Tag Archives: The Way My Way

Time to reflect ~

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I have a little time at the moment to reflect- on this past eighteen months with the making and initial distribution of The Way, My Way – but also time to reflect on larger matters.

Last week we finished our cinema run in Australia of The Way, My Way. It ran for 20 weeks in Australia, and it’s still screening in New Zealand. A 20 week theatrical run for a movie in this day and age is remarkable.

The film now begins its life online – it’s available on all the major platforms in Australia and NZ – and those that missed seeing it in the cinema will have the chance to see it at home.

Early next year we begin the global rollout- first the US, then Europe following shortly after. Again, Jennifer and I will support the US release with Q&As, and once again we’ll be joined by Johnnie Walker who’ll travel with us across the States, attending select screenings.

Looking forward to that!

To say that the response to the film has exceeded our expectations is a massive understatement. Before the Australian premiere, I would have been delighted with a 3-4 week run. Totally delighted. For it to run 20 weeks is still something I find quite mind-blowing.

Whether audiences overseas will take to the movie with such eagerness is yet to be determined. We’ll see. Again, I have low expectations. All I hope is that like in Australia, the Camino community will see it as truly authentic to the Camino spirit.

Whilst I have some down time, I’m keeping busy.

Jennifer and I are waiting for the finance to fall into place on a large budget thriller set in India that we’ve been working on for some time with Australian based producer Anupam Sharma. It’s called Those that Love, Those that Kill, and it’s based on a true story of a double honour killing. Hopefully that will have us shooting in India in the New Year.

I have the film on Hope still to finish, which will be the third film in my Journey series, the first two being PGS – Intuition is your Personal Guidance System, and Facing Fear. We’re halfway through shooting Hope, but it will have to wait till I have more time.

So I’m using my time to write. I’m finishing off a novel called Dead Image, which Penguin Random House is tracking. They published my supernatural thriller trilogy Palace of Fires.

I’ve also started a new book – non-fiction – called If I can Change, You can Too. It’s a factual account of the massive changes I’ve gone through over the past ten years, and it gives pointers to how you can change too. Should you wish to…

I’ve yet to wrap my head around the book associated with my film Facing Fear. I need to do it, because the companion book to my film PGS Intuition has been selling quite well. But once again, I need to find a three month block of uninterrupted time when I can focus on it.

In a few months though I’ll have another book hitting the bookshops. It’s called Posts from a blog that became a book that became a film – The Way, My Way. It’s a compilation book of all the posts I wrote before, during and after my first Camino, plus posts from the Portuguese Camino I did the following year. All up, 120 posts, including photos.

It’s been a big job pulling that all together.

And then there’s the sequel to The Way, My Way, which Jennifer and I will swing into after the Indian movie, which we’ll be commencing in September next year, 2025. And after that there’s the alien film which I’ve been developing for many years, called They’re Here! It’s a comedy set in a small remote outback town.

I’m busier now than I’ve ever been. I feel as though finally, I’ve reached a stage where I have a level of craft competency coupled with a honed story-sense that enables me to work efficiently and at a high level.

Whether what I work on will be successful is in the lap of the Gods, but I’ll let you in on a little secret – Jennifer and I are having the best time!

I deserve nothing ~~~

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I’ve had some success lately.

It doesn’t happen often.

But on those few occasions when it has happened, invariably I’m surprised, and grateful. Grateful because I’ve tasted failure many times. And so my reaction to success is now the same as my reaction to failure:

So what…

Success doesn’t mean anything, nor does failure. They’re flip sides of the same coin.

You need to fail to achieve success. In many ways failure is a prerequisite for success. My experience is that to succeed, you need to step outside the box, to stand uncomfortable, to risk humiliation. To be prepared to be crushed.

I’ve been crushed many times. It’s not pleasant, let me tell you. But to achieve anything in this life you have to get back up, spit the blood from your mouth, and go back to work again.

My success is this recent film I’ve made.

