Sophie was spotted in Sydney today:

niki aken @nikiaken
Was super excited to spot Sophie Lowe grocery shopping at Coles today. Guess I’m a true Sydney-sider now. #sadbuttrue

WENN, The West AustralianFebruary 29, 2012, 11:18 am

After a clean sweep at the AACTA awards in Australia, the ABC TV series The Slap has won a nomination in the UK.

Based on the best-selling novel by Christos Tsiolkas, the series is up against some serious competition at the Royal Television Society awards in March, with the first season of hit Danish series The Killing and top US comedy Modern Family also nominated for the International Award.

Dominic West is in the running for best actor for his role as the notorious serial killer Fred West.

The Hour star has landed the nomination for his performance in Appropriate Adult, while Emily Watson, who played Janet Leach, the volunteer who sat in on West’s police interviews and developed a bond with the murderer, is up for best actress.

The annual program awards, which take place on March 20, will be hosted by comedian Rob Brydon.

Source: Yahoo

[Thu 02/02/2012 09:36:14]

By Brendan Swift

Australian actors Ben Mendelsohn, Sophie Lowe and Gary Sweet have joined the cast of Australian-French co-production The Grandmothers.

They join the principal cast of Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville in a tale about two lifelong friends who fall in love with each other’s teenaged sons. Jessica Tovey (Underbelly, Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo) will also make her feature debut in the.

The Grandmothers has been adapted for the screen by Academy Award-winning writer Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, Atonement) from a story written by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Doris Lessing.

The eight-week shoot marks the English-language debut for director Anne Fontaine (Coco avant Chanel) and is due to begin on Monday (February 6) in Sydney.

The film is being produced by Hopscotch Productions’ Andrew Mason; Fontaine’s long-time collaborator Philippe Carcassonne; as well as French producers’ Mon Voisin’s Michel Feller and Dominique Besnehard. Hopscotch’s Troy Lum and Gaumont’s Francis Boespflug will act as executive producers.

The film is expected to be released in 2013 in Australia and New Zealand by Hopscotch Films/eOne while international sales will be managed by Gaumont.

Source: Inside Film

The Grandmothers, starring Naomi Watts, starts shoot next month

[Tue 10/01/2012 05:11:20]

By Sam Dallas

Erotic tale The Grandmothers, boasting an all-star cast, will start filming next month.

The somewhat-risqué drama, based on a short story of the same name by British author Doris Lessing, will star Naomi Watts (King Kong) and Robin Wright (Beowulf) who are two lifelong friends who fall in love with each other’s teenage sons.

The two sons will be played by The Twilight Saga‘s Xavier Samuel and Animal Kingdom’s James Frecheville.

The film, which received Screen Australia funding, is being described as an erotic tale of misguided love and a celebration of the enduring nature of female friendship.

Penned for the screen by Oscar-winning British writer Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons), the flick is expected to be filmed in NSW however an announcement has not yet been made.

It will be directed by France-based and former actress Anne Fontaine, who is best known for writing and directing Coco Before Chanel which was nominated for a string of awards (including Oscars and BAFTAs) after it was released in 2009.

The Grandmothers will be produced by Andrew Mason (on behalf of Hopscotch Features), as well as Philippe Carcassonne, Michel Feller, Dominique Besnehard and Francis Boespflug. Gaumont will handle international sales while Hopscotch/Entertainment One will distribute the film locally.

Hopscotch Films’ managing director Troy Lum told IF the film would be shot late-next month, while another on their slate – gothic thriller I, Frankenstein had been pushed back a month to March.

I, Frankenstein, based on a DarkStorm Studios graphic novel by Kevin Grevioux, will be directed by Tomorrow, When The War Began’s Stuart Beattie.

Sydney’s Make-Up Effects Group is currently working on the special make-up effects for the film, including the Frankenstein “look” for lead actor Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight).

