I posted this morning that tomorrow I would start a six day fast.
Well, I got to 3pm after not having eaten anything all day, and I thought – why not start today?
So today has officially been my first day of fasting, after not having eaten since 6:30pm yesterday, Tuesday 2nd Sept.
I’ll check my stats later, but to let you know how I feel: I’m starting to feel hungry. I know the first day of a fast is always the hardest. Second day is tough too. Once I get to day three I’ve pretty much lost my hunger pangs altogether.
So what do I mean by a fast? It’s really simple. For the six days I will only drink water, or tea. No sugar, no milk, I’ll take some vitamin pills – that’s all.
This evening I came downstairs to the kitchen and Jennifer was cooking up some fruit compote for dessert tonight.
For those of waiting to see The Way, My Way, or for those who’ve already seen it and want to see it again – I have some good news.
The film is scheduled to be released on Video On Demand (VOD) this November, on various platforms (e.g. Amazon Prime and Apple TV) and in a number of countries around the world, including the US, the UK, Spain, and some of the larger Spanish speaking Latin America countries.
Please note the film will not to be on Netflix in the near term (and it may actually never be on Netflix), and so at this time, VOD is the only way to legitimately watch and enjoy the film.
Jennifer and I would like to thank you all for your patience in the lead up to the VOD release. Rest assured, we’ve tried our darnedest to make the film available in as many cinemas as possible around the world, but getting distribution for independent films like ours is getting harder and harder these days.
But at least there’ll be the option to see it in your home very soon, and that pleases us greatly.
And if you’re needing an excuse to upgrade your home entertainment system to wide screen Ultra 4K, home cinema surround sound, the VOD release is all the excuse you need!
I’ll come back to you once we’ve got an exact date for the release – but November it is!
There’s a movie I’m going to see this weekend – F1. I’ve been waiting for this movie for months. I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie in a cinema. And I make movies for a living!
Ask yourself – when did you last go to the movies? Then ask yourself – are you going to the movies as often as you did before COVID? I’d say the answer is – no. The attendance figures support this.
Attendance in 2024 Compared to 2019 (pre-COVID):
January: Down 33%
February: Down 17%
March: Down 14%
April: Down 38%
Overall Attendance: Approximately 68% of 2019 levels
Global Trend: Cinema ticket sales fell 8.8% worldwide from the previous year.
Attendance at the cinema has fallen by one third since COVID. That’s huge.
And anecdotally, walk into any multiplex and they’re often near empty. Go see a movie and unless it’s opening week of a blockbuster, you’re most probably one of only a handful of people in the cinema.
I’m a filmmaker. I’ve been making movies for forty years. I love movies. I used to go to the movies a minimum of two times a week. Often more. Sometimes I’d go see a movie and then when it was finished I’d go back out to the ticket stand and buy a ticket for another movie and watch that. Two movies back to back. Those days are gone. Now I’m lucky if I see two movies a month.
Why? Why aren’t I going to the movies anymore? Why aren’t a lot of people going to the movies anymore? Here’s my view on it:
There’s nothing I want to see –
When I look at what movies are playing on any given week, there’s hardly anything that excites me enough to drag me away from my big screen tv at home, with my sound bar and rear speakers, and my Netflix and Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime.
The studios keep churning out the same old stuff – franchise comic book movies and cheesy animation movies and sequels that ran their course several iterations ago. Where are the intelligent dramas? Where are the brilliant thrillers? Where are the heart-tugging laugh out loud romantic-comedies.
They’re on Netflix. Or Apple TV+ Or Binge / HBO.
Most times when I want to go see a movie, there’s nothing for me to see. Now yes, I’m an older demographic. But I loved Barbie. I loved Elvis. I loved the Dune movies. I loved the Avatar movies. Smart beautifully crafted movies that say something and that need to be seen in a cinema.
I’ll be there opening week for F1, The Movie – not that I expect it to say anything of great political or social relevance. But it will be a spectacle and will need to be experienced in a cinema. If the Coen Bros ever make a movie together again I’ll show up for that too. But basically, on any given week, there’s virtually nothing playing that would drag me off my couch and have me go out to a cinema.
