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Flying High
Oz director Robert Luketic (‘Killers’, ‘Legally Blonde’) has signed on to mentor the winner of SOYA365, a comp opening doors to promising new talent.
For seven years now, Qantas' Spirit of Youth Awards project - rebranded this year as SOYA365 - has been giving aspiring young creatives the opportunity to win a money-can't-buy trip of a lifetime in their chosen field.
Aussies aged under 30 are invited to submit their work in their chosen field - whether that be film, music, fashion and more - for a chance to receive a swag of cash and prizes. But perhaps the biggest drawcard for the winner is the invitation to a key industry event in their field and the chance to gain a 12-month mentorship opportunity with a luminary in their field.
This year, the mentor selected for the film category is Australian born director Robert Luketic who has been working in the US over the past few years. Luketic scored a huge comedy hit with his 2001 debut feature Legally Blonde before going on to make a fistful of big-name Hollywood productions including Win a Date With Tad Hamilton, 21, Monster-In-Law and Killers.
"We need to get Australians excited about our own talent again and I applaud Qantas and SOYA for the adventure," Luketic raves to FilmInk over the phone about the competition. "It's important to constantly remind ourselves that we have this great pool of talent, and that we are a culturally sophisticated society. This is a really great thing; I wish I had a mentor when I was starting out."
Luketic says he knows all too well how tough it is for emerging artists to get a break in their respective industries. "I couldn't get an agent because I had not made a film that was represented by an agent," he explains. "It's a Catch 22 situation and I find it fascinating that it still exists. I'm not allowed to read a script from a writer that doesn't have an agent and that makes it hard for everybody."
The duration and type of mentorship differs from mentor to mentor; some are offering a set period to mentor within the twelve months whilst others are giving a two-week internship at their studio, but Luketic is determined to provide as much help as possible for the entire year. "I will be there as a reference," he says. "It's not just confined to talking to me, but you can watch me work, ask me questions, and call me at night. I'm offering help because everyone needs a break."
Luketic who graduated from Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts says it would have been a huge boost to get a foot in the industry via an event like SOYA365 when he started out. "I moved from Melbourne to Sydney and got my job at the Australian Film Commission," the director recalls. "I was tenacious, I was hungry and I sought information there about things like the best film festival to send my short to.
"I realise not everyone gets to work in a place where there is so much information and people in the know. It would have been such a nice thing to have someone to guide you, offer some assistance and highlight to you to some of the pitfalls that can be out there. I'm honoured to do that."
As well as the mentorship, the winner scores a trip to the 2012 Edinburgh Film Festival with the director. "That's invaluable," Luketic says of the trip. "I can't stress it enough that people really are looking for new talent at these places, so that's a great opportunity."
Some may be surprised to learn that Luketic is also a pilot with twenty years of experience behind him. "Qantas was the first carrier that took me on the adventure of my lifetime. I flew to Hollywood for my first meeting with them. Despite all the drama that's going on with the airline, I have this romantic feeling about them. It's still a source of national pride for me and being a pilot even more so."
Having worked on a string of glossy Hollywood productions, FilmInk inquired whether the director had any plans in the near future to make a film back on his home turf. Luketic tells us about his upcoming thriller, Brilliant, which he hopes he will be able to start shooting as early as April next year. "It's about a really sophisticated, wealthy man who steals," Luketic says of the film's premise. "It's not for a need for money. He steals for other reasons; it's more of a thrill sport for him so it asks some interesting moral questions."
Luketic confirmed that Australia's very own Eric Bana is set to star in the film, which will be either set in Sydney or Melbourne, alongside an array of other talent. "It's just going to be a great cast," he enthuses. "There will be some great Australian names in there, as well as some American and English actors. We're trying to put together an international cast."
With the director's last two films being the Katherine Heigl-starring rom-coms Killers (with Ashton Kutcher) and The Ugly Truth (with Gerard Butler), the director says he deliberately wanted to take a step away from that genre. "In my honest opinion, the romantic comedy is troubled and incredibly outdated especially in the part of town that I work in. It needs to go away and be re-invented. We're a little more cynical these days... and that's something I realised."
Luketic is also planning to include the lucky winner he's mentoring in this upcoming project, which is currently in pre-production. "I'll be offering them an internship if they want to hang out on the set as much or as little as they want," the director says.
Entries to the Qantas Soya Film & Video Award are open until March 30, 2012. For more information about the competition and how to apply, go here.
Picture caption: Luketic, courtesy of Getty Images/Ian Gavan.
