Eric Bana is one of Hollywood's brightest stars, but these days he prefers to shine on home soil.
Or, in this case, home waters.
Alongside director Robert Connolly — with whom he made the 2020 film adaptation of Jane Harper's Australian outback noir The Dry, with its sequel, Force of Nature, currently in the works — the pair are giving author Tim Winton the big screen treatment this time around.
Winton is one of the biggest names in Australian literature, known for the likes of Cloudstreet and Dirt Music, both of which have been adapted for the big or small screen.
His beloved novel, Blueback, is a coming-of-age story seen through the prism of a child's unlikely bond with the titular wild blue groper fish, and the passion it sparks for protecting marine life more broadly.
It's a story of friendship, family and facing environmental threats head-on, all set on the pristine west coast of Australia.
It's now set to become a feature film, hitting Australian screens on New Year's Day 2023.
"It's the book I still get the most mail about, to this day, even though I wrote it in the middle of the 1990s," Winton told media surrounding the film.
"It's a rare and lovely experience to know some little thing that you wrote still has rippling effects."
Inspiring environmentalism
Winton is somewhat known for shunning the spotlight, but there's no secret he has a passion for environmental advocacy and Australian stories built on small communities.
Both are key pillars of Blueback, and the film follows the story's path in almost all aspects: The most obvious change being in the main character, switching the book's Abel for the screen's Abby.
Mia Wasikowska, Ariel Donoghue and Ilsa Fogg star as Abby at different ages as the film progresses. The film showcases Abby's dogged pursuit of protecting the coral reefs in her community, inspired in large part by her environmentalist mother, Dora (played by Radha Mitchell).
Enter Eric Bana as "Mad Macka".
"Macka is an abalone diver, and it is his job to keep things calm on the reef. He has a great connection with our young lead," Bana told ABC News Breakfast.
"It was a lot of fun. It was much fun growing that beard as it was working with Rob [Connolly, director] again!"
The passion for the environment also filters into the way the novel was adapted for the big screen, and it's something director Connolly kept at the front of his mind over the more than 20 years he's spent developing the project alongside Winton.
"There's this wonderful movement in the environmental movement now around optimism, which is, if we tell people things are terrible, they won't do anything," Connolly told ABC News Breakfast.
"But, if you can show people that, if we change our ways, even a little bit, we can affect change, [then] people do things. So, Eric and I wanted to make a film with our wonderful team that was an optimistic, inspirational film about the ocean.
"I hope the film can show people how amazing our ocean is. And, as a result, maybe inspire some activism around the issues that we're facing."
Australian landscapes as co-stars
Most of the film's action takes place in the fictional coastal town of Longboat Bay, a community inspired by the coastline of Western Australia's Great Southern region.
Winton's evocative descriptions of the Bay — alongside his specific advice to Connolly — contributed directly to the real-life shooting locations.
"Tim Winton said: 'If you want to make my book, go to Bremer Bay'. I turned up there, and it is idyllic one day, Antarctic the next," Connolly said.
"Massive, big oceans. And I like that big, muscular, visceral world that this mum and her young daughter live in. But some days were so beautiful. Incredible, exquisite days with dolphins and incredible marine creatures."
Winton highlights the importance of the ocean so much that it effectively becomes a secondary character, illustrated through Connolly's on-screen vision for Blueback.
"He makes the Australian landscape part of the story," Bana said of Connolly's directing.
"We don't feel like we're observing the landscape. We're in it and we're part of it, and to see this film on the big screen is so overwhelming and it's why his films are so emotional, because you really feel like you're immersed in it.
"He's done that again with this film. It really is incredible. And I think it's why Australians connect with those sorts of films in a real, visceral way, and we hope that they connect as much with Blueback as they did with The Dry."
