Australia, 8th August 2013 – Jocelyn Moorhouse’s feature-film adaptation of Rosalie Ham’s best-selling novel The Dressmaker has been greenlit for production following the Screen Australia board meeting yesterday. The film will be released in Australia by Universal Pictures and is being sold worldwide by U.K. based Embankment Films and co-represented in the U.S. with CAA. Produced by Sue Maslin (Japanese Story) through Film Art Media, The Dressmaker has been financed with the assistance of Screen Australia, the Ingenious Senior Film Fund (advised by Ingenious Media and Apollo Media, White Hot Productions, Film Victoria and Soundfirm).
The Dressmaker is the story of Tilly Dunnage, who returns after many years in Europe to her small hometown with revenge on her mind. A stylish drama with comic undertones, Tilly punishes those who did her wrong in the past—and brings 1950s haute couture to the Australian outback.
Academy Award® winner Kate Winslet plays Tilly, a talented couture dressmaker who returns home to the remote country town from which she fled as a child after being accused of murder. Tilly wishes to make amends with her eccentric mother, Molly, but first must unravel the secrets of her past. She will be joined by Academy Award® nominated actress Judy Davis, cast as Molly in Moorhouse’s tale of love, revenge and haute couture.
The film represents a return to Australian screens for Jocelyn Moorhouse (Proof, How to Make An American Quilt, A Thousand Acres):
“When I read Rosalie Ham’s novel, The Dressmaker, I realised that it was Unforgiven with a sewing machine. Kate Winslet and Judy Davis are two of the world’s best actresses and I can’t wait to see them working side by side, going toe-to-toe as they bring the wonderful characters of Tilly and Molly Dunnage to the big screen.”
Working with Moorhouse will be Academy Award® nominated crew including director of photography Don McAlpine (Ender’s Game, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Moulin Rouge!, Romeo + Juliet), production designer Roger Ford (Chronicles of Narnia, Babe), costume designer Tim Chappel (The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Mental) and editor Jill Bilcock (Moulin Rouge!, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Road To Perdition).
Shooting will begin in early 2014 in Victoria. Kate Winslet is represented by CAA and United Agents. Judy Davis is represented by Shanahan Management.