The Dry director heads to Antarctica for Nikki Gemmell film adaptation

1 hour ago 1

Intrepid Australian directors have long headed to deserts, jungles, oceans and war zones to make films, but Robert Connolly is going somewhere even more extreme – Antarctica.

The filmmaker behind The Dry, Blueback and Paper Planes will take two actors and a small crew to the icy continent for a romantic drama based on Nikki Gemmell’s bestselling novel Shiver.

Filmmaker Robert Connolly with novelist Nikki Gemmell.

After a recce trip earlier this year and confirmation of Screen Australia funding, Connolly plans to spend a month shooting the film on a ship and in the Antarctic near the Ross Sea early next year.

“It takes me back a little bit to the spirit of making Balibo,” he said.

For authenticity and atmosphere, Connolly shot that 2009 war drama about the killing of five Australian journalists in the real-life location of East Timor.

“I like making films, certainly with The Dry and Blueback, that take audiences into incredible landscapes,” he said. “Part of the joy of cinema is a journey, so I think it’s really important that we go there.”

Although documentaries and the occasional overseas film have been shot in Antarctica, Screen Australia says Shiver will be the first Australian narrative feature to film there. There will also be some shooting in Melbourne.

“It’s a transformative love story about a young Triple J journalist seconded on a scientific boat to Antarctica who falls in love with a biologist,” Connolly said. “The film is also a love letter to science and the power of scientific work in Antarctica.”

Connolly and Gemmell have known each other since their university days together, and they reconnected after she watched Blueback – Connolly’s family drama and love letter to Western Australia’s Ningaloo Reef – and appreciated its environmental themes.

Gemmell, who is co-writing the script with Connolly, said Shiver was based on her own experience in Antarctica.

“It was just one of those experiences that you have as a young person trying to find your way in the world – what you’re doing, where you’re going, whether you’ve made your right choices in life and in your career,” she said. “Antarctica just kind of clarified everything … For me, it was profound.”

Both Roger Donaldson (The World’s Fastest Indian) and Christina Andreef (Soft Fruit) have tried to turn Shiver into a film since its publication in 1997, but Connolly is the first to overcome the logistical and financing challenges.

Director Robert Connolly on a recce for his film Shiver in Antarctica.

“Rob, god love him, has said he doesn’t want green screens,” Gemmell said. “He doesn’t want to replicate anything in the studio in terms of Antarctica. He wants to be there.

“It will be an incredible challenge … but it will also be the most incredible footage.”

While Connolly offered her a say with casting, Gemmell is happy to leave it to the experts.

“There has to be wonderful chemistry between the two leads because it’s one of those sweeping love stories in landscape in the way of The English Patient and Doctor Zhivago,” she said. “It’s two people deeply in love through difficult circumstances in an extraordinary landscape.”

While there have been many attempts to turn The Bride Stripped Bare and other Gemmell novels into films, Shiver will be the first to make it to production.

“In terms of novels being on the screen, I’m always the bridesmaid, never the bride,” she said. “Novel writing feels so easy [but] so many things have to lock into place with film.”

OTHER AUSTRALIAN FILMS SHOT IN EXTREME LOCATIONS

Antarctica (1991)

John Weiley’s stunning documentary was a box office triumph in IMAX cinemas around the world.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

When rain around Broken Hill kept delaying the shoot, George Miller went to epic lengths to film the fourth Mad Max largely in the Namibian desert.

Jirga (2018)

When authorities refused permission to film in Pakistan, Benjamin Gilmour and actor Sam Smith shot this drama secretly in Afghanistan.

Benjamin Gilmour and Sam Smith, left, shot Jirga in secret in Afghanistan.

Ten Canoes (2006)

Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr shot their comic Aboriginal drama in a Northern Territory swamp with armed crocodile-spotters in the surrounding trees.

The Rocket (2013)

After shooting the documentary Bomb Harvest in Laos, Kim Mordaunt returned to its mountainous north for this feelgood drama.

Kim Mordaunt shot The Rocket largely in Laos.

Tanna (2015)

Bentley Dean and Martin Butler devised their Oscar-nominated romantic drama with the Yakel tribe in the mountains of a Vanuatu island.

Arrows of the Thunder Dragon (2013)

Former Buddhist monk Greg Sneddon shot this drama in the mountains, villages, monasteries and fortresses of Bhutan.

Tenzing (2026)

For the upcoming film about sherpa Tenzing Norgay reaching the summit of Mt Everest with Edmund Hillary, Jennifer Peedom shot in Kathmandu, around Everest and in New Zealand this year.

Must-see movies, interviews and all the latest from the world of film delivered to your inbox. Sign up for our Screening Room newsletter.