Heaven Tonight (film)
| Heaven Tonight | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Pino Amenta |
| Written by | Frank Howson Alister Webb |
| Produced by | Frank Howson |
| Starring | John Waters Guy Pearce Kym Gyngell Rebecca Gilling Sean Scully |
| Cinematography | David Connell |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Boulevard Films |
Release date |
|
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | under $2 million[1] |
Heaven Tonight is a 1990 Australian film.
Plot
[edit]An ageing rock star (John Waters) tries to make a comeback and is jealous about the success of his son (Guy Pearce).[2][3]
Cast
[edit]- John Waters as Johnny Dysart
- Guy Pearce as Paul Dysart
- Kym Gyngell as Baz Schultz
- Rebecca Gilling as Annie Dysart
- Sean Scully
- Matthew Weigall as Himself
Production
[edit]Writer-producer Frank Howson later claimed that "every incident" in the film was true: "either I have lived it, or I know somebody who has. There is no fabrication, except in the names, which have been changed to protect the guilty."[4]
Howson said " I wrote this movie for all those talented people who had their 15 minutes of fame and then got shut out in the cold."[5]
He says the Baz Schultz character was a combination of Stevie Wright and Ken Firth of The Ferrets.[5]
Waters and Pearce were cast for their singing talent as well as their acting skills, and Pearce released a single, "Call of the Wild", from the film.[6]
Howson said "I’d never seen Guy Pearce on “Neighbours” so I hadn’t type-cast him so when he came in to audition... I had an open mind and he fitted the part of Paul Dysart to perfection. He also had a very good singing voice, and could play guitar, which was a huge plus as I wanted to record all the music live."[5]
Release
[edit]The film was not a commercial success and only ran for two weeks in cinemas in Sydney and Melbourne.[1]
Filmink called it "probably Howson’s best movie. It is the best structured, possibly due to the input of Alister Webb who is credited as co-writer. It has a strong central situation, the drama works logically and it is excellently cast. "[7]
Cultural references
[edit]The film provided comedic material for the 2006-2007 Austereo radio comedy show Get This. Host Tony Martin referred to the film on a number of occasions, making jibes at the name of Guy Pearce's character's band which was 'Video Rodney', the frequent references to the film's villain whose name was the ill-chosen 'Tim Robbins' and the 1980s synth-rock music which was seen as passé at the time.
References
[edit]- ^ a b Greg Kerr, "Heaven Tonight", Cinema Papers, March 1991 pp. 54–55
- ^ David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p. 153
- ^ Greg Kerr, "Heaven Tonight", Australian Film 1978-1992, Oxford Uni Press, 1993 p. 298
- ^ Paul Kalina, "Frank Howson", Cinema Papers, November 1989 p. 45
- ^ a b c "Producer and Writer Frank Howson on Laura Branigan, the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, the Art of Creation and more…". Cult Film Alley. 13 July 2019.
- ^ Greg Kerr, 'This man could be the next Mel Gibson' Melbourne Age 19 August 1990 p. 25
- ^ Vagg, Stephen (21 February 2024). "Frank Howson: The Unsung Auteur". Filmink.
External links
[edit]- Heaven Tonight at IMDb
- Heaven Tonight at Oz Movies
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