Hughes and McLean (who produced red hill) trace their friendship back to 2001, when as student filmmakers they met at the same St Kilda bar on New Years Eve with just $ 5 to their name.
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Over the beer they each could afford before returning home, they swore they would make it someday. With Huge Film, they seem to have kept their commitment.
By announcing War machine in the Hollywood trade press in November, Erin Westerman, production manager of Lionsgate (the mini-studio behind the Hunger games franchise and the producer of War machine), described Hughes as “quite simply one of the best action directors working today.”
He is certainly one of the busiest. His latest film, Toronto man, starring Woody Harrelson and Kevin Hart, hits theaters in August.
Although the locations for War machine, which is expected to cost over $ 80 million, has yet to be revealed, this masthead understands it will be shot in New Zealand, with a few studio scenes and all post-production to be based in Melbourne.
Locations for the Netflix action thriller Lowering are also to be confirmed, but Hughes had plenty of time to get started. In 2014, he told this mast that the remake of Welsh director Gareth Evans’ 2011 film set in an Indonesian skyscraper was to be his next project, following his Hollywood debut with The Expendables 3.
But Hughes and the studio went their separate ways over different visions of the film: They wanted an outright remake, while he wanted to explore the world of undercover Drug Enforcement Agency agents. The version of Lowering Netflix has ordered this will reflect this.
The star cast of The Expendables 3, Hughes’ first foray into Hollywood.
“The only great thing that came out of this initial development process was research,” he says. “I had the opportunity to hang out with several ex-SEALs and various undercover units and I became so fascinated with the world that I ended up writing a treatment for a film titled To return to (I love the way they flip informants and move up the syndication ladder).
“Then, last year, the rights of Lowering became available again and struck up a conversation with [Michael] Bay. I told him that I felt I had a take that would pick up the spirit of the original and project it into a larger universe. Basically I folded To return to in the mind of Lowering, setting the stage for the potential of an epic saga.
And if things go according to plan, Hughes is hoping that Huge Film could be a saga in its own right, one that will bring in millions of dollars in production and thousands of jobs in the country he can finally call both. his home and place of work.
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Email the author at kquinn@theage.com.au, or follow him on Facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on Twitter @karlkwin