For me, the success the film has achieved isn’t its box office or the acclaim it’s received, it’s that people have gone to the cinema and come away feeling good. Feeling inspired. Feeling empowered.

That to me is success.

Some kind people have said I deserve this success.

They’ve seen me struggle. They’ve seen me hurt. They’re seen how hard I’ve worked, for so many years, without any apparent benefit.

They say I deserve all these good things now and I say thank you, but silently I say no I don’t. I don’t deserve anything. The world, the Universe, doesn’t owe me anything.

No matter how hard I’ve worked, what risks I’ve taken, I’m not entitled to success.

Just as I’m not entitled to failure.

I’m very suspicious of this word deserve.

The word lacks humility. It lacks grace. It speaks to me of ego-based entitlement. Of expectation. Of sought-for outcomes. That’s a space I don’t wish to inhabit.

I don’t deserve anything.

Is success preferable to failure? To answer that I have to ask myself: What is success?

For me, it’s that I finished the film and it’s the film I wished to make. How fortunate am I?

When is The Way, My Way coming to the US and elsewhere ~

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This is a question that I’m being constantly asked.
So let me explain how it works.

For starters, the film is, in Johnnie Walker’s words, brand new. It was only finally completed about 4 weeks ago.

For the film to be screened in the US, and in other territories outside Australia and New Zealand, it needs to be acquired by distributors in those territories.

This is a film that needs to be seen in a cinema, and so a fundamental requirement with buyers is that the film must have a guaranteed theatrical release.

We are in no rush to have this film go out on a streaming platform.

We’re looking for distributors who will handle the film with the care, skill and commitment that Marc Wooldridge and his team at Maslow Entertainment have brought to their release in Australia and New Zealand.

Our strategy?

Simon Crowe, our foreign sales agent based in the UK, screened the film at the recent Cannes Film Festival in the Marché. Already he’s had offers.

The outstanding success of the film in Australia and New Zealand ($1m+ in the first two weeks) has caught the attention of foreign buyers. So we’ll wait and see.

Don’t sit at home thinking that it’s going to come to Netflix or another streamer anytime soon.

That’s not going to happen.

If you want to see the film, go to a cinema. That’s where this film should be seen – shot in wide-screen format and with an exceptional soundtrack, it really is a big screen experience.

And the Camino – the star of the movie – really needs to be experienced in its full glory.

It’s the work that matters…

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It’s very pleasing that a lot of people are turning up to see The Way, My Way.
In a few days we’ll be at $1m in box office returns.

Reviews are coming out, mainly positive, and I’m being contacted by friends saying: Oh you must be so thrilled etc.

I’m not.
Nor is Jennifer.
We’re rock steady.

Over a forty year period we’ve made films that have gone nowhere, and we’ve made films that have made a dent. I’ve ceased to predict how a movie we’ve made will work. I’ve been surprised at those that have connected with an audience, and shattered at those that haven’t.

I don’t read reviews anymore.
Or listen or watch them if they’re on radio/podcasts/YouTube/whatever…

It doesn’t matter to me what a reviewer thinks. I’m only interested in what the audience thinks. They’re who I made the film for – not critics.

I see younger actors get peeved that a critic said this or didn’t say that. It doesn’t matter didly squat. The only thing that matters is the work. The views of a critic are meaningless and transitory. What lasts is the work. And that’s where the focus needs to be. Solely on the work.

Right at the outset, when we had our first conversation with our distributor Marc Wooldridge, head of Maslow Entertainment, after Marc had seen the movie, he asked me: What would success look like for you with this film?

I said to Marc: Success is here right now. We’ve made the film. That’s success.

Why is The Way, My Way working – redux…

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Sometime in the next week, the film will cross the $1m mark.

I asked veteran screen pundit Paul Brennan why it’s doing so well – and I posted his response earlier. But there’s another reason –

We have a very smart, very committed distributor in Marc Wooldridge and his team at Maslow Entertainment.

Marc and his partner Karen saw an advanced cut of the film. They liked it but they had a few quibbles. Jennifer and I fixed those quibbles. Immediately the film played better.

