Backing also allocated to China-Australia co-production The Nest.

A Few Best Men

Investment from Screen Australia means filming is set to go ahead on A Few Less Men, the sequel to 2011 ensemble comedy A Few Best Men.

At the same board meeting, the government agency also backed Kimble Rendall’s The Nest, a China-Australia co-production to be primarily made in Australia.

Arclight Films International will represent both films.

A Few Less Men will see Xavier Samuel, Kris Marshall and Kevin Bishop return to their roles as hapless friends, who become stranded in the Australian bush with a friend’s body after their plane makes a forced landing.

It is understood that Rebel Wilson (Pitch Perfect), who played Daphne in the first film, will not reprise her role.

A Few Best Men screenwriter Dean Craig (Death At A Funeral) will return to pen the sequel, although he will not direct as previously reported.

Peter Templeman will take on directing duties, marking his second feature after Not Suitable For Children (2012). The first film was directed by Stephan Elliott and grossed $5.3m in Australia.

An October shoot is planned and A Few Less Men will be released locally by StudioCanal.

US-based producers Laurence Malkin and Share Stallings will work with producer Tania Chambers, with whom they recently made Kill Me Three Times starring Simon Pegg - not Antonia Barnard and Gary Hamilton, who were their partners on the first film.

The Nest

Hamilton is credited as a producer on The Nest alongside Ying Ye and Arclight executive Mark Lazarus, who said from Beijing today that he is unable as yet to make public the name of Arclight’s Chinese production partner.

He also could not name any cast but said they will be international. It is understood that filming will principally take place in Queensland.

The CGI-driven action adventure centres on the discovery of a mummified Chinese Emperor from 200 BC China, which unleashes a terror that should have remained buried.

The Nest will be released locally by Tait Brady’s boutique distribution company, Label, and is the second local pickup supported by Screen Australia in the last six months, the other being director Rosie Jones’s The Family, a documentary about the cult established by Anne Hamilton-Byrne in Australia, the US and UK.

Label is also believed to be attached to another feature that Screen Australia is expected to announce shortly.

Screen Australia has invested $2.35m (A$3.19m) in these two films and the TV series which will together cost $28.3m (A$38.4m) to produce.  

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