The King | |
---|---|
Written by | Jaime Browne Kris Mrksa |
Directed by | Matthew Saville |
Starring | Stephen Curry Stephen Hall Shaun Micallef |
Music by | Bryony Marks |
Country of origin | Australia |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | Jason Stephens |
Cinematography | Leilani Hannah |
Running time | 100 minutes |
Budget | A$2.1 million |
Original release | |
Network | TV1 |
Release | 20 May 2007 |
The King: The Story of Graham Kennedy is an Australian television film examining the life of Australian entertainer Graham Kennedy.
Produced in Australia by the Sydney based independent production company Crackerjack Productions for TV1 and the Nine Network, The King was first shown on 20 May 2007 on TV1 for Foxtel and Austar and became the highest rating drama ever screened on subscription television in Australia, drawing 511,000 viewers. It later aired on the Nine Network on 27 August 2007.[ citation needed ]
The film faced criticism from some of those close to Kennedy who felt it did not portray him accurately, feeling that he was portrayed too broadly in a dark manner in the film, as well as what one commentator noted was a "mad rush to out him, sexually".[ citation needed ]
The screenplay was written by Jaime Browne and Kris Mrksa; the director was Matthew Saville, and the producer was Jason Stephens. Filming began on 6 December 2006 with a A$2.1 million budget and a 20-day shooting schedule. The ABC's Ripponlea studios were utilised to film the scenes for sequences involving Kennedy's roles on In Melbourne Tonight and Blankety Blanks . [1]
Stephen Curry (who plays the role of Graham Kennedy) lost 14 kilograms to portray the young Kennedy, and then regained the weight in two weeks over Christmas 2006 to play the older Kennedy. [2]
A Herald Sun article published on 28 November 2006 headed "Pals protect mate" reported that Kennedy's friends Bert Newton, Noeline Brown and her husband TV writer Tony Sattler were "refusing to help producers of a telemovie about his life." [3]
The article stated that "Bert Newton knocked back an approach to work on The King, telling industry sources Kennedy would not have approved of his story being told" and quoted Sattler as saying "He was never himself, always playing the character called Graham Kennedy, so I don't know how they'd find someone who could manage to play the part." It also stated "The movie is not linked with [the] controversial book "The King & I", launched in the prior month by Kennedy's former lover, Rob Astbury."
Kennedy's biographer Graeme Blundell wrote in The Australian : [4]
Stephen Curry gets most of this right in his compelling portrayal of the sphinx-like and teasingly evasive television comedian [...]
He is so very, very good his career may never recover. The "Weren't you Graham Kennedy?" syndrome will likely pursue him every time he tries to buy groceries. As it did the King [...]
Curry is terrific and, although instantly recognisable as the oyster-eyed performer, doesn't impersonate him (though he says he tested prosthetic eyes) so much as inhabit him [...]
At the 2007 Australian Film Institute Awards The King won the award for Best Telefeature or Miniseries. Curry also picked up the award for Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama and Saville for Best Direction in Television. [5]
Rodney Sturt Taylor was an Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including Young Cassidy (1965), Nobody Runs Forever (1968), The Train Robbers (1973) and A Matter of Wife... and Death (1975).
In Melbourne Tonight, also known as IMT, was a highly popular nightly Logie award-winning Australian variety television show produced at GTV-9 Melbourne from 6 May 1957 to 1970.
The TV Week Logie Awards is an annual ceremony celebrating and honouring the best shows and stars in Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine TV Week. The event is telecast live and billed as "television's night of nights". The first ceremony was hosted in 1959 as the TV Week Awards.
Albert Watson Newton was an Australian media personality. He was a Logie Hall of Fame inductee, quadruple Gold Logie–winning entertainer, and radio, theatre, and television personality and compère.
Graham Cyril Kennedy AO was an Australian entertainer, comedian and variety performer, as well as a personality and star of radio, theatre, television and film. He often performed in the style of vaudevillian and radio comedy star Roy Rene and was often called "Gra Gra".
The 21st Annual TV Week Logie Awards were presented on Friday 16 March 1979 at Hilton Hotel in Melbourne and broadcast on the Nine Network. Bert Newton was the Master of Ceremonies. American boxer Muhammad Ali, film stars Henry Silva and Cicely Tyson, television actors Robin Williams, Susan Seaforth, Bill Hayes and Lauren Tewes, British actor David Hemmings and television actors Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy appeared as guests.
Noeline Mabel Brown, credited also as Noelene Brown, is an Australian actress and comedian. She has appeared in numerous films, television shows, theatrical productions and radio programs dating back to 1959.
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Ian Bruce Turpie, sometimes referred to as Turps, was an Australian performer, actor, pop singer and presenter. He was the host of the teen pop music TV show, The Go!! Show (1965–66) and various TV game shows, The Price Is Right, and Supermarket Sweep (1992–1994). As a TV actor he portrayed Keith Warne on Swift and Shift Couriers and Wazza and Narrator in Housos (2011). He was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in 2011 and died the following year, aged 68.
Don Lane was an American-born talk show host and singer, best known for his television career in Australia, especially for hosting Tonight with Don Lane and The Don Lane Show, which aired on the Nine Network from 1975 to 1983, and his appearances with Bert Newton.
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The Don Lane Show was an Australian television talk show which aired twice a week on the Nine Network from 1975 to 1983. The show was created by Don Lane who co-hosted it with Bert Newton.
Matthew Joseph Newton is an Australian actor, writer, and director, and son of TV personalities Bert and Patti Newton. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Catherine Schneiderman, daughter of American politician Eric Schneiderman.
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Clifford Nicholls "Nicky" Whitta was a popular Australian radio personality. He originally broadcast as Nicky Nicholls.
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Bryony Marks is an Australian composer of film scores and theatre music, for which she has won several awards and been nominated for many others. Among her television credits are Please Like Me and Barracuda, and films include Berlin Syndrome and 2040. She has also composed the music for many of the films directed by her husband, Matthew Saville.