Tomorrow, When the War Began: birth of the Aussie blockbuster

Tomorrow, When the War Began delivers a nearly seamless transition from print to screen, with just the right amount of Hollywood-style gloss. Georgina Pearson spoke to its creators about the challenge of making Australia’s first teenage blockbuster.

Adapting a book into a film is one thing, but taking an internationally acclaimed, award-winning novel of ongoing popularity and turning it into a potential movie franchise is a completely different ball game. Such was the case with John Marsden’s Tomorrow series; set in a remote area of rural Australia, the books tell the story of a group of teenagers and their struggle for survival when their lives are suddenly and violently upended by war. With no one to lean on but each other, they must learn to escape and fight back against a hostile military force.
First published in the 1990s with more than 2.5 million copies sold, it would seem this Aussie epic was crying out to be visually translated – and it was.
Marsden received more than 120 offers from different film companies, all of which he turned down. Speaking of his decision to finally relinquish the film rights he said: “In the end I got talked into it by people who really had a commitment to the books, who really loved the stories, loved the characters and talked about the books with passion.”
Those people were executive producer and Omnilab Media managing director Christopher Mapp, Ambience Entertainment’s Michael Boughen, producer Andrew Mason and director/screenwriter Stuart Beattie.

Initially drawn to the project by its literary success, Boughen recognised the potential of an inbuilt audience: the huge following the books already had. With Mapp on board from the get-go he set about
recruiting Mason to co-produce, and was subsequently introduced to Beattie by Mapp, who had known him since childhood.
Mason (Dark City, the Matrix trilogy, Scooby Doo) brought valuable expertise in visual effects and big budget films: “The production needed someone who had been down that path before, and that suited me rather well.”
For first-time director Beattie – whose successful writing career is full of crowd-pleasing blockbusters such as Australia, G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Collateral and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl – the decision to join the team was easy, but not without hesitation. “I loved the books so much I was hesitant to let someone, even myself, ruin them. When I finally came to a place in my personal life where I felt I was ready to direct, this was being offered to me so I said to them, ‘I’m going to write it but I’ve got to direct it as well’.”
According to Beattie, the skill in adapting a book successfully comes from the knowledge of which scenes will translate visually, and which will not.
“It’s always difficult, deciding what to leave in and what to throw out. You have to be extremely ruthless and if something is not serving the story, it’s got to go. You have to know when to let go.” He explained.
He explains that another aspect of directing he found a challenge was balancing all the responsibilities.

“It’s all these people coming up to you all day long asking questions and you have to have answers for them. You just have to stay calm.”
With its action-packed war genre, Tomorrow… reads like an American blockbuster however, as far as Beattie was concerned, there was never any question of following the big bucks and filming in the US.
“Absolutely not! I always saw it as a very Australian film; set in Australia, about Australians,” he said.