Bob Ellis

Bob Ellis (born 1942, Lismore, New South Wales) is an Australian writer, journalist, film-maker and political commentator. He was a student at the University of Sydney at the same time as other notable Australians including Clive James, Germaine Greer, Les Murray, John Bell, Ken Horler, and Mungo McCallum. He lives in Sydney with the author and screenwriter Anne Brooksbank; they have three children.

Writing

Newspapers

Ellis was a regular contributor to the Nation Review in the 1970s and subsequently contributed to Fairfax Media newspapers and National Times

Theatre

His writing for the stage includes The Legend of King O'Malley (a 1970 musical play based on the life of King O'Malley (with co-author Michael Boddy), The James Dossier (a 1975 musical play based on the life of Francis James), Down Under (with co-author Anne Brooksbank) and A Local Man, a 2006 play about Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley (with co-author Robin McLachlan). From 1975-85 Ellis and his wife also owned the Stables Theatre in Kings Cross, Sydney, during which time it became home to the Griffin Theatre Company.

Television

His writing for television includes a miniseries The True Believers (with co-author Matt Carroll) and Infamous Victory: Ben Chifley's Battle for Coal (2008), with co-author Geoff Burton, made for Film Australia.

Film

Screenwriting

Ellis has written several films, notably The Nostradamus Kid (1992), Cactus (1986) (with Paul Cox), My First Wife (1984) (with Paul Cox), Where the Green Ants Dream (Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen) (1984) film (with German film director Werner Herzog, Man of Flowers (1983) (with Paul Cox), Goodbye Paradise (1983), ... Maybe This Time (with Anne Brooksbank) (1981), Fatty Finn (1980), and Newsfront (1978). Most of his film scripts, as with his plays, were written in collaboration with other writers.

In 1980 Ellis signed a contract with the New South Wales Film Corporation to write ten feature film scripts over two years for$7,000 for each script, with a payment of $12,000 for the second draft if they wanted to make the movie. Ellis says he presented them with 33 ideas, and they chose five and he chose five.

Directing

He has also directed several films including The Nostradamus Kid (1992), Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train (1988), Unfinished Business (1985) and Run Rabbit, Run (2007).

Awards

He won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Screenplay for Newsfront (1978) (with Anne Brooksbank and Phillip Noyce) and for My First Wife (1984) (with Paul Cox).

Politics

Ellis, a supporter of the Australian Labor Party, has written speeches for a number of Labor leaders (such as Bob Carr, Paul Keating and Kim Beazley), and written extensively on Labor history. In regards to Ellis' speech writing, Beazley had said on the 7.30 Report that if he had used any of Ellis' speeches he would have been out of politics.

Ellis' involvement in politics became more direct when he unsuccessfully contested the Federal seat of Mackellar as an independent candidate against the Liberal Party's Bronwyn Bishop in a by-election in 1994 as the ALP did not field a candidate at that by-election.

His 2011 book Suddenly, Last Winter - An Election Diary created headlines for its criticism of Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and praise for Liberal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. He described Gillard as "not well informed" and "sudden, firm and wrong" in everything she does. He also said "She has no power, no influence, no friends, no learning. There's not much there", whilst describing Abbott as having "good manners", being "formidable" and possessing a "first-class mind".

Ellis has written speeches for South Australian premier Mike Rann for a number of years.

Books

Ellis has written two books Goodbye Jerusalem and Goodbye Babylon, on his experiences of the Labor party. The first edition of Goodbye Jerusalem was pulped following a successful defamation case brought by two Liberal cabinet ministers, Tony Abbott and Peter Costello, and their wives. The publisher, Random House, accepted that the disputed content was a falsehood and the book was removed from sale. ACT Supreme Court Justice Higgins awarded the two politicians and their wives a total of $277,000 damages. A new edition of the book was published three months later, which omitted the defamatory passage.

In 1998 Penguin Books Australia published Ellis's First Abolish the Customer – 202 Arguments Against Economic Rationalism. Penguin published Ellis's The Capitalism Delusion – How Global Economics Wrecked Everything and What To Do About It in 2009 and "One Hundred Days of Summer" in 2010..

