James Frecheville Goes From “Animal Kingdom” to “Animal Rescue”

March 8, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

james-frecheville Australian actor James Frecheville has officially cornered the market on crime dramas with the word “Animal” in the title. The “Animal Kingdom” star has signed on to “Animal Rescue”, according to Variety. The Tom Hardy-Noomi Rapace New York set crime drama will begin filming next week.

Michael R. Roskam will direct from a short story by “Gone Baby Gone” author Dennis Lehane, who adapted the script himself. Hardy will play a man who wants to shed his criminal past but “gets mixed up in a bad heist and a killing resulting from a lost and contested pit bull.” Frecheville will play a small time crook while Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts also has an unspecified supporting role.

Frecheville played the innocent young man struggling to escape his dark and violent criminal family in David Michod’s 2010 Australian drama “Animal Kingdom”, which also introduced us to stars like Joel Edgerton and Jackie Weaver. He also starred opposite Britt Robertson and Dylan O’Brien in Jonathan Kasdan’s coming of age Sundance drama “The First Time” and was most recently seen opposite Robin Wright, Naomi Watts and Xavier Samuel in controversial romance “Two Mothers”, which premiered at TIFF in September.

Watch: Britt Robertson and Dylan O’Brien fall for “The First Time” in first trailer for Sundance hit

October 1, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos Leave a comment

Here’s the first trailer for a Sundance movie that we really enjoyed. Jonathan Kasdan’s “The First Time” is a romantic comedy about a couple of high schoolers who meet at a party and spend the weekend getting to know each other and fall in love, for the first time. TV stars Britt Robertson and Dylan O’Brien play the would-be couple, while Victoria Justice and James Frecheville play the other potential romantic partners in their lives.

Our own Rebecca Lewis opines that O’Brien is the revelation amongst the cast, “infusing an honest depth in his character that could have easily been one dimensional”, while Robertson “embraced Aubrey’s quirkiness and was convincing in her portrayal of the high school junior stuck between what she knows and what she wants.” But perhaps unsurprisingly, “Submarine” breakout star Craig Roberts steals the show, “playing Dave’s British exchange friend who offers pearls of wisdom and snappy comebacks as he guides Dave through the weekend.”

“The First Time” will be in limited release starting on October 19th, and the trailer can be viewed now below.

Cannes REVIEW: “The First Time” is a sweet and charming look at first love

May 20, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Reviews 2 Comments

Before the screening of “The First Time” began this past week at Cannes, we were advised that we were about to watch an uncut version of the film. The opening scene, which is a sprawling conversation between our two leads as they discuss everything from their love interests and bad friends, to school teachers and music, had been deemed as too long for audiences. This is a shame, as that opening shot nicely sets up the close connection between Aubrey and Dave, played by Britt Robertson and Dylan O’Brien.

Set over one eventful weekend, “The First Time” follows Aubrey and Dave, high schoolers who meet in an alley behind a Friday night party. The two don’t know each other as they go to different schools, but there is an obvious connection straight away as their lengthy conversation just won’t end, going from the alley, to a walk home, to wine in Aubrey’s bedroom. But Dave has a thing for best friend Jane (Victoria Justice), and Aubrey is in an unsuccessful relationship with Ronny (James Frecheville), so over the course of the weekend the two attempt to help each other out, whilst denying the attraction to each other.

Aussie actress Sophie Lowe joins Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville in “The Grandmothers”

February 7, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

It’s one reunion after another for the cast of “The Grandmothers”, as Variety reports James Frecheville will be joined by “Animal Kingdom” co-star Ben Mendelsohn and Sophie Lowe is also hopping on board, marking a “Road Kill” reunion with Xavier Samuel. The film, based on Doris Lessing’s novel of the same name, stars Naomi Watts and Robin Wright as two lifelong best friends who begin secretly dating each other’s sons (Samuel and Frecheville). Shooting begins tomorrow in Australia under the direction Anne Fontaine, who is making her English directorial debut.

Lowe has been acting in Australia since 2005 and broke out in critically acclaimed 2009 drama “Beautiful Kate”, but may still be most well known to international audiences for landing on the final shortlist for David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” The other finalists included fellow Aussie up and comers Sarah Snook and Emily Browning, British actress Katie Jarvis, French actress Lea Seydoux and eventual Lisbeth Salander herself Rooney Mara.

First Look: Brittany Robertson, Craig Roberts and Victoria Justice in stills from Sundance-bound “The First Time”

November 30, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Images 5 Comments

One Sundance-bound film that was an immediate standout to us when the full list of competition films was unveiled earlier this afternoon was Jonathan Kasdan’s “The First Time”, a romantic comedy about a couple of high schoolers who meet at a party and spend the weekend getting to know each other and fall in love, for the first time. Lucky for us, the film is also one of the first to reveal still images of scenes, which you can now see below.

