Jonathan Ogilvie with script
Touted as the world’s first dramatic VR feature, Hugo Weaving and Tilda Cobham Hervey will star in LONE WOLF, a 2D and VR feature adapted by writer/director Jonathan Ogilvie (The Tender Hook, Jet Set, Emulsion) from Joseph Conrad’s 1907 novel The Secret Agent. The film is set to go into production later this year, with an Australian release slated for 2019.
Ogilvie updates Conrad’s story to contemporary Sydney, Australia, in a world of constant surveillance and the imminent threat of terrorism. An absurdist cautionary tale, LONE WOLF will “explore issues of fanaticism in the form of terrorism and anarchy.” Winnie (Tilda Cobham-Harvey) lives with her disabled younger brother Stevie and boyfriend Verloc behind a political bookshop. Verloc, a founding member of an anarchist cell and a police informant, receives a lucrative proposal to commit an act of destruction – an attack on the iconic Sydney Opera House. Hugo Weaving will play the Police Minister who is implicated in the conspiracy.
While no casting has been announced for the role of Stevie, the production is committed to casting an actor with a disability for the part. “Casting a non-disabled actor in a disabled role may have won Oscars in past but in the quest for diversity and authenticity on screen it is time to identify this practice for what it is – the equivalent of performing in ‘black-face’,” Ogilvie says.
The production website also speaks about the timely nature of surveillance in contemporary discourse, using the term ‘cineveillant’ to describe their approach to making films. “Cineveillant films employ the grammar of surveillance as more than just Hollywood spectacle. They explore the societal and psychological implications of being watched.”
Label Distribution will handle the local release, while Level K is looking after the rest of the world.
