By now you’ll know Red Dog is a story about a charismatic kelpie that charmed the north west of Western Australia, however you may not know how the film came about, so I thought I’d relay a few more snippets from Louis de Berniere’s session at the Byron Bay Writers Festival (BBWF).
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© The Ponder Room
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A while ago Louis de Berniere (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin) agreed to attend a literary festival in Fremantle and while there he was asked to speak in Western Australia’s north. Arriving in Karratha and Broome he found himself speaking at small community groups like Rotary.
Later while driving to Dampier he passed the monument on the side of the street erected to Red Dog. At the same time his agent was ‘pestering me for a children’s book’.
Months later Louis hired a Ute and drove to Port Sampson where, armed with fish and chips and his laptop, he set about writing the novel in the evenings. It was completed in two weeks.
Meanwhile producer Nelson Woss (Ned Kelly), who had grown in Western Australia, was now living in Hollywood. At the BBWF he looked at Louis and admitted…
‘I haven’t told you this before, I tried to option Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and was just laughed away.’
Thankfully that wasn’t the case with Red Dog.
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© The Ponder Room
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Louis has been asked about the lack of swearing in the movie to which he replied ‘Australians are good at obscenities’ then reminded the audience that it was written as a children’s book. He also said he was proud that the movie was shot in the location where the story took place.
Nelson let slip that when casting Red Dog he bought four dogs. One of them ended up doing ‘absolutely nothing’, while Koko did 90% of the scenes in the movie. There was a fifth dog, a stuffed version called ‘Stuffy’ which was used for positioning.
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© The Ponder Room
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Nelson also paid respect to Koko’s trainer, who he describe as a ‘dog whisper’, telling the story that at one stage the trainer said ‘Koko would like the camera moved’. Unsure the crew humoured him and found that Koko did indeed perform better after this adjustment and so for the rest of the film they did what Koko wanted.
Weeks on Red Dog the movie is a hit.
The Movie Show gave it 4 ½ stars and the audience figures continue to rise after the first weekend, which is unheard of. Usually movie success is totally dependent on the first weekends takings. This has me pondering:
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Perhaps it’s just as well they listened to Koko, but will he get any director credits?
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I’ve tried writing while eating fish and chips, but sadly only end up with a salty keyboard, instead of a film worthy manuscript. Perhaps I should try again, this time closeting myself away in a dusty remote location….perhaps not.
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The BBWF sees some interesting connections. Wandering around the festival Louis met Kamahl and discovered that Kamahl has a dog called Koko, while Louis has a cat called Kamahl, will there be a sequel …Chestnut Tabby set in the back alleys of New York perhaps?
2 Comments
I love it that they listened to the dog 🙂 should be more of it!
I don’t think I’ve actually tried writing while eating fish and chips – perhaps it would work for me? Some days anything at all is worth a try.
Anything?…even brussel sprouts??