Hippie Hippie Shake (film)
Encyclopedia
Hippie Hippie Shake is an upcoming British drama film
produced by Working Title Films
. The film is based on a memoir by Richard Neville
, editor of the Australian satirical magazine Oz
, and chronicles his relationship with girlfriend Louise Ferrier, the launch of the London edition of Oz amidst the 1960s counterculture
, and the staff's trial for distributing an obscene issue. Hippie Hippie Shake stars Cillian Murphy
as Richard Neville, with Sienna Miller
as Louise.
British film production company Working Title began development of Hippie Hippie Shake in 1998, but the film was repeatedly delayed, changing directors and screenwriters. In September 2007, the film finally began principal photography
. As of June 2010, the film is "yet-to-be released."
editor Richard Neville
and Louise Ferrier, as Neville and his cohorts launch the London edition of the radical magazine and are put on trial for publishing an obscene issue. The film serves as a metaphorical journey through the 1960s in London
.
announced the development of the film Hippie Hippie Shake, based on Hippie Hippie Shake: The Dreams, the Trips, the Trials, the Love-ins, the Screw Ups: The Sixties, a memoir by Oz
magazine editor Richard Neville
. Screenwriter Don Macpherson
was hired to write the adapted screenplay for the film, which was slated to begin production in 1999, depending on Working Title's status following the breakup of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
.
Production did not begin as anticipated. Working Title restarted development in February 2002 with director Shekhar Kapur
attached to direct based on a script by Tom Butterworth. Again, the project was delayed.
In May 2007, Working Title announced its third attempt to produce Hippie Hippie Shake, this time with director Beeban Kidron
and screenwriter Lee Hall
. The film, which would be distributed by Universal Pictures
, was slated to begin production in fall 2007.
Following William Nicholson
's involvement with the script, principal photography began on 17 September 2007. Writer Richard Neville acknowledged the long development history of the film but considered the film appropriate for the contemporary state of affairs, "Given that the world is at war, it couldn't be better timing to highlight the crazy, fun and political times of the 1960s... I think the timing is pretty terrific. Enough time has gone by to perhaps look at that era in a new perspective and help us reflect on what's going on today," Neville said.
Parts of the film were shot in the Hampstead
district of London,and a house in South Hill Park
was used as the exterior of Greer's home. Until his death, South Hill Park was the home of Anthony Minghella
, the film director and father of Max Minghella
. All Saint's Road was also used as a substitute for King's Road.
In July 2009, "creative differences" led Beeban Kidron to quit during post-production
; her husband, screenwriter Lee Hall
, left the production earlier. According to The Times
, Kidron said "I worked on the film for as long as I could and as hard as I could and then I had to walk away. It was very wounding." A 100-print release is currently scheduled for February 2010. As of November 2009, Launchingfilms.co.uk had Hippie Hippie Shake scheduled for release on 21 May 2010.
In July 2007, in a piece for The Guardian
, feminist author Germaine Greer
vehemently expressed her displeasure at being depicted, writing, "You used to have to die before assorted hacks started munching your remains and modelling a new version of you out of their own excreta." Greer refused to be involved with the film, just as she declined to read Neville's memoir before it was published (he had offered to change anything she found offensive). She did not want to meet with Emma Booth
, who portrays her in the film, and concluded her article with her only advice for the actress: "Get an honest job." Booth had just told The Brisbane Times, "It's going to be a bit scary playing her. Germaine is this ballsy lady. I am sure she is going to hate me."
In contrast to Greer, Louise Ferrier met with director Kidron to discuss the film at length, and expressed the opinion that Kidron was "certainly working to make it authentic." Ferrier said she was unfamiliar with the work of Sienna Miller
, the actress portraying her.
Publisher Felix Dennis was more cooperative however, and agreed to meet up with Chris O'Dowd, the actor who portrays him the film. "He was an incredibly charismatic man," O'Dowd stated.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
produced by Working Title Films
Working Title Films
Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London, UK. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions, including films starring comic actor Rowan Atkinson...
. The film is based on a memoir by Richard Neville
Richard Neville (writer)
Richard Neville is an Australian author and self-described "futurist", who came to fame as a co-editor of the counterculture magazine Oz in Australia and the United Kingdom in the 1960s and early 1970s...
, editor of the Australian satirical magazine Oz
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...
, and chronicles his relationship with girlfriend Louise Ferrier, the launch of the London edition of Oz amidst the 1960s counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
, and the staff's trial for distributing an obscene issue. Hippie Hippie Shake stars Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy is an Irish film and theatre actor. He is often noted by critics for his chameleonic performances in diverse roles and distinctive blue eyes and general sex appeal....
as Richard Neville, with Sienna Miller
Sienna Miller
Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...
as Louise.