The cinema experience is grubby and unwelcoming –
Where’s the box office? You know, that place where you go to buy your tickets.
There used to be a separate place where you used to buy your tickets, most times with a list of the movies playing and session times on a board at the back of the ticket stand. So if your first choice wasn’t available, because it was sold out or you’d missed the start of the movie, you could quickly scan the board and choose another movie. And chances are there would be another movie I’d like to see.
Now you buy your ticket at the concession stand. It stinks of popcorn – and you often have to wait behind a family that’s buying drinks and choctops and cartons of popcorn for several children.
It takes forever…
This is where the cinema experience starts. And it only gets worse.
The cinemas themselves are often filthy. Spilled popcorn on the floor, half drunk bottles left in beverage holders on the seats, lolly wrappers littered underfoot. Many cinemas now often don’t have the staff to clean up between sessions.
More often than not, the person who sold you your ticket, and your tub of popcorn, is the person who comes in when the movie’s finished and cleans up the cinema.
The seats themselves are often old and cracked and someone told me there was mould in the seats of one chain cinema he went to recently. The floors are often sticky from where someone has spilt a drink. The carpets are tired. The bathrooms… well, I just hope the person who sold me my popcorn washed his or her hands.
Then of course there’s the actual experience of watching the film.
People texting or checking their emails or messages within your line of sight of the screen. Their lit mobile phone screen drawing your eye away from the movie. People talking. Laughing during poignant scenes.
Then there’s the cinemas that keep the film’s volume level low because of complaints that it’s too loud. Then there’s the cinemas that keep the volume too loud because people have complained that it’s too low.
Endless ads before the feature starts. And in some cinemas in America you can have a full restaurant meal while you’re watching the movie. I don’t go to the movies to sit beside someone chomping into a hamburger and slurping down a Pepsi.
It’s no wonder so many of us choose to wait till the movie hits streaming so that we can watch it on our big screen tv at home. The floors aren’t quite so sticky
I’ll just wait till it hits Netflix –
It used to be that the “window” between when you saw a movie in the cinema and when you saw it on Netflix or some other streaming platform was months. Now in some instances it’s weeks. Sometimes during the promotion of the cinema release, if the movie has been largely financed by the streamer, it’s advertised as a Stan Original or an Apple TV+ film.
In other words, you know up front it’s going to turn up on that streamer, and probably quite quickly after the theatrical release. There’s got to be an absolutely compelling reason why you’d want to see it in the cinema rather than wait a couple of weeks to see it at home.
it’s so expensive going to the movies –
It’s damn expensive to go see a movie.
I just checked the prices to go see F1 – the movie at a midweek session, 6:00pm for a family of four – two adults, two children. This is at the Event George St Cinema, Sydney.
Factoring in ticket prices, 3 regular sized cartons of popcorn, two ChocTops and two Cokes, the prices are:
I don’t know about you but at a time when everyone is watching what they spend, that’s a big chunk of change. How many families can afford that regularly? For a special occasion, maybe- such as a kid’s birthday – or maybe a film that the kids are desperate to see – but $200+ for a family night out at the moves? That’s not a once a week thing, that’s for sure.
It’s an effort now to go see a movie –
It used to be that going to the movies was no big deal. It’s what you did, regularly. But COVID changed all that. COVID reset our behavioural patterning. And COVID also made a lot of us go out and buy big screen TVs with cinema home theatre sound systems.
The technology advancements in home entertainment systems, along wth the rise of the streamers, along with the reduced “windows” between a theatrical release and a platform release has created a perfect storm for the demise of the cinema going experience.
Couple that with Peak TV, where you have some of the world’s greatest cinematic filmmakers, such as David Fincher, Ridley Scott, Steven Soderbergh, Michael Mann, Jane Campion now turning to TV production making compelling dramas and thrillers, and you have even more reason to stay home, sit on your couch and reach for the remote.
A change in bevaourial patterning is hard to shift.
How to bring audiences back into the cinema –
Make movies that people want to see in the cinema – Give movies time to build word-of-mouth – keep them in the cinema longer. Make the cinema going experience more welcoming – Make it cheaper –
All of the above are easy for me to suggest, hard to implement. But if something isn’t done soon, cinema will go the way of circuses. There used to be small family-run circuses tour cities and towns regularly. They were generational – the circus families went back generations.
