Australian writer-director Sue Brooks, whose latest feature Looking For Grace has premiered at the Venice Film Festival, has revealed details of her upcoming projects.

Looking For Grace

Brooks has two new features in development. One is an adaptation of Alex Miller’s novel, Lovesong. This is the story of a relationship and marriage between a young Australian man and a Tunisian woman.

It is scripted and produced by Alison Tilson (Looking For Grace). Brooks said: “It’s a love story but it is also about place and migration…it is about being displaced.”

The project is currently being financed and cast.

Brooks is also plotting a comedy-musical, Not Quite Waiting In The Wings. Also scripted by Tilson, it is described by Brooks as a story “about the folly of human endeavour.” 

It centres on an amateur troupe’s courageous but faltering attempt to mount a Gilbert and Sullivan opera.

Looking For Grace stars Radha Mitchell, Richard Roxburgh and upcoming actress Odessa Young. The quirky family drama, also set to screen at Toronto (Sept 12-14), is sold internationally by Fortissimo and will be released in Australia in January 2016 by Palace Films.

The film is set in Australia’s wheat belt and is told from the perspective of several different characters.

“I have (always) been fascinated in that sort of storytelling for as long as I can remember,” Brooks commented of the unusual narrative structure.

The writer-director cites acclaimed BBC TV drama Talking To A Stranger (1968), starring a young Judi Dench, as one of the major inspirations for her storytelling approach.

Lizzette Atkins and Sue Taylor produced Looking For Grace alongside Tilson. Executive producers were Antonio and Benjamin Zeccola of distributor Palace Films.

Finance partners include Screen West, Screen Australia, Film Victoria, The Melbourne International Film Festival Film Fund and Fulcrum Media Finance.

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