Is Animal Kingdom Based On A Real Family

By Kylie Northover

May 25, 2010 — 3.00am

NEW Australian offense picture show Animal Kingdom, which enjoyed a star-studded premiere in Melbourne last night, was likened to The Godfather and The Sopranos, at the prestigious Sundance Motion picture Festival in the United States, where, in January, it won the dramatic jury prize for world cinema.

The gritty drama, a feature debut written and directed past journalist-turned-filmmaker David Michod, stars Guy Pearce, Jacki Weaver, Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton and newcomer James Frecheville.

The story centres on teenager Josh (Frecheville) who moves in with his grandmother (Weaver) and her three sons, all hardened criminals. The motion-picture show follows the family to its eventual downfall and is ''inspired by'' the 1980s Walsh Street murders of two policemen, and ane of the city'south more well-known crime families. Weaver'south character, Smurf, is presumably based on infamous crime matriarch Kath Pettingill.

''People were surprised at Sundance,'' says Weaver ahead of terminal night'due south premiere. ''They were fascinated with the violence.''

Sullivan Stapleton and Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom.

And, one imagines, by the diminutive, sweet-talking Weaver in the role of smiling psycho-mum.

''She's a complete sociopath; probably 1 of the most evil women around,'' says Weaver.

''But I wasn't trying to play Kath Pettingill. I turn down to say my graphic symbol was based on her. We were told from the outset it was a piece of work of fiction.

''David deliberately set out to make information technology fictional and then he had more than leeway with the story. It draws on those events [Walsh Street], but there are a few of those crime family matriarchs. It's too easy to say it was based on anyone.''

Perhaps safer to stick with that line too.

Weaver did her inquiry: ''I read all the crime books, the Tom Noble book, the Andrew Rule book. And I was living in Melbourne in the 1980s and aware of what was going on. I don't really know any criminal families, but we're all exposed to them in the printing,'' she says. ''I don't believe in making heroes of them - I think that's dangerous.''

Information technology's off-white to say nobody comes across very heroically in Animal Kingdom, bated from mayhap Pearce'south detective. And, more used to Australian blockbusters starring loveable knockabouts, the film confounded its American viewers.

''After opening night at Sundance, Sullivan [Stapleton] went out the front of the movie theatre and overheard these ii American guys saying, 'Oh no, dude, we are non going to Melbourne. Melbourne must be so f---ing scary. We're going to Sydney', '' says Frecheville, 19.

Just 17 when he was bandage, the confident teen says he wasn't daunted by his film debut, despite juggling the starring function with VCE studies.

''It was a huge education just I felt fairly well prepared. David's really calming and then that trickles down from the top,'' he says.

''I knew the work would exist non easy but relatively straightforward if all the preparation was washed. Then I prepared a whole lot and went in and started doing it.

''I made a lot of mistakes along the fashion, simply I was learning as I went.''

Playing the mother of three boys and grandmother to Frecheville'due south character, Weaver was 1 of the few women characters on gear up.

''It was testosterone city,''she says. ''The set was charged with it the whole time. Information technology made for an interesting dynamic. They all treated me very well and they all ended up calling me 'mama'. My real son is about Ben's age, and so at that place was no problem slipping into information technology. Heed you - I'chiliad non that kind of female parent!''

Animate being Kingdom is released on June 3.

Source: https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/just-one-big-happily-dysfunctional-family-20100524-w820.html

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