PRODUCTION THE NEW BOY
Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton describes writing, directing and shooting his latest project The New Boy
Thornton wrote his first draft of The New Boy almost 20 years ago. A coming- of-age story not wholly unlike his own, the film follows a nameless Aboriginal boy (played by Aswan Reid) who has been sent to a remote Australian monastery. At first, our title character doesn’t fit in, refusing to wear clothes or use cutlery – as well as possessing supernatural powers – but eventually is accepted by the other Indigenous orphans. After the monastery receives a statue of Jesus on the cross, the boy’s behaviour becomes strange and he loses his gift. Thornton – who is Aboriginal himself and attended a Catholic school – recalls his own fascination with a Jesus figure like the one which transfixes the boy. This image was the film’s initial inspiration. “I don’t come from that wheat field, Days of Heaven stuff. I come from a red dirt, dustbowl kind of world,” Thornton explains. “It’s two-and-a-half hours from where I live to Sydney. I do so much post- production in Sydney, but I’d rather drive for three days than fly for three hours.
WORDS Katie Kasperson IMAGES Ben King
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t’s fairly common for writers to direct their own films – less so for them to be the one behind the camera. For The New Boy , Warwick Thornton was an everyman, acting as the writer, director and cinematographer. “I’m originally a DOP but wasn’t getting much work, so I decided to start writing movies I would like to shoot – with no thought of directing,” admits Thornton. When his scripts started drumming up interest from investors, he was asked to take the lead. “‘I’m not a director, I’m a cinematographer, and my life plan is to be a great one’,” Thornton told people. But to get the funding he needed, he stepped into new shoes.
ONE-MAN BAND Warwick Thornton (top left) worked with a terrific cast of children, plus esteemed names like Cate Blanchett
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