TOMORROW, WHEN THE WAR BEGAN teaser ticks all the boxes

TOMORROW, WHEN THE WAR BEGAN teaser ticks all the boxes

Apr 02

(Teaser embedded below)

I remember reading John Marsden’s Tomorrow series in my youth and being absolutely hooked. Ellie and her mates were a bit older than I was at the time but I still felt their hopes and fears ring true on the page: the characters were sharply defined and consistent throughout the series of seven books, and anyone who’s read the series will have fond and clear memories of Ellie, Homer, Fiona, Lee, Robyn, Chris, Corrie and Kevin. Part of the series’ strength was its perspective — it was all told from Ellie’s perspective, in the first person, and the reader always got a personalised view of the dramatic, involving events as they unfolded.

When it was announced that the Tomorrow books would be turned into films, starting with the first novel Tomorrow, When The War Began (1993), there were mixed feelings all around. The first of several concerns was that it would be an Australian production, and everyone knows that, by and large, most Aussie movies are crap. The second concern was that the casting wouldn’t accurately reflect the characters conjured in each reader’s consciousness: unlike the kids in Harry Potter, the Tomorrow characters were defined by their actions, behaviours, beliefs and dialogues rather than a laundry list of their physical features, so it would be very easy for filmmakers to annoy a lot of readers by casting the wrong folks. The third concern was that the movie would become silly or preposterous in that only-in-Hollywood kind of way; allow me to explain why.

On paper, the story of Tomorrow seems a bit silly at first. A group of teenagers goes camping for a week in an isolated patch of bush known amusingly as Hell. While they’re out there in isolation some unknown foreign military force invades and captures or kills all the folks in the kids’ home town of Wirrawee. The kids don’t learn this till they return home to find empty houses and dead / dyling livestock all over the place. The kids have to make some hard decisions about what do to next, and they end up mustering the courage to engage in guerrilla warfare with the occupying force. Their increasingly dangerous but effective hits on enemy targets make up the bulk of the narrative drive of the series, but there’s always the looming, oppressive threat of capture or discovery; their tactics quickly gain the attention of the occupying forces.

It’s all told rather thrillingly, with huge dollops of character colouring the proceedings, but in the book it’s clear from the down-to-earth dialogue and Ellie’s own internal monologue that these kids aren’t heroes — they’re scared witless, and are only acting out of desperation and love for their families. On film this might not come across too well; it’d be far easier to just paint them in a stereotypically heroic light and call it a day, rushing on to the big explosions at the end. The brand new teaser released in the past couple of days remains ambiguous on this point, but provides insight into others.

First-time director Stuart Beattie (he who wrote screenplays for Australia and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl) manages to capture the look of the books pretty well — at least, his vision sometimes matches my own. The bush they camp in is distinctly Australian, the town they live in is appropriately rural and laid-back, and the characters all seem pretty well-represented. It ticks all these boxes — and ends on an action tease — but worries me in one key area.

The cast is built primarily out of ex-Neighbours and Home And Away folk, and sometimes — especially in the “oh look, a bikini” shot — they come across as a bit too plastic or idealised. Some of the blokes look a little bit too hunky to be real people, as well, and they all seem to be pushing beyond the “teenaged” age of the characters described in the book (except Robyn, whose actress is only 16). But these concerns could easily be dispelled in context of the completed film. The trailer looks good, seems to have been shot well, and the action tease towards the end is sufficiently chaotic to pique my interest (apart from that slow-mo explosion finale — bleurgh).

The Tomorrow series has reached a lot of people in its time. It might not be as well recognised overaseas, but it’s definitely big here in its home country, and this could help push its box office into a good place (“good” box office here is dollars in double digits — we are a small country, after all). It’s pretty costly for an Aussie production — clocking in at around AU$20 million — but if the international market picks the film up it should easily recoup the spendature, and potentially make stars out of the eight young leads.

There are just three remaining questions: how will it fare overseas? Will it kickstart a new franchise? And will it actually be any good?

Tomorrow, When The War Began hits Aussie screens on the 2nd of September 2010; no word yet on international release dates

Tomorrow When The War Began – TEASER TRAILER – The most amazing bloopers are here