Australian War Films and Billy Sing

WW1 Australian Sniper, Billy Sing

A few years ago when I was in New York, I was thinking about what sort of films can Australians make that can be marketable overseas. One night, I watched Saving Private Ryan and I thought, the only real good Australian War film is Gallipoli.

The last time I watched Gallipoli was back in high school. I didn’t think it was that great, but it did have a young Mel Gibson as the supporting character. I think it was a film we had to watch for English, about mateship and larrikanism.

I then asked myself if I were to make an Australian war film, from who’s perspective would I make it? So I tried to see if there were any Asian ANZACs and the one name came up, Billy Sing.

Well, it’s 2010 and I never wrote a scrīpt about Billy Sing. But reading his simple bio on Wiki, it seems like his journey can transition into film pretty well. The film should focus on cultural differences (we are talking the early 1900s here) and also, overcoming this cultural barrier and the development of mateship and brotherhood.

A few months ago, I read an Aussie cinematographers blog that he’s working on a Billy Sing mini series. Well, the trailer was just released in December 2009.

Trailer for “Legend of Billy Sing” mini series:

What do you think?

To me, the trailer doesn’t really feel that appealing. It tries to go the Metal Gear Solid 4 voice over and torn soldier feel but just doesn’t cross the emotion at all.

For a low budget indie project, what this needs is some good character development. I don’t see it here in the trailer either, but I do sort of like the last line. “At home, they call me a Billy, the press calls me the assassin, the enemy call me a murderer”… but maybe it should’ve just been “At home, they called me a hero, but in the trenches, they all called me a murderer”.

Well, let’s hope this mini series is okay. Most likely it will be taken up by either ABC or the SBS. Maybe Showtime or Movie Extra too if it’s alright.

If not, I guess I can write that feature on Billy Sing, which I’ll just call SING.

Oh, and I wonder if Peter Jackson will make the ANZAC film that’s been talked about so that it will coincide with the 100th Anniversary since the battle of Gallipoli? He’s probably busy doing the runs for The Lovely Bones.