“The Secret Circle” star Britt Robertson and “Teen Wolf” star Dylan O’Brien lead a promising cast that also includes “Submarine” breakout star Craig Roberts, “Animal Kingdom” star James Frecheville and “Victorious” star Victoria Justice, who is brimming with big screen potential in the lead-up to her starring role in Josh Schwartz’s directorial debut “Fun Size.” No stranger to teen angst, Kasdan made his directorial debut with 2007′s Adam Brody-Kristen Stewart drama “In the Land of Women” but has not directed anything since. He also wrote the screenplay for “The First Time.”

See the first three images from the film below.

Up and Comers Podcast #6: “Hugo”, “We Bought a Zoo” and some of our favorite Aussie rising stars

November 29, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge and Rebecca Lewis in Podcast 1 Comment

Thank you for joining us again if you listened to our earlier podcasts or if you are new to the program, welcome! Once a week, Linda and Rebecca will take to the internet airwaves to discuss a variety of subjects, including all the latest news, movies we’ve seen recently, the Oscar season and more topics that interest us (or you! Please send us your suggestions for topics to talk about).

• 00:00 – 19:00 – Slow news week, so we dissect each and every one of BAFTA’s Rising Star longlist, as well as the high profile castings of Amber Heard in “Motor City” and Chris Evans in “The Iceman”.

• 19:00 – 25:40 – Linda talks about two movies she saw and loved this week: Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” and Cameron Crowe’s “We Bought a Zoo.”

• 25:40 – END – We discuss just a few of Australia’s many rising stars making a mark in Hollywood, from the almost-A-listers like Sam Worthington, Chris Hemsworth and Mia Wasikowska, to the barely known names like Bella Heathcote, Elizabeth Debicki and James Frecheville, and plenty in between.

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Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville are a couple of mother f*ckers in “The Grandmothers”

November 2, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Young Aussie actors Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville are about to enter MILF territory as they join “The Grandmothers” opposite Naomi Watts and Robin Wright. Screen Daily reported on the casting of the film, which is now entering pre-sales at AFM, earlier today.

Watts and Wright will play lifelong best friends who fall in love with each other’s sons (presumably Frecheville and Xavier) and carry on affairs for years, until one day they vow to end them and see their sons married off, which “has lasting impact on all concerned.” The film is aiming for a February 2012 shoot under the direction of Anne Fontaine in Australia in order to be completed in time to be submitted to Cannes 2013.

Samuel broke out internationally when he played the villainous vampire Riley in the third “Twilight” installment, “Eclipse”, but has since returned to work mostly in his native Australia, recently wrapping up surfing drama “Drift” opposite Sam Worthington. Frecheville earned raves as the lost teenager who gets caught in the crosshairs of his dangerous, dysfunctional family in 2010′s “Animal Kingdom.” He was a finalist for Warner Bros’ wizardry fantasy “The Seventh Son” and recently wrapped up shooting on Jon Kasden’s “The First Time” opposite Brittany Robertson and Dylan O’Brien.

Actors testing for “The Seventh Son” include Sam Claflin, Felicity Jones and Dianna Agron

March 30, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 5 Comments

Another day, another high profile role every young actor in Hollywood chomping at the bits for. The two male leads of “The Hunger Games” are still up for grabs but another project is hot on its heels and testing some of the hottest rising talent for its two leads.

“The Seventh Son” already has Oscar winner Jeff Bridges attached to play an aging wizard with Julianne Moore being eyed for the role of a witch, but the two teenage roles are crucial as well. Alex Pettyfer and Jennifer Lawrence had been mentioned for the project several months back but it’s unlikely either will sign on now. Variety reports that Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures are currently screen testing and assessing chemistry between several up and coming young actors, including Sam Claflin, Caleb Landry-Jones and James Frecheville for the character of Tom Ward, and Imogen Poots, Felicity Jones, Alicia Vikander, Gabrielle Wild and Dianna Agron for the role of Alice.

Formerly titled “The Spook’s Apprentice” or “The Last Apprentice”, the film will be directed by Sergei Bodrov and is adapted by Max Borenstein from Joseph Delaney’s young adult series about “a 13-year-old who’s the seventh son of a seventh son and learns about wizardry from a forbidding spook.” The story takes place in the 1700′s and judging by the selection of actors testing, the 13-year-old will be aged up quite a bit for the big screen.

We take a closer look at each of the actors hoping to front the franchise.

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