Dr. George Miller Says...

He Says We're LAZY

Went to the doc today to get loaded up on cough mixture and antibiotics. I'm a little cranky about it all. So I come home and find that I've received my weekly ScreenHub newsletter.

Well what do you know? Dr. George Miller thinks we're lazy. This was in the ScreenHub newsletter:

George Miller popped up to promote the sequel to Happy Feet and share his unique interpretation of the history of Australian cinema.As the ABC noted, he said, "In NSW, in Australia, I do believe we've been too lazy. We've let others steal the march and now it's changing... "

Hollywood Reporter added an international edge: "Now we have the most advanced motion capture studio in the world down at CarriageWorks -- it is huge. There will be a huge amount of production going through there, if we can keep it in this country."

Dr Miller admits he was inspired by WETA and Peter Jackson in New Zealand.

"I don't think we would have even attempted this had I not seen what they did in Wellington..

"They've got the best talent pool in the world. Look at what they've done. Avatar, District 9 are two of three films nominated for visual effects.

"Wellington is a tenth of the size of Sydney and that economy has shifted dramatically. We go down there to get work done. That can be done here."

"This is an absolutely wonderful moment to be in the industry. Everyone thought cinema was dead and then we get the kind of movies you're seeing now. And we've got the ability to make them..."

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But we are left to wonder at that word "lazy". If Miller fronted up to the average Australian screen creator and said "Geez, you're lazy. If you weren't we would have an industry like New Zealand.." he would get a smack on the schnoz.

After which he would be told that the reason why we don't have our own Peter Jackson is not because of the government.

The picture of the New Zealand industry that John Barnett painted for us on Wednesday is rather more acccurate, and a lot less positive.

"In a time of worldwide recession the Box Office has defied the statistics and has grown everywhere, including New Zealand – but the Box Office for NZ films has declined to pitiful levels...."

Maybe NZ filmmakers are just lazy too.

Umm, yeah. Lazy is one good description. Try incompetent. The Government tried its hand at development for a couple of decades that brought about the debacle that was the FFC. They were pretty diligent in picking all those box office losers.

But maybe it is laziness. All that box-ticking application press that is entrenched in the development sector of the industry is just intellectual laziness in the extreme. Had they done their homework, the FFC and the AFI would have uncovered more viable talent. That it didn't, and instead nurtured a generation of box-office-losers speaks volumes. Yes, that would be laziness for sure.