICHAEL LUCAS PRODUCED BY JODI MATTERSON DIRECTED BY PETER TEMPLEMAN DOLBY DIGITAL © 2012 Matterson Productions Pty Ltd, Eddie Wong Films Pty Limited, Stephen Dunn, Rick Schweikert, Exit Films Pty Ltd, Screen Australia Limited, New South Wales Film & Television Office trading as Screen NSW. All rights reserved. Page 2 NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN KEY CAST JONAH Ryan Kwanten STEVIE Sarah Snook GUS Ryan Corr AVA Bojana Novakovic MARCIE Susan Prior DR McKENZIE Lewis Fitz-Gerald BECKY Kathryn Beck CLAIRE Belinda Bromilow LAB TECHNICIAN Zoe Carides ALISON Alice Parkinson JENNIFER Lulu McClatchy DAVE Daniel Henshall CANTZI Andy Ryan SMITTY Sam North SILVIO Apollo Kanakis MIRANDA Tasneem Roc THE EX-GIRLFRIENDS: Katie Wall Laura Brent Lucy Coleman Adele Vuco Clare Bowen Page 3 NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN KEY CREW DIRECTOR Peter Templeman PRODUCER Jodi Matterson SCREENPLAY Michael Lucas STORY BY Michael Lucas and Peter Templeman EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Bruna Papandrea Gary Hamilton Darren Ashton LINE PRODUCER Barbara Gibbs DIRECTOR of PHOTOGRAPHY Lachlan Milne EDITOR Matthew Walker COMPOSERS Matteo Zingales Jono Ma PRODUCTION DESIGNER Elizabeth Mary Moore COSTUME DESIGNER Gypsy Taylor MAKE UP/HAIR DESIGNER Jennifer Lamphee MUSIC SUPERVISORS Norman Parkhill Rob Scott CASTING BY Nikki Barrett Page 4 NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN SYNOPSIS If your twenties is the party decade, then Jonah Reid (Ryan Kwanten) is one very high achiever. Impulsive and charismatic, Jonah lives in a crumbling inner-city share-house, surviving off the proceeds of the massive, anarchic house-parties he hosts every week with his best mate Gus (Ryan Corr). All financial considerations and life administration he outsources to Stevie (Sarah Snook) – house skeptic, and queen of the caustic retort. Jonah might not have a career, a qualification or a serious relationship, but on an effort-to-pleasure ratio, he’s unbeatable… Until his life takes a jarring detour. In the wake of an unfortunate discovery during a one-night-stand, Jonah is diagnosed with testicular cancer. Assured that his life is not at risk, he is warned that his impending treatment will render him totally and permanently infertile. A shell-shocked Jonah goes directly to the sperm bank in an effort to preserve his parenting future. But when his sperm samples fail to freeze effectively, he is left with just one option for parenthood – natural conception. Within the next four weeks. Suddenly the party maestro and sure-fire reveler has a convulsive shift in priorities. With paternal instincts firing, Jonah becomes determined to procreate before it’s too late. He barrels back to his ex-girlfriends - starting with Ava (Bojana Novakovic) - but after failing to convince her to drop her life and offer her womb, Jonah contacts just about every girl he has ever known (and some he doesn’t) before being given a reality check by Stevie. Advising him to ditch the ex-girlfriend strategy and cut out the emotional complications, Stevie assesses his options with razor-sharp frankness, lining up candidates and brokering meetings. But as Stevie’s efforts as a ‘womb agent’ stall, and time ticks away … Jonah soon realises that the perfect candidate might be closer than anyone would think. Page 5 NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN ABOUT THE DIRECTOR Peter Templeman’s short films have won remarkable thirty-eight major festival awards between them, culminating in 2007 with an Academy Award nomination for his comedy The Saviour. That same year he also received a BAFTA nomination for his Ladder of Love episode in the Australian television series Lockie Leonard. Notably, Peter is the only filmmaker to win the Slamdance Grand Jury Award for Best Short Film two years in a row: first in 2005 with the gritty drama Splintered, then again with The Saviour in 2006. Peter has previously been a Finalist at the West Australian Screen Awards for acting, writing and directing, before attending the Australian Film Television and Radio School in 2003. In 2005 he completed a Masters degree in Drama Directing and won the Australian Film Commission’s Award for Best Director. In 2006 he was honoured with the IF Award for Rising Talent. Page 6 NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT Being male can be tough. About half of us know this and bravely accept it. We’re hairier, not as pretty, we die young and can’t bare children (yet) but I think a movie like this one strives to remind us that men still have one or two blessings to count. We are those who have nuts on the outside. And this gift from old chromosome Y offers a far greater advantage than most people realise. According to my research, the goolies are hands down the best place to get cancer in a human body. The male testicle is sufficiently peripheral to keep most malignancies contained to that particular nut-sack, and once diagnosed the treatment is laughingly simple. I challenge any woman to get an ovary removed with anywhere near the ease it takes to snip off a gonad. Not going to happen ladies. As far as cancer goes this one is startlingly accommodating. Unless you want kids. Then it gets a little trickier. Being a Dad Our guy Jonah takes it on the chin when he hears he’ll be losing a testicle. He’s happy to be alive and he’ll still be able to have sex but when he learns that his chance for paternity will soon expire a desperate desire grips him. This is the engine that drives the first half of our movie. Jonah wants to be a Dad and I hope the audience ache for him like I do. The guy has no money, no sense of responsibility and he’s terrible with kids, but once we see what he’s prepared to go through to find a womb that fits, I think we’re all going to want him to win. Until the real currency of the story starts to bloom – true love between platonic friends. Page 7 NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN Love A major incentive for me has been to do justice to the chemistry, tension and payoff that this romance promises. A love borne from a long and platonic friendship is a special kind. The initial complication – housemates tripping over into something more – is delicious in itself. But two buddies negotiating being intimate to ‘arrange’ a pregnancy, just as their deeper desires are starting to ripple… that’s where the soul of our movie is. Characters and Tone Mike and I worked closely together on this screenplay for five years; we love these characters and know them well. Stevie and Jonah are extremes in their own ways - eccentric and unpredictable but starkly real and underplayed. Jonah speaks before he thinks; he lives in the moment and is perpetually distracted by it. And it’s the contrast between this and the sharp and sardonic Stevie that fuels what I hope will be a truly fresh and unpredictable screen romance. There is a detail in these performances that hums with the truth and complexity of real life. The scenes exude a natural clumsiness and spontaneity, and the moments in between are as rich as the rollicking interplay. The humour is sometimes bold, painful even, but always anchored in truth. Vision and Style I’ve used detailed shot design and restrained choices to show these guys at their best and worst. The camera moves in tune with their emotions rather than their actions. With Lachlan Milne’s natural lighting and Elizabeth Mary Moore’s attention to realism in the design, the world prints as rich, layered and lived in. We’ve captured Sydney’s inner west authentically and it throbs and breathes in this movie. Page 8 NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN Personally For me personally, the film is largely a tribute to my own experiences house- sharing in my twenties and I hope it strikes the same chord with others. I tried to capture the essence of those years: the primal pulse of the parties, the hedonism, and the strength of the bonds that grow from good times in shared spaces. Ultimately I hope it shows that the most important things in life are the people we hold closest, and that this is more vital than any ideals we have for what our lives should be.