Seen the trailer? If you haven’t, here it is.
This is Marc’s work –

Marc has approached the distribution and marketing of this film with passion and full commitment. He’s discovered the whole world of the Camino, a world that initially he knew nothing about – but he very quickly immersed himself in it.

It was always our strategy to ensure that the film worked for the core Camino audience, and then hope that word of mouth would bring non-pilgrims to the cinema.

To that end, Marc sought the support of The Australian Friends of the Camino and Janet Leitch, who swung her endorsement behind the film. Similarly, Marc bought Camino legend Johnnie Walker out from Santiago in Spain to do advance Q&A screenings here in Australia.

John’s unwavering support has been crucial in this film’s success as well.

Jennifer and I are very fortunate that the film landed in Marc’s hands. Just as we have handcrafted this movie, Marc and his team have handcrafted the distribution and marketing.

We’ve brought Marc on as an Executive Producer and in that capacity he will work with Simon Crowe, our foreign sales agent based in the UK, to oversee the international rollout. And if the response overseas is anything like it is in Australia, we have exciting times ahead of us.

Why is The Way, My Way working…

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By the end of the first week up to Friday 24th, The Way, My Way had a box office gross of nearly $750,000 – from Australia and New Zealand.

That’s phenomenal.

I asked Paul Brennan, highly respected film industry veteran on the exhibition side of things, why is it working so well. Here’s what he wrote back:

THE WAY MY WAY is one of those rare events in screen success in that the feature is appealing to enthusiastic baby boomer audiences who still like to attend the cinema as well as the cinema owners and programmers who delight in screening to crowded sessions, especially Sunday to Friday in what would normally be considered off peak times.

Seeing THE WAY MY WAY is an elating passive emotional cinema experience which celebrates the humorous human condition for educated adults still wishing to be included in social life. It is also an inspiring sports film…it might be walking and learning and feeling, and that experience for mature adults is a valid part of their healthy lives.

THE WAY MY WAY validates how older people still see themselves, and especially the ache and repair of relationships. Even with their own body. By experiencing the journey as a screen vision, it certainly uplifts the viewer to participate in nature, effort and emotion to the point of heartfelt release by the 100th minute.

Few films pass from maker to viewer with enthusiastic intergenerational audience result. Anyone from 25 to 85 can see themselves on screen, and often wish parents and relatives to reconnect. The word of mouth, essential for return visits and good conversation is a solid strike rate. Many viewers return, bringing neighbours and family with them. And on attendance multiplies. 

While mainstream blockbusters and exhausting cinema crowds dominate evenings and Saturdays, THE WAY MY WAY is the humble blockbuster providing profitable sessions at the counterbalance times of matinees and weekdays, a schedule which sees both ticket-buyer and cinema owner delighted at the access and the experience.

THE WAY MY WAY is not competing with any movie in the market; it is the competition itself in a parallel orbit. And everyone is happy. Hiking businesses would cheer and promote both the topic and the supply materials as working examples of their business aesthetic.

Similar rare unique release titles would be AS IT IS IN HEAVEN and THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN.

Paul Brennan / ptbscreen.com.au

Perspective changes everything ~

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I’m currently reading a Sci-Fi trilogy called Three Body Problem, written by Chinese author Cixin Liu. The series is called Remembrance of Earth’s Past. The Netflix series starts on March 21st.

The trilogy has been hugely popular worldwide – the first book won the Hugo Award for Best Sci-Fi or Fantasy novel. I’m now partway through the third book, Death’s End. I was hoping to have read all three books by the time the series started, but I won’t finish this final 600+ page book in time.

These books are dense and complex, and huge in their ideas. I haven’t read anything like them. And what makes them so fascinating is that there is really no central character – the books are about humanity.

Civilisations.

This is not a spoiler – but one of the premises is: How would humanity respond if it knew it was going to be destroyed by an alien force in four hundred years?

Four hundred years.