They’re now gone. Now we only have the big spectacle circuses. It’ll be the same thing with cinemas – they’ll exist only for the blockbusters.
There was a story in Variety last week stating that a large poll of exhibitors, cinema owners, believed that there’d be no more cinemas in 20 years. That’s pretty frightening for those of us who love going to the movies.
But habits have changed. Yes, sure there’ll be the occasional FI or new James Cameron epic which will spike the numbers for a while – but ask yourself this: what sort of movie would make you want to go see it in a cinema nowadays.
Cinema is the best way to see movies in their full sound and image glory. With the added benefit of sharing the experience with others. This is something precious and delicate and must be preserved at all costs.
As for me, I’ve already bought my tickets to F1. even though I know it’ll be coming to Apple TV+ soon, because it’s an Apple TV+ production. Even so, I want to see it on the largest screen possible, with the best sound possible. And that’s in a cinema!
After 4 months on the road traveling with our movie The Way, My Way, we’re finally back at home in Mudgee – and my goodness, it’s great to be sleeping in our own bed again.
It was an extraordinary trip –
8 weeks in the US and Canada doing Q&A screenings,
Three weeks in Germany supporting the film’s theatrical release.
A side trip to Hungary for a special screening in Budapest with our dear friends Balazs and Laszlo – both feature in the film.
Three weeks or so in England, Scotland and Wales.
Then back to Canada and Vancouver to attend the annual North American Gathering of Camino pilgrims with a special screening.
Then back to Europe and Malta to attend the European Assembly of Camino pilgrims, with screenings for the Spanish Ambassador, the Australian High Commissioner, and other dignitaries.
Then from Malta back to London then back home!
Overnight I slept for nine hours straight. I never sleep nine hours straight!
I have emails long overdue need replying to, finances to sort, social media needs attending to, plus I started writing a new novel while I was away and I have a deadline in two weeks to deliver the first 25k words to Penguin Random House. Then there’s the sequel to The Way, My Way that Jennifer and I are starting to ramp up – not to mention kick starting my exercise routine once again, getting my eating regime back on track, and so on and so forth!
I never want to travel again.
Until August, when I have to go back to California for more stem cell treatment for my Parkinson’s.
I tell you what though, I love Australia. I’m proud to be an Australian. We’re not without our faults and problems, as with any country – But I’d prefer to live here than anywhere else in the world. And in Mudgee in particular. With Jennifer.
We’ve been in the United Kingdom this past week or so – kicking our heels before we fly to Vancouver in a week to attend the annual Camino Pilgrim Gathering. The Way, My Way will screen there as part of the Gathering, and we have been invited as guests.
From Vancouver we fly to Malta, for a European equivalent. Again the film will screen there to an audience of European Camino leaders.
What have we been doing in the UK? Collecting our thoughts and preparing for the period ahead, which is going to be busy –
I have the Hope film to finish, and we’ll start to ramp up the sequel to The Way, My Way, called The Way, Her Way, which we intend to shoot on the Portuguese Camino early next year.
I’ll release more information abut The Way, Her Way in the next little while, but basically it’s a female perspective on the Camino. More women than men walk the Camino, yet there’s never been a movie produced centred around a woman.
Yesterday I bought a membership to the Royal National Trust. Jennifer and I each day have been visitingng National Trust gardens – and I figured it was cheaper to join rather than pay the entrance fees each time.
We’ve seen some glorious places.
The world is going through some tumultuous changes – and these changes are only going to become more tumultuous in the months and years ahead. My Journey films – on Intuition, Fear, Hope, Purpose, and Death will provide some guidance during these times.
And films of courage, inspiration, and empowerment will be sorely needed.
I have to figure out my place in this tectonically shifting universe – so that I can do all I can to help navigate these troubling times. Right now I’m inhaling tranquility and beauty.
Our mammoth global tour of The Way, My Way, continues.
We’ve been in Germany now more than three weeks. We’ve driven the length and breadth of the country in a rented (and brand new) Audi A5 that has a warning badge on the dashboard that says I’m not allowed to drive it faster than 220 km/hr.
