Hippie Hippie Shake | |
---|---|
Directed by | Beeban Kidron |
Screenplay by | Lee Hall |
Based on | Hippie Hippie Shake by Richard Neville |
Produced by |
|
Starring |
|
Music by | Dario Marianelli |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Countries |
|
Language | English |
Hippie Hippie Shake is an unreleased British drama film produced by Working Title Films. It is based on a memoir by Richard Neville, editor of the Australian satirical magazine Oz , and chronicles his relationship with girlfriend Louise Ferrier, the launch of the London edition of Oz amidst the 1960s counterculture, and the staff's trial for distributing an obscene issue. Hippie Hippie Shake stars Cillian Murphy as Richard Neville, with Sienna Miller as Louise.
British film production company Working Title began development of Hippie Hippie Shake in 1998, but the film was repeatedly delayed, changing directors and screenwriters. In September 2007, the film finally began principal photography. In 2011, Working Title said that the film would not be released in cinemas. [1]
Hippie Hippie Shake follows the love story of Oz editor Richard Neville and Louise Ferrier, as Neville and his cohorts launch the London edition of the radical magazine, and are put on trial for publishing an obscene issue. The film serves as a metaphorical journey through the 1960s in London. [2] [3]
In October 1998, British film production company Working Title Films announced the development of the film Hippie Hippie Shake, based on Hippie Hippie Shake: The Dreams, the Trips, the Trials, the Love-ins, the Screw Ups: The Sixties, a memoir by Oz magazine editor Richard Neville. Screenwriter Don Macpherson was hired to write the adapted screenplay for the film, which was slated to begin production in 1999, depending on Working Title's status following the breakup of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. [6]
Production did not begin as anticipated.[ why? ] Working Title restarted development in February 2002, with director Shekhar Kapur attached to direct based on a script by Tom Butterworth. [7] Again, the project was delayed.
In May 2007, Working Title announced its third attempt to produce Hippie Hippie Shake, this time with director Beeban Kidron and screenwriter Lee Hall. The film, which would be distributed by Universal Pictures, was slated to begin production in the autumn of 2007. [2]
Following William Nicholson's involvement with the script, principal photography began on 17 September 2007. [3] Writer Richard Neville acknowledged the long development history of the film, but considered the film appropriate for the contemporary state of affairs: "Given that the world is at war, it couldn't be better timing to highlight the crazy, fun and political times of the 1960s... I think the timing is pretty terrific. Enough time has gone by to perhaps look at that era in a new perspective and help us reflect on what's going on today," Neville said. [4]
Parts of the film were shot in the Hampstead district of London, and a house in South Hill Park was used as the exterior of Greer's home. [8] Until his death, South Hill Park was the home of Anthony Minghella, the film director and father of Max Minghella. All Saint's Road was also used as a substitute for King's Road.
In July 2009, "creative differences" led Beeban Kidron to quit during post-production; her husband, screenwriter Lee Hall, had left the production earlier.[ when? ] [9] According to The Times , Kidron said: "I worked on the film for as long as I could and as hard as I could and then I had to walk away. It was very wounding." [9] A 100-print release was scheduled for February 2010, but never happened. [9] [ needs update ]
The people depicted in the film have had a range of reactions to the film.
In July 2007, in a piece for The Guardian , feminist author Germaine Greer vehemently expressed her displeasure at being depicted, writing, "You used to have to die before assorted hacks started munching your remains and modelling a new version of you out of their own excreta." Greer refused to be involved with the film, just as she declined to read Neville's memoir before it was published (he had offered to change anything she found offensive). She did not want to meet with Emma Booth, who portrays her in the film, and concluded her article with her only advice for the actress: "Get an honest job." [10] Booth had just told The Brisbane Times: "It's going to be a bit scary playing her. Germaine is this ballsy lady. I am sure she is going to hate me." [11]
In contrast to Greer, Louise Ferrier met with director Kidron to discuss the film at length, and expressed the opinion that Kidron was "certainly working to make it authentic." Ferrier said she was unfamiliar with the work of Sienna Miller, the actress portraying her. [12]
Publisher Felix Dennis was also more cooperative, and agreed to meet up with Chris O'Dowd, the actor who portrays him in the film. "He was an incredibly charismatic man", O'Dowd stated. [13]
Several advance reviews of Hippie Hippie Shake have surfaced across the Internet. Ain't It Cool News interviewed a person who had attended a test screening, who said: "There are some predictable scenes, some hammy acting, some bad jokes, but they couldn't spoil my enjoyment. I'm sorry, but I really liked it." The viewer was especially impressed by Sienna Miller, saying, "And yes, there is full-frontal nudity from Sienna. She has a natural, un-made-up look for most of the film, one might even say uglified in places. But when kneeling in a garden drenched in daisies and with a beatific expression on her face, she poses for an 'alternative' Oz centrefold – she is stunningly, stunningly beautiful." [14] Jandy Stone from The Frame opined: "All the actors carry their parts well." Of the film, she concluded that "since there's no release date in sight yet, they may well improve it into quite a decent '60s biopic." [15]
Matt Robinson said: "Starring Cillian Murphy and Sienna Miller the film captures the time period effectively presenting both drama, sex and drugs against a setting of media scrutiny and restrictions." He wrote: "Colourful, funny and dramatic this is not only a good film it is educational too. A good document of history that many journalists and nonjournalists will enjoy." [16] Felix Dennis, quoted in The Times of 21 July 2009, wrote: "I was eventually, after asking several times, permitted to see a copy of the film, which I think is quite possibly the worst film to be made in the 21st century... an absolute stinker...a dog's breakfast." [17]
Schoolkids Oz was No. 28 of Oz magazine. The issue was, on a special occasion, edited by 5th- and 6th-form children. It was the subject of a high-profile obscenity case in the United Kingdom from June 1971 to 5 August 1971, the longest trial under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act.