British film production company Working Title began development of Hippie Hippie Shake in 1998, but the film was repeatedly delayed, changing directors and screenwriters. In September 2007, the film finally began principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
. As of June 2010, the film is "yet-to-be released."
Premise
Hippie Hippie Shake follows the love story of OzOz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...
editor Richard Neville
Richard Neville (writer)
Richard Neville is an Australian author and self-described "futurist", who came to fame as a co-editor of the counterculture magazine Oz in Australia and the United Kingdom in the 1960s and early 1970s...
and Louise Ferrier, as Neville and his cohorts launch the London edition of the radical magazine and are put on trial for publishing an obscene issue. The film serves as a metaphorical journey through the 1960s in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Cast
- Cillian MurphyCillian MurphyCillian Murphy is an Irish film and theatre actor. He is often noted by critics for his chameleonic performances in diverse roles and distinctive blue eyes and general sex appeal....
as Richard NevilleRichard Neville (writer)Richard Neville is an Australian author and self-described "futurist", who came to fame as a co-editor of the counterculture magazine Oz in Australia and the United Kingdom in the 1960s and early 1970s... - Sienna MillerSienna MillerSienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...
as Louise Ferrier, Neville's girlfriend - Nina LiuNina LiuNina Liu is an Australian actress of Chinese descent. Her most prominent role was as Chloe in the television series, The Secret Life of Us...
as Jenny KeeJenny KeeJenny Kee is an Australian fashion designer. She was born in Bondi to a Cantonese father and a mother of partially Italian descent. Kee started her career in fashion in modelling, at one time featuring as the face of Canadian Airlines advertisements... - Emma BoothEmma Booth (actress)Emma Booth is an Australian model-turned-actress. From Perth in Western Australia, the former teen model and TV star played a significant role in the 2007 film Introducing the Dwights, opposite Brenda Blethyn.-TV and Movies Career :...
as Germaine GreerGermaine GreerGermaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century.... - Johnny Whitteridge as Max the flower painted hippy
- Margo StilleyMargo StilleyMargo Stilley is an American actress and former model.-Biography:Stilley grew up in Conway, South Carolina, and left as a teenager to model in Milan before moving to London at the age of 18....
as Cynthia Plaster CasterCynthia Plaster CasterCynthia Plaster Caster , whose real name is Cynthia Albritton, is an artist and self-described "recovering groupie" who creates plaster casts of famous persons' penises and breasts. She began her career in 1968 by casting penises of rock musicians. She later expanded her subjects to include... - Matthew BeardMatthew BeardMatthew Beard may refer to:*Matthew Beard , American child actor best known as "Stymie" in the Our Gang comedies*Matthew Beard , English actor...
as Charles - Max MinghellaMax MinghellaMax Giorgio Choa Minghella is an English actor. The son of film director Anthony Minghella, he has appeared in several dramatic American films, making his feature film debut in 2005's Bee Season and starring in 2006's Art School Confidential...
as Martin SharpMartin SharpMartin Sharp is an Australian artist, underground cartoonist, songwriter and film-maker. Sharp has made contributions to Australian and international culture since the early 60s, and is hailed as Australia's foremost pop artist... - Chris O'DowdChris O'DowdChris O'Dowd is an Irish comedian and actor. He is best known for playing Roy Trenneman in British sitcom The IT Crowd...
as Felix DennisFelix DennisFelix Dennis is a British magazine publisher, poet, and philanthropist. His privately owned company, Dennis Publishing, pioneered computer and hobbyist magazine publishing in the United Kingdom... - Lewis Clay as Paul RodgersPaul RodgersPaul Bernard Rodgers is an English rock singer-songwriter, best known for his success in the 1970s as a member of Free and Bad Company. After stints in two less successful bands in the 1980s and early 1990s, The Firm and The Law, he became a solo artist. He has recently toured and recorded with...
- Genevieve Gaunt as Trudi
- Leah Hinton-Fishlock as Hippie Chick
- Peter Brooke as Jerry Rubin
- David Anthony as Roger DaltreyRoger DaltreyRoger Harry Daltrey, CBE , is an English singer and actor, best known as the founder and lead singer of English rock band The Who. He has maintained a musical career as a solo artist and has also worked in the film industry, acting in a large number of films, theatre and television roles and also...
- Sean BiggerstaffSean BiggerstaffSean Biggerstaff is a Scottish actor best known for playing Oliver Wood in the Harry Potter film series.-Life and career:Biggerstaff was born in Glasgow, Scotland, growing up with his parents in Maryhill...
Pre-production delays
In October 1998, British film production company Working Title FilmsWorking Title Films
Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London, UK. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions, including films starring comic actor Rowan Atkinson...
announced the development of the film Hippie Hippie Shake, based on Hippie Hippie Shake: The Dreams, the Trips, the Trials, the Love-ins, the Screw Ups: The Sixties, a memoir by Oz
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...
magazine editor Richard Neville
Richard Neville (writer)
Richard Neville is an Australian author and self-described "futurist", who came to fame as a co-editor of the counterculture magazine Oz in Australia and the United Kingdom in the 1960s and early 1970s...
