Doing great workshop with Greg Apps

Posted by
Peter Driscoll
Date
 October 12, 2014
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Spent yesterday working with the ever generous Greg Apps.

Greg credentials are phenomenal having cast ground breaking Australian films such as “Proof” (Hugo Weaving and Russell Crowe in their breakout roles), “Romper Stomper” (Jacqueline McKenzie’s first film) also starring Crowe and “Heaven Tonight” (Guy Pearce’s first film).

Greg also made the decision to cast the captivating Eric Bana in what I consider his best role as Chopper Read in the movie “Chopper” . Greg also was the casting director “Gettin Square” which saw the emergence of a very young Sam Worthington and one of my favourite roles played by David Wenham.

Greg  Fox Studios cast the first US feature out of the  Fox Studios when it opened in Sydney “Mission: Impossible II” for Paramount starring Tom Cruise and directed by John Woo.

Other US projects followed: “Queen of the Damned” (Michael Rymer, Warners), “Garage Days” (Fox) and “Knowing” the Nicolas Cage, Summit Entertainment pic directed by Alex Proyas. He also began work on the huge scale, ill-fated “Paradise Lost” project with Proyas.

Toronto and Sydney Film Festival entrant “Wasted on the Young” came next, directed by Ben Lucas, featuring young actors Alex Russell and Adelaide Clemens followed by the big budget smash, “James Cameron’s Sanctum”.

Greg also cast the UFA cinema German language film “Jungle Child” (casting in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea for two months) and “The Straits”, the Matchbox Pictures series starring Brian Cox, filmed on location in the Torres Strait Islands.

In 2012 to 2013 Greg cast multiple telefeatures including, Channel 7 “The Killing Field”, starring Rebecca Gibney and the Goalpost production “An Accidental Soldier” directed by Rachel Ward, which has been nominated for multiple AACTA awards for the ceremony in 2014.

This was followed shortly by feature film “Felony”, written by and starring Joel Edgerton, with fast up and coming star Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard) and Academy Award nominee, Tom Wilkinson. Matthew Saville directed the feature, which received accolades at Toronto International Film Festival. It is set for a mid-2014 release.

Currently, Greg is casting World War I series “The Gallipoli Story”, a working closely again with Matchbox Pictures, director Michael Rymer and producer Sam Worthington.