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You can call it a film director's equivalent of writer's block. And it has taken Chris Noonan 10 years to crack it.
The 54-year-old Australian hogged the limelight in 1995 with "Babe", a lovable tale of a talking pig which surprised pundits with US$66 million ($101 million) in box office receipts and seven Oscar nominations, including for Best Director. It won for Best Special Effects.
Noonan's back in the game with another intimate film opening here tomorrow. "Miss Potter", starring Oscar-winner Renee Zellweger, is a biopic of Beatrix Potter, the Victorian writer-illustrator behind the Peter Rabbit children's stories.
"It doesn't feel like a comeback film, really," said Noonan in a recent telephone interview with TODAY from Sydney. "Making a film takes, minimum, two years of my life. So, I want something that's both original and emotional. But immediately after "Babe", I was offered many projects that were derivative of other films."
The graduate from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School said this is because Hollywood financiers often insist on film-makers proving their projects will roll in the dough — even before they've been made.
"If you can tell them: My film will be a cross between this film, which was successful last year, and that film, which was successful the year before, then you'll most likely get your money."
Chuckling, he recalled wryly that one script was even pitched to him as "Babe meets Monsters from the Deep". Little wonder he chose not to dip his feet in the shallow waters — until the simple, tender "Miss Potter" came along.
The US$26-million-film traces Potter's writing career and her love affair with publisher Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor).
"It's not about a tortured writer," said Noonan, who shot his first film at 16.
Observing that movies about writers often depict them agonising over drugs or sex, he noted: "On the surface, nothing much happens in Beatrix's life. But inside the heart of this woman is a strong dramatic story. She had a lot of pain and it's pain that's easy to relate to."
His next project, though, may not be that easy to relate to but it certainly won't take him another decade to return — "The Third Witch", a retelling of Shakespeare's "Macbeth", is due to be released later this year. - TODAY/so
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