MOVIE | Warwick Thornton boards Australian epic First Warrior – Camera d’Or award-winning director Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah, The New Boy) has signed on to direct FIRST WARRIOR, an epic feature film about Australian Aboriginal resistance fighter Pemulwuy.
A Bidjigal man of the Sydney tribes, Pemulwuy led a 12-year resistance against British settlers moving into his people’s traditional lands as Australia was colonised in the late 1700s.
FIRST WARRIOR is supported by the Bidjigal, Dharawal and Dharug Elders and is led by an all-Indigenous core creative team including Thornton, writer Jon Bell (The Moogai, Cleverman) and writer-producer Andrew Dillon (Le Champion, Outliers), a direct descendent of both the Dharug and Gomeroi people who will produce under his That’s-A-Wrap Productions banner, a 100% Indigenous First Nations owned and operated production company.
BAFTA nominated and AACTA Award-winning screenwriter Stuart Beattie (Collateral, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) has also come on board alongside Phillip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Salt) and Shana Levine (The Portable Door, Charlie & Boots).
Some of Australia’s finest acting exports are attached, Sam Worthington (Avatar, Hacksaw Ridge) and Jason Clarke (Oppenheimer, Zero Dark Thirty), with a search underway to cast the roles of Pemulwuy, as well as Bennelong who was kidnapped by Governor Arthur Phillip to start a dialogue with Indigenous Australians.
Thornton said,
“I am so honoured to be a part of this amazing film. It’s an important story with an awesome script and legendary actors”.
Andrew Dillon said:
“It has been a lifelong goal of mine to have our Indigenous warriors celebrated on the silver screen. I can’t wait for audiences to not only experience Warwick’s vision for this story but to leave the cinema with a newfound appreciation of Australia’s shared history”.
Media Release – Nixco
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MOVIE | Warwick Thornton boards Australian epic First Warrior
