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Filming underway on Parer’s War telemovie for ABC

Matt Le Nevez and Adelaide Clemens star in ABC's telemovie about a WWII cameraman risking his life to film in New Guinea.

2013-07-08_1036Filming has commenced on ABC’s biopic telemovie Parer’s War, starring Matthew Le Nevez (Offspring, Howzat: Kerry Packer’s War) and Adelaide Clemens (Parade’s End, The Great Gatsby).

Le Nevez plays WWII cameraman Damien Parer, risking his life on the frontline in New Guinea to film Australian troops. His film Kokoda Frontline went on to win Australia’s first ever Academy Award.

Based on the Book, Damien Parer’s War by Neil McDonald, the story details his battles with his boss at the Department of Information, Bob Hawes (Nicholas Bell) and sparring with famed Cinesound producer, Ken Hall (Rob Carlton). He also battles his conflicting emotions in his relationship with girlfriend Marie (Adelaide Clemens).

To be directed by Alister Grierson and written by Alison Nisselle, the telemovie is produced by Andrew Wiseman (Curtin, Sisters of War).

“I’m delighted to be producing Parer’s War, which I believe will be a powerful and highly emotional drama about one of Australia’s finest war cameramen striving to reveal what he believed was the savage truth of war. Intriguingly, it is both a war story and a love story and the romance between Damien Parer and Marie Cotter weaves its way through the chaos and confusion of World War II,” says Wiseman.

ABC Head of Fiction Carole Sklan says “Damien Parer was a man of tremendous courage and personal contradictions. The ABC is absolutely thrilled to have performers of the calibre of Matt Le Nevez and Adelaide Clemens and to be partnering with Pericles Films once again to bring this iconic story to the screen.”

Parer’s War will be filmed on location and in studio at the Gold Coast in Queensland over the next five weeks and will air on ABC1 in 2014.

3 Responses

  1. This is a great story about a great filmmaker. I’ve read the book.

    However, I have reservations about the director. He was responsible for Kokoda and Sanctum, which were both not so great (I’m being kind). Both are masterclasses in how not to write dialogue. I hope it doesn’t end up looking like a standard cringe-inducing telemovie.

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