Isabel Lucas

An Australian musical-comedy began shooting in and around Brisbane today, starring uber hottie Isabel Lucas (above) in the lead role. A Heartbeat Away is International Emmy award-winning and acclaimed theatre director Gale Edwards directorial debut and is being produced by Queenslander Chris Fitchett, of Pictures in Paradise.

After being delayed last year due to refinancing, the film has no doubt gained momentum given the success of fellow Australian musical-comedy, Bran Nue Day, at the box office. The film’s budget has been trimmed to just under $7 million, down from $8 million originally, due to the effects of the economic apocalypse etc.

Coming from a background in theatre direction, Edwards is the lady behind international stage hits The Boy From Oz and Jesus Christ Superstar, which won her an International Emmy award in 2001. A Heartbeat Away is her first foray into feature film directing and hopefully she has the cross-over talent off Richard Harris.

“It's a charming, funny and moving human story with some interesting deeper layers, and the cinematographic possibilities are exciting,” says Edwards.
“The chance to tell this story through the medium of film, with a terrific cast of actors, is an enticing challenge.
“Music is very close to my own heart. This is a genre I love.”

The film is about an aspiring rock guitarist who is forced to take over his father’s brass band four weeks before a major competition. As mentioned, Isabel Lucas is the big name leading the cast with Sebastian Gregory (below) in the major male role. Gregory is a bit of an Aussie rising star and if you pay attention to local films you would recognise him from Acolytes, Accidents Happen and Beautiful. And yes, it does look like he wants to front My Chemical Romance. Veteran actor Williams Zappa is also thrown in there along with Tammy Macintosh and Colin Friels.

But the big question is, can Lucas sing? Ha, kidding, totally kidding. No one cares if she can sing. As long as she pouts at the right moment and looks suitably dainty, audiences will dig it.

A Heartbeat Away is being financed by Screen Australia, Screen Queensland, Cutting Edge Pty Ltd and Quickfire Films from the UK. Oh, and since Screen Queensland are involved, that’s the perfect opportunity for the premier’s office to pump out a press release with the following comments from Premier Anna Bligh.

"A Heartbeat Away, featuring Isabel Lucas and Colin Friels, has been supported by our government through Screen Queensland with over $3 million in funding," she says.
"To be shot solely in Queensland with filming beginning this week, this production will help generate over $10.4 million in economic activity for the state and create 215 jobs.
"This production is yet another example of the success of Queensland’s screen industry, with several Queensland projects either filming or recently completed.
"After the international success of Queensland film Daybreakers, which opened in Australia in early February, we are all looking forward to many more significant projects coming from Queensland."

She has a point, Daybreakers rocked and it’s always good to see more films being made here that are marketable overseas (hello there Sanctum). Daybreakers producer Chris Brown is also on board, so I have faith. Filming will continue to the end of March mainly in Shorncliffe, but also keep an eye out for film crews in Brisbane sporting fields and schools.