In reading these books, what I’ve discovered is that perspective changes everything.
Time changes everything.
Distance – space – changes everything.

When you’re immediate and up front and personal, you have a different perspective to if you’re on another planet, for instance, and you’re dealing with something that’s not only light-years away, but millennia away.

I find these fascinating concepts.

And the reason I’m putting this in a blog is that in reading these books, I remember someone once telling me that they had an out of body experience where Lao Tzu came to this person and took her by the hand and took her out of her house, up, up, out of her street, up, up, out of her suburb, up, up, further up, out of her city, and then out into space so that she could look down on the planet, Planet Earth, and see her life, her problems, her dramas, from this cosmic perspective.

And Lao Tzu said to her: See? All your troubles and dramas don’t really matter when you see them from this perspective.

I’ve been remembering that while I read these books. Because goodness knows we have problems in the world right now – as indeed we always have. And yet seen from the Lao Tzu cosmic perspective, they’re really quite insignificant.

Now I know a lot of you are going pile on top of me and say: How’s what’s happening in Gaza insignificant? How’s what’s happening in Ukraine insignificant? How’s what’s happening with the coming US elections insignificant?

What I’m talking about – and I’ve had blowback from this before – is trying to find a perspective of neutrality. That’s what I aspire to – neutrality. Non-attachment, if you like.

There’s a new film opening in the US next month. It’s called Civil War, and it’s made by an acclaimed British filmmaker, Alex Garland. It’s just premiered at the SXSW Festival, and caused a stir. A good stir. Some have called it a masterpiece. It’s set in a near-dystopian future in which the US has broken out in civil war.

In a press conference after the screening, the filmmaker said: Why are we talking and not listening? Why are we shutting conversation down? Left and Right are ideological arguments, that’s all they are. They’re not right or wrong. They’re not good or bad. We have reached a point where we vilify the other side, we’ve ratcheted up the rhetoric into an ethical debate which makes it easier to see the other side as evil – and once someone is seen as morally wrong, as evil, then their opponents can justify all sorts of extreme measures to stop them.

Step up and away, is what I’m saying.
With perspective, you can see that ultimately it really doesn’t matter.
You think it does, you believe passionately it does, but with the cosmic perspective of Lao Tzu, it’s all really insignificant.

Your Highwater Mark

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I want to write about something that’s fascinated me for some time –
What I call a person’s Highwater Mark.

What’s a person’s Highwater Mark?
It’s the zenith of their life’s achievement.
It’s the point beyond which they never reach.

Most of us achieve our Highwater Mark in our 40s.
Some earlier, some later.

What’s my Highwater Mark?
Making small personal films and writing novels.

George Miller’s Highwater Mark is making big spectacular action movies.
Bill Gates’s Highwater Mark is creating Microsoft.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s Highwater Mark is being President of Ukraine.
Paul Selig’s Highwater Mark is channeling books.
Nicole Kidman’s Highwater Mark is being an A-List actress.

A person’s Highwater Mark has nothing to do with success.
Success comes and goes.
It has nothing to do with achieving more.
Most of us normally achieve more within the limitations of our Highwater Mark.

George Miller will no doubt make more big budget action movies.
Bill Gates will continue with his philanthropic work.
Zelensky will always be defined by being President of Ukraine.
Paul Selig will continue to channel books, and he most probably will do other things too, but his channelled work will be his Highwater Mark.
Same with Nicole Kidman. Her Highwater Mark will be her status as an extraordinary actress.

Me? I’m still lapping at my Highwater Mark but I doubt that I’ll push further up the beach. It’s not like I’m going to direct a Marvel movie.

A person’s Highwater Mark is that place on the beach where the Spring Tide reaches. Subsequent tides won’t ever reach that far.

We each inevitably find the Highwater Mark in our lives, most of us without ever realising it.
This is as far as we’re ever going to go.
It’s this far and no further.

And as we get older, we normally recede from our Highwater Mark. Very few of us take our Highwater Mark further up the beach.

