Croc horror has big bite

By Ed Merrison
THE Upper Yarra region has been busy playing the somewhat unlikely screen role of the Outback, hosting a galaxy of movie stars in the process.
The cast and crew of US-funded horror movie Rogue will have spent a total of seven weeks in Warburton by the time the shoot comes to an end in Powelltown on Saturday, 25 January.
The film, directed by Greg McLean, who also filmed Wolf Creek, is set in the Top End, where filming for the first three weeks of production took place.
Since then, the cast and crew have slept during the day and filmed through the night to complete work on the film, due for release in the first half of 2007.
Actor Stephen Curry, known for his roles in The Castle and The Secret Life of Us, confessed to feeling jet-lagged due to the nocturnal schedule, but spared some time before an 8pm breakfast to talk about the movie.
“It’s the story of a bunch of tourists who take a day tour in the Top End and come across a 7.5m-long rogue crocodile, which systematically begins stalking them and popping them off one by one,” he said.
The film is completely funded by Dimension Films, an arm of major Hollywood player The Weinstein Company, and features an elaborate island set in a lake in Gilderoy.
The film tells the story of Pete, an American travel writer played by Michael Vartan, of USTV spy drama Alias, who embarks on his first trip to the Outback.
He joins a tour group that includes Mr Curry and John Jarratt, who starred as the brutal serial killer in Wolf Creek.
Heading the tour group is Kate, played by Australian actor Radha Mitchell, with whom Pete strikes up a romance.
Mr Curry said the film started off “nice and bubbly”, with a few comic characters and a burgeoning romance between Pete and Kate, but the tone soon shifted.
“It kind of lulls you into a false sense of security and ends up really scary,” he said.
Prior to the Victorian leg of the shoot, the Rogue team was dealing with quite different conditions in the Top End.
One week was spent in Arnhem Land and Kakadu, with shooting in Katherine Gorge lasting a further two weeks.
Unlike the chilly night shoots in Gilderoy, where the cast donned coats between takes and olive oil spray was used to mimic Outback sweat, the cast dropped like flies in the Top End heat.
Mr Curry said filming in the Top End, where temperatures on the boat hit 51 degrees one day, was an awesome experience.
“It was just amazing. To be invited into Arnhem Land was an absolute honour,” he said.
In Yellow Water in Arnhem Land, the cast spent whole days cruising up and down a stretch of water containing 150 crocodiles per 3km stretch.
Mr Curry said it was difficult to explain such a mind-blowing experience.
“The first crocodile we saw was under a tree and they filmed our real-life reactions. It was unbelievable,” Mr Curry said.
The cast was assigned an Aboriginal sharpshooter named Freddie, whose job it was to pick off any crocodile that put their life in danger.
“There was Freddie, leaning on his rifle on another boat, and we were wondering, ‘when does he decide it’s time to shoot?’,” Mr Curry said.
The less than reassuring answer was: “If you need Freddie, you’re in trouble.”
Warburton has been cooler and tamer, and Mr Curry said his co-stars had enjoyed the experience.
“The golf course has provided wonderful views, the Alpine Retreat Hotel has been a great place of relaxation, and Jillian from Jillian’s Roadhouse has kept us entertained with her array of somewhat bawdy t-shirts,” he said.
Mr Curry said the locals had been aware of the project and had done well to put up with the cast and crew.
“I’ve loved it here, it’s been great,” he said.