Full cast for Simon Wincer’s The Cup Announced

Moviehole was present at the Flemington Race Course on Friday as Roadshow films and director Simon Wincer (“Free Willy”, “The Man from Snowy River”) unveiled the the cast of the long-gestating Damien Oliver biopic “The Cup”.

The versatile Stephen Curry (“Rogue”, “The Castle”) has slimmed down (considerably) to play Damien Oliver, the jockey who famously rode the horse ‘Media Puzzle’ to victory in the Melbourne Cup just days after his brother Jason was killed in a turf accident.

Curry, always up for a challenge, discussed the trials and tribulations of trying to master horse-riding on the director’s farm.

Joining Curry for the press conference were his newly-announced co-stars Brendan Gleeson, Daniel MacPherson, Shaun Micallef, Jodi Gordon, Alice Parkinson, Tom Burlinson, Bobby Fox and Harli Ames. It was also announced that Colleen Hewett, Bill Hunter and Rodger Corser would be in the film – though they weren’t present on the day.

55 horses will be trained for the film.

Gleeson (“In Bruges”) will play Dermot Weld, Micallef (“Aquamarine”) is Lee Freedman, Burlinson (“The Man from Snowy River”) is Dave Phillips, Bobby Fox is Niall Phillips, Gordon (“Home & Away”) is Trish Oliver, Alice Parkinson (“Sanctum”) is Jenny Freedman, Bill Hunter (“Muriel’s Wedding”) is the legendary Bart Cummings, and Harli Ames is playing Saeed Bin Suroor.

Damien Oliver himself also was also present.

The jockey, who admitted it’s still very hard to talk about that highly-emotional win, said it was a great honour to have Wincer (“Lonesome Dove”) turn his story into a film. And though he jokingly swears off acting in the film, he said he’s fully supportive of the project and will help out any way he can.

Wincer, who has been working on the film for six years now, said he’s only got $15 million to shoot a film that, had it been made in the states, would’ve cost about $60 million.

The film, delayed because of the global financial crisis, is expected to be released next Easter. It started filming Monday; quite a few scenes will be shot at the Spring Racing Carnival.