By Travis Johnson
The cameras are currently rolling on In Like Flynn, an new film from Highlander and Razorback director, Russell Mulcahy, that looks to the early adventures of golden age Robin Hood Errol Flynn for its inspiration. Let’s go the the official synopsis:
“In 1930, in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, whilst serving as a guide for a Hollywood producer, a young
Errol Flynn discovers a map on a dead prospector that he believes will lead to a fortune in gold. Back on the
streets of Depression-era Sydney, Flynn rounds up a ragtag crew including Rex, a Canadian ex-bootlegger,
Dook, an English gentleman handy with a pistol and Charlie, a grizzled old salt. After stealing the Sirocco, a
yacht belonging to Chinese Opium smugglers, Flynn and crew set sail. They quickly learn just how treacherous a voyage up the Australian east coast can be, running afoul of drunken cowboys, corrupt cops and local thugs before being intercepted by Chinese pirates, who are hell bent on retrieving the Sirocco and the several pounds of opium stashed in it hold. As the motley crew make a final dash for New Guinea, Flynn is forced to learn what it means to be a real captain, and a master of his own destiny. In Like Flynn is a mythical and satirical coming-of-age story about
four men on a journey to find hope, adventure and fortune in an age when the world was spiraling into despair.”
Thomas Coquerel, who recently cropped up in Red Dog: True Blue and Table 19, is the young Errol, supported by an impressive case that includes Corey Large, William Moseley, Clive Standen, Callan Mulvey, Isabel Lucas, and David Wenham. There’s certainly plenty of rich material to draw upon; Flynn led a, ahem, colourful life, as his scandalously frank autobiography demonstrates, and it’s not hard to imagine the pre-fame Flynn getting caught up in some kind of hare-brained treasure-hunting scheme.
What will be interesting is how the film frames Flynn as a person, who was by many accounts not so much a roguish chancer a a dyed-in-the-wool bastard (one film critic we know avers that his grandfather was ripped off by Flynn in a dodgy land deal back in the day). Will they print the legend or give us something a bit more nuanced? Mulcahy hints at that potential, saying, “What I want to bring to the screen is Flynn’s unapologetic and uninhibited desire to experience a full adventurous and spectacular life and reveal his deeply rooted belief in himself and an ability to
survive on charisma and bravado.”
In Like Flynn is currently filming on the Gold Coast and has a tentative 2018 release date.
I’m very fortunate to be working behind,-the-scenes on this great story.