Damn. And I was wanting to hit 250!
The autobahns here allow drivers to go however fast they want. Some must be hitting 260km/hr easy. They flash past in their Mercedes and BMWs and Porches (and yes, Audis too) You see them as a speck in the rearview then they’re there and then they’re not there.
It’s a wonder there aren’t more horrific accidents.
But unlike speedsters in Texas or Florida, the Germans are incredibly safe and disciplined drivers. It’s actually more dangerous driving on Australian highways where the speed limit is a mind-numbingly slow 100 km/hr. At least on German highways you have to stay fully focused the whole time.
Enough of German driving conditions!
So far I’ve driven about 2,500 kms up and down and around the country so that Jennifer and I can attend the various Q&A screenings set up for us by the film’s German distributor, Happy Entertainment, led by Thomas Steger.
(too much headroom!)
Thomas and his team have done a terrific job preparing the film for its general release on 80+ screens across the country, and Austria, on April 24th/25th. He’s geared the film’s campaign specifically for a German audience – and I have to say the audiences have responded to the film differently to Australian or American audiences.
Australian audiences were a little shy and tentative and dare I say it, initially suspicious that an Australian film could be any good. But the film ended up having a 20 week run. In America and Canada, the audiences were enthusiastic and exuberant right from the getgo.
The German audiences are a little more restrained – and this could be cultural or it could be a function of the dubbing and translation – however they have been no less impacted by the subtle power of the film, as have audiences elsewhere, and the Q&As have been largely fully attended and the questions have indicated a deep engagement with the material.
During our time here we’ve been able to hang out with our dear friend Rudi Wiesmeier, who lives in a beautiful village south of Munich and whose support of the movie brought it into creation.
(perfect headroom!)
His two friends, brothers Jonas and Julian Bachmann, featured in the film as the musicians in the Hontanas party scene, then later in the snail scene. (“Mein Gott! Ist er tot?”) They saw the film in Munich and loved it.
(forgivable headroom)
Tomorrow we drive 400km+ to Leipzig, for a screening there – then to Berlin for a screening there – then we fly to Budapest in Hungary for a special screening hosted by our Camino buddies Balazs and Laszlo – stars of the film. That’s on Sunday 27th April.
From there we go to the UK for about ten days, then we fly back to Canada for a screening at a big annual Camino Gathering in Vancouver, then we fly to Malta for a similar screening with European Camino leaders – then… we fly back home.
We’ll have been away four months. I wonder what the lawn’s like?
This afternoon Jennifer and I did our final Q&A in Carson City, near Lake Tahoe, in Nevada.
It was our 48th Q&A screening in 44 different towns/cities in 51 days.
We attended screenings in these states and provinces:
Arizona
New Mexico
Colorado
Texas
Florida
Ohio
Indiana
Illinois
Wisconsin
Washington DC
Virginia
New York
Ontario (province of Canada)
British Columbia (province of Canada)
Washington
Oregon
California
Nevada
I’ve driven 4,314 miles. I’ve rented five vehicles. We’ve taken 56 Ubers. We’ve taken 12 internal flights.
You might think we’re utterly exhausted but actually we’re not.
Camino walking legend Johnnie Walker joined us for our NY, Canadian, Seattle, Portland OR and most of the Californian screenings. He was a big hit with the crowds. They loved him!
And he energised us.
But what’s really kept us going day to day, screening to screening, has been the audiences. Most of those 48 screenings were sellouts. In Ottawa we had a sellout crowd of 650. In San Rafael we had a sellout crowd of 340. Dan the manager there said he could have sold twice that number of tickets.
So even though it’s been a long haul for Jennifer and me, and Johnnie too – it’s been worth it! We’ve met some wonderful people, many of whom have become friends – and we’ve seen first hand the impact the film is having on people.
Before we left home we were concerned that the North American audiences maybe wouldn’t “get” the film. That’s turned out to be something we need not have worried about. The audience response throughout has been even more demonstrative than in Australia. And the Q&As have been vigorous and they’ve asked some fascinating questions.
There hasn’t been one screening where the audience hasn’t clapped twice – one when the film cuts to black at the end, and then again at the end of the credit roll. It’s been incredibly humbling – but also gratifying.