But it’s possible.
It’s possible to unlock further potential within us.
But first we have to acknowledge that we have that potential.

As we get older, we get tired.
Or worse still, complacent.
Or even worse still, we get damaged.
Damaged by the vicissitudes of life.
We don’t seek to over-reach.
We live too much in the past.

But it’s possible to establish a new Highwater Mark.
To unlock that unlimited potential.
We just dream bigger dreams.
Further up the beach…


Oscar predictions 2024

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Each year, as many of you who follow this blog might know, I make my Oscar predictions. I’m normally pretty good, with a strike rate usually in the mid 90% range.

Living in Mudgee as I do, where there is no cinema, it’s difficult getting to see movies. And for a good deal of 2023 I was overseas, shooting my own movie – The Way, My Way.

That said, I have seen a good many – and I read the trades each day – The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline Hollywood, IndieWire, Variety, Screen Daily – enough to keep on top of things.

There are some totally outrageous films in the Oscar short list this year. They are:

  • Barbie
  • Poor Things
  • Saltburn
  • Zone of Interest

Now, I walked out of Poor Things after about thirty minutes. I thought it was pretentious. I wasn’t engaged at all with any of the characters. I acknowledged that Emma Stone was working her chops off for an Oscar, which she most probably will win, and I was in awe of the production design etc – but the story didn’t hold me, nor did I find any of the characters in any way relatable. It was just a highly talented filmmaker strutting his stuff… and that’s not enough to keep me in a cinema.

Barbie I thought was outrageous in a good way. I was engaged from the get-go, I thought it said some important and profound things about gender politics and male toxicity, and the style and direction of the film was totally original. And the script was amazing.

I was shocked when Greta Gerwig missed out on a Best Director nomination, equally Margot Robbie for Best Actress. That staggered me.

Saltburn I also loved, again for its boldness. Once again, a totally outrageous film that smacked you in the face constantly with its bracing storytelling and images.

And then there’s The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer’s supremely clever take on Auschwitz. An exquisite use of cinema. Use of sound, use of nuance, use of restraint. For me, hands down, the best film of the year. Along with Anatomy of a Fall – both starring Sandra Hüller, giving extraordinary performances in each film. A tie for me for best film.

Coming close behind is American Fiction – a beautiful performance by Jeffrey Wright, and a very smart script.

I saw Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer on its opening day. I was utterly underwhelmed. It’s not that I hated the film, I just thought Nolan could have done so much better. I was expecting cinema – instead I got talking heads most of the time.

Why shoot on 70mm film?

And for me, the four act structure didn’t work at all. The film ended with the detonation, which by the way was exceptional cinema. But the 40 mins or so after that was just an all-too-obvious Oscar grab for Robert Downey Jr – who was amazing and will no doubt get the Oscar – but it didn’t serve the film. Which was way too long. But hey, it’s made over $1b at the box office and will snag all the major Academy Awards this year – so what do I know?

Talking about super long films – Killers of the Flower Moon really tested the bladder. Said to be Scorsese’s “masterpiece” by Spielberg, it doesn’t come close to Raging Bull. Not by a mile.

Back to the Oscars.
Okay, so here are my predictions. This is my list:

Best Picture
Oppenheimer

Best Director
Christopher Nolan

Best Actor
Cillian Murphy

Best Actress
Emma Stone

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Downey Jr

Best Supporting Actress
America Ferrera

Best Original Screenplay
Anatomy of a Fall

Best Adapted Screenplay
Oppenheimer

Best International Film
The Zone of Interest

Best Cinematography
Oppenheimer

Best Film Editing
Oppenheimer

Best Sound:
Oppenheimer

Best Production Design
Barbie

Visual Effects
The Creator

Original Score
Poor Things

Original Song
Barbie

Best Costume Design
Barbie

Best Makeup & Hair
Maestro

Best Documentary
Bobi Wine

Best Animated Feature
The Boy and the Heron

So on Sunday night US time, Monday late morning Australian time, we’ll know the results. We’ll find out whether the film that underwhelmed me the most gets the majority of gongs, or whether some of these very brave and outrageous films snag a few.