. Screenwriter Don Macpherson
Don Macpherson
Don Macpherson is a British screenwriter working in films and television.-Biography:Born in Durham, educated at Nottingham High School and Queen's College, Cambridge where he was awarded an Exhibition to read English.-Journalism:...
was hired to write the adapted screenplay for the film, which was slated to begin production in 1999, depending on Working Title's status following the breakup of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment was a film studio, founded in 1979 as a European competitor to Hollywood, but eventually sold and merged with Universal Pictures in 1999....
.
Production did not begin as anticipated. Working Title restarted development in February 2002 with director Shekhar Kapur
Shekhar Kapur
Shekhar Kapur is an Indian film director and producer. A critically acclaimed director, he rose to popularity with the movie Bandit Queen...
attached to direct based on a script by Tom Butterworth. Again, the project was delayed.
In May 2007, Working Title announced its third attempt to produce Hippie Hippie Shake, this time with director Beeban Kidron
Beeban Kidron
Beeban Kidron is an English Film Director known for her much-lauded adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's autobiographical novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and for directing Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason...
and screenwriter Lee Hall
Lee Hall (playwright)
Lee Hall is an English playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the 2000 film Billy Elliot.-Early life:...
. The film, which would be distributed by Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
, was slated to begin production in fall 2007.
Production
William Nicholson (writer)
William Nicholson FRSL is a British screenwriter, playwright, and novelist.-Family:A native of Lewes, Sussex, William Nicholson was raised in a Catholic family in Gloucestershire. By the time he reached his tenth birthday, he had decided to become a writer. He was educated at Downside School,...
's involvement with the script, principal photography began on 17 September 2007. Writer Richard Neville acknowledged the long development history of the film but considered the film appropriate for the contemporary state of affairs, "Given that the world is at war, it couldn't be better timing to highlight the crazy, fun and political times of the 1960s... I think the timing is pretty terrific. Enough time has gone by to perhaps look at that era in a new perspective and help us reflect on what's going on today," Neville said.
Parts of the film were shot in the Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
district of London,and a house in South Hill Park
South Hill Park (London street)
South Hill Park is a street in the Hampstead district of London. It is within the London Borough of Camden, and some of its houses overlook Hampstead Heath..-Transport links:...
was used as the exterior of Greer's home. Until his death, South Hill Park was the home of Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, CBE was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007....
, the film director and father of Max Minghella
Max Minghella
Max Giorgio Choa Minghella is an English actor. The son of film director Anthony Minghella, he has appeared in several dramatic American films, making his feature film debut in 2005's Bee Season and starring in 2006's Art School Confidential...
. All Saint's Road was also used as a substitute for King's Road.
Release delays
In August 2008, controversy surrounding Miller's personal life led to a delay in the film's release.In July 2009, "creative differences" led Beeban Kidron to quit during post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
; her husband, screenwriter Lee Hall
Lee Hall (playwright)
Lee Hall is an English playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the 2000 film Billy Elliot.-Early life:...
, left the production earlier. According to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, Kidron said "I worked on the film for as long as I could and as hard as I could and then I had to walk away. It was very wounding." A 100-print release is currently scheduled for February 2010. As of November 2009, Launchingfilms.co.uk had Hippie Hippie Shake scheduled for release on 21 May 2010.
Reactions
The people depicted in the film have had a range of reactions to the film.In July 2007, in a piece for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, feminist author Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
vehemently expressed her displeasure at being depicted, writing, "You used to have to die before assorted hacks started munching your remains and modelling a new version of you out of their own excreta." Greer refused to be involved with the film, just as she declined to read Neville's memoir before it was published (he had offered to change anything she found offensive). She did not want to meet with Emma Booth
Emma Booth (actress)
Emma Booth is an Australian model-turned-actress. From Perth in Western Australia, the former teen model and TV star played a significant role in the 2007 film Introducing the Dwights, opposite Brenda Blethyn.-TV and Movies Career :...
, who portrays her in the film, and concluded her article with her only advice for the actress: "Get an honest job." Booth had just told The Brisbane Times, "It's going to be a bit scary playing her. Germaine is this ballsy lady. I am sure she is going to hate me."
In contrast to Greer, Louise Ferrier met with director Kidron to discuss the film at length, and expressed the opinion that Kidron was "certainly working to make it authentic." Ferrier said she was unfamiliar with the work of Sienna Miller
Sienna Miller
Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...
, the actress portraying her.
Publisher Felix Dennis was more cooperative however, and agreed to meet up with Chris O'Dowd, the actor who portrays him the film. "He was an incredibly charismatic man," O'Dowd stated.