Behind all this has been the engine room of Paul Hudson, head of US based Outsider Pictures, and our Executive Producer Marc Wooldridge, head of Maslow Entertainment in Australia.
Tomorrow we drive from Carson City, Nevada, to Los Angeles where on Monday we fly out to Germany to meet up with another of our Executive Producers, Rudi Wiesmeier. The film is getting a major theatrical release in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
It premieres in Munich on April 8th, and Jennifer and I then begin a 12-15 city Q&A tour throughout Germany. Then we’re coming back to North America in early May for further screenings.
This film has a life of its own. It’s now running on what we call: Pilgrim Power!
I drove all this except for Cincinnati/Columbus/Indiapolis – these sectors we were very kindly driven by Brian and Michelle Coleman – 283miles. It took a huge burden off me, plus we had a great deal of fun Cruisin’ with the Colemans!
From here we go to New York, then into Canada where we have sellout screenings in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. From Vancouver we drop back into the US where we have a screening in Seattle. Then Portland Oregon – then we shift on down into California.
Johnnie /walker joins us in a couple of days now in New York, and he’ll be doing Q&As with us up to March 23.
It’s been interesting seeing the differences and similarites between the Australian audiences and the US audience.
Overall, the US audiences have been more demonstrative, more effusive in their praise of the film, they are happy to discuss spiritual matters more openly, and they are more interested in the transformative aspects of the Camino.
There are some questions the US audiences ask that are the same as the Australian audiences. They are:
How is your knee now? (Still buggered)
Why are the trails so empty? (Because most days we started shooting at 7pm or so to get the magic hour light – and most pilgrims have bunked down in their alburgues by this time of the evening.)
Why did I cast Chris Haywood as myself? (Because he’s a great actor)
To Jennifer: Has he really changed? (Jennifer: Yes. He now divides his life into the years before the Camino and the years after the Camino.)
What’s your favourite part of the Camino? (The Meseta,)
How are we holding up?
It’s been tough at time, I have to admit. All the driving, no real time to rest – but what’s kept us going are the wonderful people we’re meeting. Pilgrims really are extraordinary people!
Finally, we have a place where you can go to find showtimes and buy tickets for the Q&A tour – and when the film opens in general release on March 7th, you can use this link to find your nearest cinema too –
Go to the website’s home page – find the SHOWTIMES tab on the menu bar, click on that, choose your country, search your zip code, and there it is!
Sorry it’s taken so long – it’s a difficult and time consuming process getting commitments from exhibitors to play a small Australian movie about a stubborn man walking across Spain!
Yes, but is it Tuesday or is it Monday? This Q&A tour is becoming a bit of a blur. Here are the screenings so far:
Phoenix – SELL OUT
Sedona x 2 screenings – both SELL OUTS
Flagstaff – SELL OUT
Albuquerque – 95% full
Santa Fe – SELL OUT
Denver – SELL OUT
Flat Iron Crossing – SELL OUT
Dallas – 95% full
Austin – SELL OUT
San Antonio – SELL OUT
Houston – SELL OUT
Orlando – 90% full
Miami Nth – 90% full
Miami Sth – SELL OUT
So across 15 screenings in 17 days so far we’ve had 11 sell outs, and those that didn’t sell out had only the front two rows close to the screen left unsold. The screening tonight in Miami’s Coral Gables Art Cinema sold out the first day tickets went on sale. It was a 141 seat cinema, but they put in extra chairs to cater for the overflow, making it 150 seats in all.
We flew from Australia to Phoenix (8,809 miles), and have taken 2 internal flights totalling 1800 miles. Most of our travel though has been by car – with me driving…
In 17 days I’ve driven 1875 miles, or 3,017 kms through Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas and Florida.
How are we holding up?
Overall, pretty darn well. There have been a few times in the past 17 days when we’ve felt like we’ve been newly exhumed – but other than that we’re having a huge amount of fun, meeting some truly remarkable and wonderful people, making new friends and catching up with old friends – but the thing that keeps us buoyed is the audiences’ response to the film.
It’s been humbling – and has far exceeded our expectations.
PGS - The Way 
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