Robert Luketic’s Brilliant, which Lum announced during last year’s Australian International Movie Convention, has been pushed back and is still in development after it was expected to shoot at around the same time as I, Frankenstein.

“No word on that yet…but it’s still in the works,” Lum said of the director’s first ever major Australian feature. Sydney-born Luketic is best known for Legally Blonde, 21 and Killers, and Brilliant is being touted as a cross between James Bond and My Fair Lady.

Source: Inside Film

[Fri 18/11/2011 03:30:56]
By Sam Dallas

Controversial ABC series The Slap will soon be heard around the world.

Produced by Matchbox Pictures, the popular series – through international distributor DCD Rights – has now sold to DirecTV and TVOntario (TVO) for US and Canada distribution rights, respectively.

It follows the news last month of the acquisition by the Sundance Channel, which will screen the show in Eastern Europe, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Portugal and Asia. The BBC picked up the rights to the show in August and it went to air on BBC4 late-last month, netting an average audience of 830,500 (4 per cent share), according to Variety.

Californian-based DirecTV, which in the past acquired Underbelly, will screen the series on the Audience Network channel later this year.

“Selling The Slap to North America is something that we really hoped for,” producer Helen Bowden told IF today. “DirecTV is the home of the US dramas Damages and Friday Night Lights, so we are thrilled to be in that company.”

While in Canada, The Slap will be seen on public broadcaster TVO in the near future.

“TVOntario goes under the banner ‘Makes you think’, which seems like the right home in Canada for our show.”

It’s been a big week for Melbourne-based Matchbox Pictures, which on Monday was awarded the Independent Producer of the Year trophy at the SPAA Conference dinner and Awards night.

The Slap’s a series that has sparked controversy since airing in Australia in early-October. Based on Christos Tsiolkas’ book of the same name, it follows the repercussions of a single ‘slap’ from a man to a child at a summer barbecue. It brings up such debates as parenting, race, class, sexuality and the rights of children. Each episode covers a different character’s point of view.

Stars appearing in the series include Melissa George, Jonathan LaPaglia, Sophie Lowe, Alex Dimitriades, Essie Davis, Blake Davis, Sophie Okonedo, Anthony Hayes, Diana Glenn and Kingswood Country’s Lex Marinos.

Source: Inside Film

Vote for Sophie for Most popular actress, Most popular personality on TV,   at the 2012 Logie Awards here. Also remember to vote for The Slap as Most popular drama series. I´m not 100% sure, but I think you have to live in Australia to be able to vote..

Indie to film in Austrian Alps
By Gordon Cox
Peter Stormare and Sophie Lowe are among the thesps signed on to appear in “Autumn Blood,” the indie from musicvid and commercial helmer Markus Blunder.

Samuel Vauramo, Gustaf Skarsgard and Annica Bejhed also will appear in the film, which shoots in the Austrian Alps. Set on a farm in the Tyrolian mountains, pic follows the hard life of a pair of orphaned siblings, one of whom is played by Lowe (Aussie pic “Beautiful Kate”). Stormare portrays the vicious town mayor.

Helmer and producer Blunder initially made his mark in musicvideos, working with En Vogue, Shania Twain, Metallica and the Gypsy Kings, prior to shifting to commercial gigs.

Stephen Barton pens the script for “Autumn Blood.” Matt Tauber joins Blunder as a producer of the film, with Gunther Alois onboard as exec producer.

Source

Media Diary Blog | September 05, 2011
The Slap, the much-anticipated ABC1 miniseries, will screen on Thursday nights from October 6.

Only hours after publication of Media’s story about internal programming chaos at the ABC over the handling of the adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas’s award-winning novel, a tweet from the show’s producers confirmed the premiere.

ABC1 planned to premiere the series starring Alex Dimitriades, Sophie Lowe, Jonathan LaPaglia and Melissa George, on Sunday nights in September after taking the bold, and ultimately successful, step to premiere two episodes during the Melbourne International Film Festival in August.

