| Heaven Tonight | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Pino Amenta |
| Written by | Frank Howson Alister Webb |
| Produced by | Frank Howson |
| Starring | John Waters Guy Pearce Kym Gyngell Rebecca Gilling Sean Scully |
| Cinematography | David Connell |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Boulevard Films |
Release date |
|
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | under $2 million [1] |
Heaven Tonight is a 1990 Australian film.
An ageing rock star (John Waters) tries to make a comeback and is jealous about the success of his son (Guy Pearce). [2] [3]
Writer-producer Frank Howson later claimed that "every incident" in the film was true: "either I have lived it, or I know somebody who has. There is no fabrication, except in the names, which have been changed to protect the guilty." [4]
Howson said " I wrote this movie for all those talented people who had their 15 minutes of fame and then got shut out in the cold." [5]
He says the Baz Schultz character was a combination of Stevie Wright and Ken Firth of The Ferrets. [5]
Waters and Pearce were cast for their singing talent as well as their acting skills, and Pearce released a single, "Call of the Wild", from the film. [6]
Howson said "I’d never seen Guy Pearce on “Neighbours” so I hadn’t type-cast him so when he came in to audition... I had an open mind and he fitted the part of Paul Dysart to perfection. He also had a very good singing voice, and could play guitar, which was a huge plus as I wanted to record all the music live." [5]
The film was not a commercial success and only ran for two weeks in cinemas in Sydney and Melbourne. [1]
Filmink called it "probably Howson’s best movie. It is the best structured, possibly due to the input of Alister Webb who is credited as co-writer. It has a strong central situation, the drama works logically and it is excellently cast. " [7]
The film provided comedic material for the 2006-2007 Austereo radio comedy show Get This . Host Tony Martin referred to the film on a number of occasions, making jibes at the name of Guy Pearce's character's band which was 'Video Rodney', the frequent references to the film's villain whose name was the ill-chosen 'Tim Robbins' and the 1980s synth-rock music which was seen as passé at the time.
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