Big Apple on big screen

By Lachlan Ellis

A film crew has visited Moorabool Shire, with part of a new feature film being recorded at a local café.

Positive Ape and Umbrella Entertainment’s ‘How to Talk Australians: Highway to Hell’ film crew visited Bacchus Marsh’s Big Apple Café last month, with the film adapting the hit 2014 web series ‘How To Talk Australians’, which has over 12 million views on YouTube.

The film will be directed by Tony Rogers, who penned the script alongside Rob Hibbert, and will be produced by Jason Byrne and Victoria Schaw.

How to Talk Australians follows a group of students and teachers from The Delhi College of Linguistics who hit the road to discover Australia and gain experience of its authentic language and culture. When their plane is diverted to the country town of Dubbo due to storms, and their tour-leader is detained by customs, the hapless bunch unearth the ‘real’ Australia while never making it to Sydney, Melbourne, or even Brisbane.

Ms Schaw sat down with the Moorabool News in between filming to explain why Big Apple Café was an appealing place to film part of the movie.

“The story is around some Indians that come to Australia to learn the culture, language, everything around Australia. It’s a comedy, it’s entertaining, it’s a little bit risky…but it’s allowing us all to have a bit of a laugh about life,” she said.

“We had about 40 crew in town, and then a cast of many ethnicities. We go into post-production soon, we’ll have a number of months in post-production and we’ll be working towards releasing the film early next year.

“We’ve spent a lot of time travelling around regional Victoria…Bacchus Marsh is a beautiful rural area, and aesthetically it was what we’re after, and reasonably close to Melbourne. It was a beautiful drive, and everyone here at the café have been so supportive.”

Some famous faces will also feature in the film in supporting roles, including Shane Jacobson, Dave Lawson, and Richard Davies, stars of both the small and silver screens.

Tony Rogers said it was fantastic to have both the trio, and the original How to Talk Australians cast, as part of the team.

“The original cast we began this journey with are still with us…we are so thrilled to have wonderful actors and many more joining the ranks. On top of incredible Indian Australian talent including Vikrant Narain, Robert Santiago and Ria Patel. We are so fortunate to have such talent to work with and bring this all to life,” Mr Rogers said.

“The film is a lot more than a very funny Road Movie, it is a powerful observation of this great nation. The light and the shade, the joy and the darkness.”

What medium exactly the feature film will be released on is still in the works, but Moorabool residents should keep an eye out for the film’s release, hopefully early next year, to see part of our Shire on-screen.