By Jackie Shannon
After creating the 2003 cult favourite, Gettin’ Square, the film’s creative triumvirate – director, Jonathan Teplitzky (The Railway Man), Gold Coast lawyer turned screenwriter, Chris Nyst, and producer, Chris Brown (The Railway Man, Daybreakers) – is set to reunite for a new crime caper. Set to shoot in South East Queensland in early 2017, Mr. Cranky looks to stoke up the same mix of belly laughs and broken jaws of its predecessor. When underworld debt collector, Kevin Darcy’s deep-rooted anger issues get him embroiled in a vicious gangland war, his stripper ex-girlfriend is accidentally blown up, and he is saddled with her precocious seven-year-old daughter. Lying low on the glitzy Gold Coast, he staves off bikies, Lebanese hit men, a drug-addicted circus clown, and his New Age Laughing Circle therapist, all while struggling to become a better father, and a better man.
“We are delighted to be welcoming Jonathan Teplitzky back to Australia following a period working in the UK directing high profile TV dramas like Broadchurch and Indian Summers,” said Sally Caplan, Screen Australia’s head of production. “This is the perfect welcome-home project, reuniting him with the creative team who together brought us the classic 2003 crime caper Gettin’ Square.” Jonathan Teplitzky will commence on the project after completing post production on Churchill starring Brian Cox, Miranda Richardson, John Slattery and James Purefoy. “It is wonderful to be working with Jonathan again and to welcome him back to Queensland on a project that I believe is Australia’s next big comedy,” Chris Brown said. “Chris Nyst’s screenplay is a gem.”