But Nine pre-empted the series by scheduling the new series Underbelly: Razor on Sunday nights, on the back of what was anticipated to be, and was, the finale of the reality series The Block.

Consequently, there has been some gnashing of teeth within the ABC about where to program one of its key 2011 assets. While Thursday nights don’t provide the bulk viewers attainable on a Sunday or even earlier in the week, the night is a fairly clear zone as one of Seven’s weakest nights before The X Factor arrived and Nine’s Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year not maintaining its high launch audience. ABC1 also attracts its biggest audience of the week on Wednesday – and last week its best for the year – on the back of The Gruen Transfer and Spicks and Specks.

The Slap will replace the young legal drama, Crownies.

Source

The Courier-Mail August 26, 2011 12:00AM

SYDNEY actress Maeve Dermody, most recently seen in the top-rating ABC mini-series Paper Giants, has been named News Ltd Australian Star of the Year.

On accepting the award at the Australian International Movie Convention on the Gold Coast, the up-and-coming star of Griff the Invisible and Beautiful Kate joined an illustrious group that includes Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Eric Bana and Abbie Cornish. Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver was last year’s recipient.

Oscar-winning producer Emile Sherman (The King’s Speech, Oranges and Sunshine) was presented with the new AIMC Outstanding Industry Achievement Award.

Lincoln Lewis (Tomorrow When The War Began) was named Male Star of Tomorrow.

Dermody’s Beautiful Kate co-star Sophie Lowe, soon to be seen in a television adaptation of best-selling novel The Slap, was named Female Star of Tomorrow.

The Murray Frost Award for film craft went to veteran animator Yoram Gross.

The awards were announced on the closing night of the 66th AIMC, which took place at Jupiter’s Casino on the Gold Coast.

Source

John-Paul Hussey looks at adapting the novel The Slap for a television audience
4 Aug 2011
JOHN-PAUL HUSSEY
Adapting novels to screen can be a laborious process of distilling prose into drama and transferring all the descriptive detail into a visual format. Luckily for Christos Tsiolkas’ multi-award winning novel The Slap, the structure of his story proved to be very conducive to adaptation.

As Jessica Hobbs, the set director of the first two episodes of this eight-part series explained, “It was calling out for an adaptation, as soon as you read it, it was incredibly visual.”

The original novel is broken up into eight different chapters, each with a different character as narrator expressing their point of view. “The devise was so wonderful because each week you step into the shoes of a different character while the story kept moving inexorably forward,” said Hobbs, adding, “and it creates this great tension and I think for the audience it provides this rare insight into individual points of view because often you’re telling things from a much more universal point of view, particularly in television.” When the novel first came out, despite being showered with critical praise and awards, Hobbs said there were mixed feelings from the readers about how best to relate to the different characters.

“So we’re hoping when they get into a more three dimensional sense and you’re dealing with a person that you’re looking at, whether you can judge them just as harshly.” The first two episodes are being screened for the first time as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival with the characters Hector and Anouk. “With Christos Tsiolkas’ guidance, we took more leaps from the book to the screen in terms of compacting some of the drama.

For example, in the book, Anouk’s mother died some time ago and we actually brought her back to life, but had her in the process of dying during Anouk’s chapter,” said Hobbs. There are many issues in the novel but Hobbs said, “the main premise is an incident that seemed large at the time could be brought back to some kind of perspective and starts to unravel peoples’ lives.

The reason they start to unravel is because they weren’t in a good place to start with. That’s really what The Slap does; it’s a tipping point. It’s an event that brings up everything from the surface and people have to deal with what that is.”

Source

The Slap is now sold out at MIFF! Seems like it will be a very popular series, which is great for Sophies career!

theslaptv The Slap
Hope you managed to get tickets for the MIFF screening of episodes 1 and 2 of The Slap as they’re now sold out! #miff #theslaptv
19 Jul