Writings

Plays

• The Legend of King O'Malley (1970) with Michael Boddy
• Big Brother Dragon (1971) with Michael Boddy
• Duke of Edinburgh Assassinated or The Vindication of Henry Parkes (1971) with Dick Hall
• The Francis James Dossier (1973) - later The James Dossier (1975)
• Whitlam Days (1975)
• Down Under (1976) with Anne Brooksbank
• A Very Good Year (1980)
• Man, the musical (1990s) book and lyrics with Denny Lawrence, music by Chris Neal
• A Local Man: A Play about Ben Chifley (2004) with Robin McLachlan
• Intimate Strangers

Screenplays

• Newsfront (1978) with Anne Brooksbank
• Maybe This Time (1980) with Anne Brooksback
• Fatty Finn (1980)
• Maybe This Time (1980) with Anne Brooksbank
• Goodbye Paradise (1983) with Denny Lawrence
• Man of Flowers (1983) with Paul Cox
• The Winds of Jarrah (1983)
• My First Wife (1984) with Paul Cox
• Unfinished Business (1985) - also directed
• Top Kid (1985) (TV) with John Hepworth
• The Paper Boy (1985) (TV) with John Hepworth
• Cactus (1986) with Paul Cox
• The Gilles Republic (1986) (TV)
• Bullseye (1987)
• Perhaps Love (1987) (TV)
• True Believers (1988) (TV)
• Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train (1988) - also directed
• Gilles and Company (1992) (TV)
• The Nostradamus Kid (1993) - also directed
• Ebbtide (1994)
• Wildside (1998) Episode 24
• Infamous Victory: Ben Chifley's Battle for Coal (2008)

Unmade Screenplays

• The Road to Gundagai (1980) - vehicle for Bert Newton and Gerard Kennedy as soldiers on latrine duty during the bombing of Darwin
• comedy script about radio actors in the 1940s (circa 1980)
• mini-series with James Ricketson about Bea Miles
• Shakespeare in Italy (2011)
• Paper Tigers - mini series about the Murdoch family

Novels

• Mad Dog Morgan (1976) - novelisation of film with Anne Brooksbank
• Fatty Finn (1980) - based on his film script
• Top Kid (1985) - novelisation with John Hepworth of his script
• The Paper Boy (1985) -novelisation with John Hepworth of his script
• The Hewson tapes : a secret history, perhaps, of our times (1993) - fictionalised diary of John Hewson
• The Season (1996) - with Roy Masters

Non-Fiction

• The Things We Did Last Summer: An Election Journal - account of the Australian federal election, 1983
• Two weeks in another country : a journal of the 1983 British election - account of the United Kingdom general election, 1983
• Letters to the Future (1987) - collection of writings from 1969-87
• The Inessential Ellis (1992) - collection of writings
• Goodbye Jerusalem : night thoughts of a Labor outsider (1997) - writings centred around the history of the Australian Labor Party up to the Australian federal election, 1996
• First abolish the customer: 202 arguments against economic rationalism (1998)
• So it goes : essays, broadcasts, speeches 1987-1999 (1999)
• Goodbye Babylon : further journeys in time and politics (2002)
• Night thoughts in time of war (2004)
• And so it went: night thoughts in a year of change (2009) - events around the Australian federal election, 2007
• The capitalism delusion : how global economics wrecked everything and what to do about it (2009)
• One hundred days of summer : how we got to where we are (2010)
• Suddenly, last winter : an election diary (2010) - diary of the Australian federal election, 2010

Actor

• The Human Behan (1995-96) - play
• Waiting for Godot (2000) - play

References

• Ann Atkinson, Linsay Knight, Margaret McPhee (Ed.) (1996). The dictionary of performing arts in Australia. St Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86-448005-X. 
• Brian McFarlane, Geoff Mayer, Ina Bertrand (Ed.) (1999). The Oxford companion to Australian film. Melbourne, Australia; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-553797-1. 
• Philip Parsons, Victoria Chance (Ed.) (1995). Companion to theatre in Australia. Sydney: Currency Press in association with Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-86-819357-7. 
• Leser, David The two of us: Bob Ellis & Anne Brooksbank Sydney Morning Herald (Good Weekend) 16 August 1997 p. 12
• Arts news Arts community to help Bob Ellis, after recent house fire Sydney Morning Herald 24 April 1993 p. 46
• King, Noel Abbott and Costello. View From The Couch Sydney Morning Herald (Good Weekend) 21 November 1998 p. 94

External links

• Interview with Bob Ellis
• Personal site
• Bob Ellis at the Internet Movie Database
• Bob Ellis Australian theatre credits at Ausstage
• Essays on the ABC website
• Table Talk: Bob Ellis Blog on Film and Theatre