Flynn (film)

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Flynn
Directed by Frank Howson
Written byFrank Howson
Alister Webb
Produced byFrank Howson
Starring Guy Pearce
Steven Berkoff
Claudia Karvan
John Savage
Music by
Production
company
Release date
  • 1996 (1996)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryAustralia
Language English
BudgetA$4.5 million [1]

Flynn is an Australian film about the early life of Errol Flynn, focusing on his time in New Guinea starring Guy Pearce in the title role. [2]

Contents

Plot

A young Errol Flynn leaves Sydney and has various adventures in New Guinea. He returns to Australia and starts acting in movies.

Original cast

Final cast

Production

Development

Frank Howson claimed he spent five years writing the script. "It was the hardest script I've ever written," he said. "He [Errol Flynn] was such an enigmatic figure." [4]

Howson gave the lead role to Guy Pearce, with whom he had previously made two films. Pearce felt he did not look anything like Errol Flynn but his hair was cut and he wore brown contact lenses. "He was a very mixed up-person," Pearce said of Flynn. "Most of the things he did were out of desperation, trying to find himself. He was more like a kid who never grew up." [5]

Original shoot

The movie was originally directed by Brian Kavanagh in 1989 on a budget of $3.5 million. Shooting took place in Melbourne, Cairns and New Guinea and was completed in September, despite the Cairns shoot being delayed by the 1989 Australian pilots' dispute. [6]

Re-shoot

At the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, marketing group J and M became interested in distributing the film but thought it needed some re-shooting and some "name" stars. They provided a further $1 million for this to happen. [7]

The film was then largely re-shot with Frank Howson stepping in as director, and some different support actors cast. Guy Pearce returned as Errol Flynn, but Rebecca Rigg, Jeff Truman and Paul Steven were replaced by Claudia Karvan, Steven Berkoff and John Savage. This caused trouble with Australia's Actors Equity because two Australian actors were replaced with foreign ones. [8] [9] New scenes were shot in Melbourne and Fiji, which stood in for New Guinea. [10]

The Fijian unit was based out of Lase Lase, about 50 km from Nadi. No Fijian women would agree to go topless, so South African actress Sandi Schultz was imported to play the role of the chief's daughter. The Fijian men were reluctant to take their underwear off to play New Guinea natives. [11] It was estimated about 40% of the film was reshot. [12]

Frank Howson later said:

The original version of the film is literally unshowable. I had to sack the director and start again at great personal expense to me and my business partner. Remaking that film out of our own pockets, basically, put a huge financial pressure on our company. And ourselves for a few years and no doubt added tension that ultimately ruined our relationship, and then wound up the company. But, if I’d have released the original version I think it would’ve killed Guy Pearce’s blooming movie career that I was actively designing. [13]

Release

The movie was screened at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival under the title My Forgotten Man, by which time Howson said he had been working on it for 30 months. He blamed the stress of making it on the breakup of his marriage and business partnership. [14] Howson:

It was like a game of Russian roulette. You actually wondered whether you would finish the film before you went broke. I now know what Coppola must have felt like on Apocalypse Now because in the end you just keep throwing money at this thing. [15]

The film was set for release by Village Roadshow but Frank Howson became embroiled in a copyright dispute with his business partner; Roadshow withdrew the film from release seven days before it was scheduled to open. The movie was subsequently released on video and DVD several years later and sold widely around the world. [16]

In 2002 Pearce described the film as the worst he had made. [17]

Filmink said "the movie has Howson virtues (gorgeous pictures, skilled actors, interesting themes, love of show business) and flaws (scripting). Pearce takes all his chances and, for what it’s worth, the film is the best of the movies made about young Errol Flynn." [18]

Awards

YearNominee / workAwardResult
1993My Forgotten Man [19] AACTA Award
BASF Award for Best Original Music Score
Anthony Marinelli, Billy Childs 		Nominated

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References

  1. ↑ Tulich p 27
  2. ↑ Ed. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995, Oxford University Press, 1996 p64
  3. ↑ Film listing, Cinema Papers, November 1989 p70
  4. ↑ Tulich p24
  5. ↑ Tulich p 25
  6. ↑ 'FLYNN,' STARRING GUY PEARCE, COMPLETES PRODUCTION FOR AUSTRALIA'S BOULEVARD FILMS, PR Newswire 14 September 1989
  7. ↑ Tulich p27
  8. ↑ Paul Kalina, 'Father figures', The Age, September 2, 2005 accessed 17 October 2012
  9. ↑ Australian Film 1978-92, Oxford University Press, 1993 p 378
  10. ↑ Todd McCarthy, "My Forgotten Man" 17 June 1993 accessed 18 October 2012
  11. ↑ Tulich p26
  12. ↑ Kevin Sadlier, "ERROL FLYNN: 'SCANDAL' OVER US MOVIE REMAKE", Sun Herald, 9 September 1990 p12
  13. ↑ "Producer and Writer Frank Howson on Laura Branigan, the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, the Art of Creation and more…". Cult Film Alley. 13 July 2019.
  14. ↑ Caroline Wilson, "Spy", Sunday Age, 2 May 1993 p16
  15. ↑ Kevin Sadlier, "Musical Chairs Over the Piano", Sun Herald, 16 May 1993 p 111
  16. ↑ Frank Howson letter to the editor, Australian Magazine, 10 March 2007, Letter feedback
  17. ↑ Jane Cadzow, 'The Guy next door', The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 March 2002 accessed 17 October 2012
  18. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (21 February 2024). "Frank Howson: The Unsung Auteur". Filmink.
  19. ↑ "BASF Award for Best Original Music Score". AACTA Awards. 1993. Archived from the original on 27 October 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015. (as aka) My Forgotten Man

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