All up, 2023 was a really good year for bold cinema.

The Way, My Way – Q&As

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You’ll notice a new look to the blog – I’m using the key art from the film – the poster artwork, which is interim artwork until a distributor comes on board – but more on that later… oh and by the way, I notice from the analytics that this blog has been getting a lot of traffic recently, so I’m going to eat my bran and be more regular, I promise!

Firstly, there’s been a lot of interest in the film lately so I thought I would use my blog to update you all on what’s really happening, as against what’s purported to be happening.

QUESTION: What stage is the film at right now?

The film is now at fine cut stage. What that means is that after nearly six months of editing, we have locked off the picture cut. It´s running time is 103 mins, without end credits. I’m finally happy with the cut – at least, I’m happy enough – for if truth be told, I could spend another twelve months or more in the editing room fine fine tuning with Rishi Shukla, my trusted editor, but to what end? At some point I have to let go of my baby.

QUESTION: What happens next?

The next stage is sound post-production, which is probably even more complex than picture post production.

Fortunately I have the best sound team in the country, and indeed one of the best in the world in Wayne Pashley and Libby Pashley and their team at Big Bang Sound. They were Oscar nominated last year for their work on Baz Luhrmann´s Elvis. Their previous credits include Mad Max Fury Road, the Babe movies and Happy Feet for George Miller.

Wayne and Lib have done all my movies since Kiss or Kill in 1996, for which they won the AFI Award for Best Sound.

Sound post will take us up to next February, So the film won’t be completed until end of Feb earliest.

QUESTION: What’s happening with distribution?

Now that the film is in sufficient shape to show distributors, we’re beginning to have screenings. We’ve already had interest from one major distributor here in Australia, and we’re hoping that an offer might be forthcoming.

Once we have an Australian distributor locked in we´ll then seek a foreign sales agent. This has to be done linearly, step by step. I’ve been producing movies now for forty years and I know my way around distribution and exhibition enough to know that you can’t rush these things.

I’ve brought on veteran distributor Richard Becker to act as consultant in these matters. Richard is retired now, but he’s been a huge fan of this movie right from the getgo, and he’s providing invaluable advice. Distribution and marketing is a minefield, and even someone with my experience needs someone like Richard to guide the film through this minefield.

QUESTION: When am I going to be able to see it? And where?

That’s the key question, and the answer is I don’t know, and the decision isn’t mine anyway – it will not even be the distributor´s decision most likely – it will be the exhibitors´. They’re the ones that call the shots. If a distributor can’t get the screens, then they can’t release the movie.

If everything falls into place, then I’m hoping – and I emphasise the word hoping – that the film will be in cinemas in Australia in the first half of 2024, and internationally sometime after that.

Streaming then will follow – and as for the timing on that, it will depend on the distributors, because they’ll most probably hold those rights.

But you know, there’s another scenario:

The film gets invited into Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival, the film gets a ten minute standing ovation in the Palais, after the screening there’s a bidding war between Netflix, Amazon, A24 and a bunch of others, Netflix offers us US$20m and it takes us all of five seconds to accept their offer, they give the film a short theatrical release to qualify for the Oscars, then a quick window to streaming – meanwhile the film goes on to take out Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay – I accept the three Oscars with practiced humility, the film then gets another run in the cinemas, and I´m then signed by Warner Bros to direct a Marvel spinoff movie for a directing fee of $7.5m with 5% from dollar one.

I like that scenario.

haha

The reality is that first we have to finish the movie then we have to get distribution then we have to market the film very carefully. I’ve seen too many good films fall through the cracks to be complacent about all this stuff. It´s a delicate and complex process making a movie – it´s even more delicate and complex selling it.

If you have anymore questions contact me at: CaminoFilmProds@gmail.com

Oh and by the way, I am going to be blogging more regularly so please follow me here to ensure that you get these incredibly witty and insightful missives.