Cillian Murphy is an Irish actor. His works encompass both stage and screen, and his accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Anthony Minghella, was a British film director, playwright, and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. He directed Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990), The English Patient (1996), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and Cold Mountain (2003), and produced Iris (2001).
Lee Hall is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the film Billy Elliot (2000) and the book and lyrics for its adaptation as a stage musical of the same name. In addition, he wrote the play The Pitmen Painters (2007), and the screenplays for the films War Horse and Rocketman (2019).
Oz was an independently published, alternative/underground magazine associated with the international counterculture of the 1960s. While it was first published in Sydney in 1963, a parallel version of Oz was published in London from 1967. The Australian magazine was published until 1969 and the British version until 1973.
Sienna Rose Diana Miller is an American-British actress. Born in New York City and raised in London, she began her career as a photography model, appearing in the pages of Italian Vogue and for the 2003 Pirelli Calendar. Her acting breakthrough came in the 2004 films Layer Cake and Alfie. She subsequently portrayed socialite Edie Sedgwick in Factory Girl (2006) and author Caitlin Macnamara in The Edge of Love (2008), and was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2008. Her role as The Baroness in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) was followed by a brief sabbatical from the screen amid increased tabloid scrutiny.
Hugh Richard Bonniwell Williams, known professionally as Hugh Bonneville, is an English actor. He is best known for portraying Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, in the ITV historical drama series Downton Abbey from 2010 to 2015. His performance on the show earned him a nomination at the Golden Globes and two consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations, as well as three Screen Actors Guild Awards. He reprised his role in the feature films Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022). He also appeared in the films Notting Hill (1999), Iris (2001), The Monuments Men (2014), and the Paddington films (2014–present).
Max Giorgio Choa Minghella is an English actor. He is known for his roles in the films Syriana (2005), Art School Confidential (2006), Elvis and Anabelle (2007), The Social Network (2010), The Darkest Hour (2011), The Ides of March (2011), The Internship (2013), Horns (2013), and Spiral (2021), as well as his role as Nick Blaine in the television series The Handmaid's Tale (2017–present), which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2021.
Nira Louise Park is a British television and film producer.
Christopher O'Dowd is an Irish actor and comedian. He received wide attention as Roy Trenneman, one of the lead characters in the Channel 4 comedy The IT Crowd, which ran for four series between 2006 and 2010. He has also starred in several films, including Gulliver's Travels (2010), Bridesmaids, Friends with Kids, Cuban Fury (2014), Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) and The Cloverfield Paradox (2018). He created and starred in the Sky 1 television series Moone Boy, which aired between 2012 and 2015 and brought him Irish Film and Television Award nominations in acting, writing and directing.
Boho-chic is a style of fashion drawing on various bohemian and hippie influences, which, at its height in late 2005 was associated particularly with actress Sienna Miller, model Kate Moss in the United Kingdom and actress/businesswoman Mary-Kate Olsen in the United States. It has been seen since the early 1990s and, although appearing to wane from time to time, has repeatedly re-surfaced in varying guises. Many elements of boho-chic became popular in the late 1960s and some date back much further, being associated, for example, with pre-Raphaelite women of the mid-to-late 19th century.
Richard Clive Neville was an Australian writer and social commentator who came to fame as an editor of the counterculture magazine OZ in Australia and the United Kingdom in the 1960s and early 1970s. He was educated as a boarder at Knox Grammar School and enrolled for an arts degree at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Australian political magazine The Monthly described Neville as a "pioneer of the war on deference".
Beeban Tania Kidron, Baroness Kidron,, is a British politician. She is an advocate for children's rights in the digital world and has played a role in establishing standards for online safety and privacy across the world.
Eric Nigel Fellner, is a British film producer. He is the co-chairman of the production company Working Title Films.
Emma Booth is an Australian model and actress from Perth, Western Australia. The former teen model and TV actress played a significant role in the film Clubland (2007).
Minah Ogbenyealu Bird was a Nigerian model and actress active in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
South Hill Park is a street in the Hampstead district of London. It is within the London Borough of Camden, and some of its houses overlook Hampstead Heath.
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer and feminist, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century.
Don Macpherson is a British screenwriter working in films and television.
Fuck-me shoes, alternatively fuck-me boots or fuck-me pumps, is a slang term for women's high-heeled shoes that exaggerate a sexual image. The term can be applied to any women's shoes that are worn with the intention of arousing others. It is sometimes used to imply condemnation against the women who choose to wear them or in a misogynistic fashion toward the women who wear them.
Hugh plays John Mortimer QC, who defended two of the accused in court.
Working Title insists that the film won't go straight to DVD, with a smallish 100-print release scheduled for next February.
But that'll be scant consolation for one of the film's characters, Oz alumnus and publisher Felix Dennis. "I was eventually, after asking several times, permitted to see a copy of the film, which I think is quite possibly the worst film to be made in the 21st century," he tells People, adding that he fears that the film will prove to be "an absolute stinker ... a dog's breakfast made of a terrific story".