Caffeinated Clint
Of the Australian films released over the past decade, “Black Water” hovers around the top on my list of favourites. A cleverly-structured and genuinely thrilling little waterlogged-thriller, it was the brainchild of the finanically-savvy and genuinely imaginative Andrew Traucki.
Traucki followed the film up with the similar-themed “The Reef”, also a monster-of-the-water thriller, suggesting the filmmaker had a thing for real-life creatures that can rip us new ones if you jump behind the wooden posts.
His latest film “The Jungle”, about, a solidifies Traucki’s fondness of the “Jaws”-esque sub-genre, and we had the opportunity to chat to the Aussie filmmaker about the picture.
“The Jungle” tells of a couple of Aussies who head into the jungle looking for a rare species of leopard and end up… well, you’ll have to see.
Here’s a quick Q&A with Traucki, followed by the film’s teaser art.
Where’s the pic at, mate?
We’re just in post right now very close to finishing the edit and then going into sound post. Sound is going to be very important so I am really keen to get into that and make sure it’s as god as it can be.
Let’s talk casting. The cast of your films seem to get bigger, and more well-known, with each one… so Schwarzenegger this time around?
Actually I’ve gone the other way with this film. I know you’re meant to strive for bigger and bigger budgets and cast but I felt I wanted to make a smaller budget film to experiment and play around a bit rather than just keep climbing up the ladder. The film is really a 3 hander and they are all relatively unknown cast. I even play a role myself!
Experience any troubles working on location?
Actually, yes I did. I think I pick these films with strong natural locations i.e. swamp, open water and now the jungle and there is a price to pay. The jungle itself wasn’t too hostile except for thorns and sharp vines. At times however it really rained and then the rainforest floor turned to thick mud and everything got covered in thick sticky mud, not pleasant, the upside was that it did make the jungle look pretty beautiful.
