A film about pre-European Australia featuring Indigenous music and themes to be directed by comedian Tim Minchin has been “shutdown”, according to.
“The animated film to which I’ve dedicated the last 4 years of my life was shut down by the new studio execs,” Minchin said in the statement.
The feature Larrikins has been under development for four years and was to be released through Dreamworks according to Minchin.
“The only way I know how to deal with my impotent fury and sadness is to subject members of the public to the spectacle of me getting drunk and playing ballads,” he wrote in reference to an upcoming musical show he was promoting in the same post.
The film was to tell the tale of a bilby’s journey across the Australian landscape and heavily feature Indigenous music.
Larrikins was attached to Dreamworks and would have been made in Australia. The screenplay was written by Harry Cripps who worked on the 2000 film The Magic Pudding. It had a number of high profile Australian actors reportedly attached to the project including Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, Jacki Weaver, and Ben Mendelsohn.
In his post Minchin encouraged people to attend his show Getting Drunk and Playing Ballads, but warned he might not be in the best of spirits.
“I suspect I won’t be very funny, I won’t be doing any stand-up, and I might act a bit bitter and spoilt. On the upside, the tickets are as cheap as I could make them, and I might be tempted to buy a round,” he wrote
“Come and drink with me, my friends, and we’ll see what happens. Love, Tim.”
