Storm Boy remake planned 40 years after original award-winning film
Actor Greg Rowe and his pelican co-star Mr Percival in the Coorong. (Supplied: National Film and Sound Archive)
Four decades after the Australian movie Storm Boy premiered in Adelaide and led what was later considered by many to have been a renaissance for the nation's film industry, a remake is in the planning.
Adapted from Colin Thiele's 1964 novel, it told the story of a young boy and a pelican living in the Coorong region at the Murray mouth.
The film set a new standard for South Australian production and won best film at the Australian Film Industry Awards.
"The success of the film comes from its innocence," curator at the National Film and Sound Archive, Gayle Lake, said.
"There was great identification there in terms of Australian culture — somewhat isolated from the rest of the world."
She praised the work of the actors and director.
"Greg Rowe as Storm Boy, as Mike, it was such a lovely performance and he very definitely, with the support of director Henri Safran, really nailed that level of innocence and willingness to see the best, to experience the best of his environment," she said.
Pelicans and the tranquil landscape of the Coorong made for some great Australian storytelling, first in a novel and then as a film. (Audience submitted: Jack Creevy)
Storm Boy older in planned remake
A Storm Boy remake is due to be filmed next year, in which an older Mike Kingsley recounts his pelican adventures to his wayward granddaughter.
"If you're on a good story then it's worth having a go at and looking at it with a contemporary voice," Ms Lake said.
She said the original resonated with the public at the time of its release and remained popular today.
Storm Boy was an early success story for the South Australian Film Corporation, which she said had been given a brief by then-premier Don Dunstan to focus on South Australian stories and Australian culture.
"It certainly nailed that criteria," Ms Lake said of the film.
Other SA Film Corporation successes included Sunday Too Far Away and Breaker Morant, corporation chief executive Annabelle Sheehan said, while the latest efforts are being directed increasingly to audiences online.
"In the last year we have had the production of five iView ABC series — three comedies and two documentaries — and there's going to be an online series announced very soon," she said.
