Although there had been rumours in Pre-production that Australian luminaries such as Bob Hawke and Pauline hanson would be in Welcome to Woop Woop, these were soon proved wrong and a strong cast of Australian and American talent and often individuals with experience as both, was assembled.
Of interest are Barry Humphries as 'Blind Wally' at the
beginning of the film, Rod Taylor as Daddy'O, and Tina Louise
as Bella.
Barry Humphries is best known as Dame Edna Everage, the character he brought to the
world's attention, first, in 1966. In the 1970's he brought Barry McKenzie to the
screen in "The Adventures of Barry McKenzie". It is this ocker
tradition that Stephan Elliot cites as a major reason for his participation in this film.
Barry Humphries as Barry McKenzie is the archtypical ocker larrikin.
g As Daddy'O, Rod Taylor plays the ocker to the bone. Taylor however is a Hollywood veteran. In 1954 at the age of 24 Taylor headed to Hollywood because there simply was nowhere to go in Australia. He was voted new male personality and received the Golden Globe award in 1961. In 1962 Alfred Hitchcock starred him in the blockbuster "The Birds". His co-stars have included such greats as John Wayne, Liz Taylor and Rock Hudson.
As Daddy'O, Taylor revisits Australia and in doing so maybe gets to play out some of his
own ocker traits. Humphries and Taylor offer
Elliott the nostalgic look back at this period of Australiana.
Tina Louise used to be Ginger in Gilligan's Island and is an accomplished Broadway and Hollywood actor.
The Crew who worked on Woop Woop are a good example of the networked nature of filmmaking. While some are from the Scala production group, headed by Nik Powel and Stephen Woolley, others (and some of that group) form a group that worked with Stephan Elliot on Priscilla. Most of the crew recieved praise from reviewers for their work on Woop Woop, including Owen Patterson the production designer, and Lizzy Gardiner for her costume design.
A full Crew list is available at the IMDB site, and biographies at the Woop Woop home page.
"It needed to be funnier, according to the producers, so i brought in a few laughs and Rogers and Hammerstein."
There is no doubt that the financial backing that Elliott secured for Welcome to Woop Woop from the Samuel Goldwyn Company was due to the $78million profit that Priscilla made worldwide. In choosing to do Woop Woop Elliott had been careful to make sure he still had complete artistic control.
The location shooting was done in a natural basin wherethey built "a house made of bottles, a Chinese cinema with a pagoda roof made of yellow and red beer cans, piles of old tires and garbage and hundreds of Barbie doll heads lying around." This basin surrounded by "classic central Australian red cliffs", was situated 40 kilometers from Alice Springs at Mount Ooramina.
Even in pre-production the nostalgia for the "old Australia" is apparent. Production Designer saying that "We wanted the arcitecture of the town to be memorable, and it was an opportunity to create everyone's dream idea of what Autralia once was." In doing so They drew upon architecture from Australian building styles from the 1890s to the 1950s.
Before the set could be built it had to be checked for sacred sites by the "traditional owners".
References. Welcome to Woop Woop Home Page and Justin Hone Essay.
"THIS IS APOCALYPSE NOW. I'M MARTIN SHEEN" - Stephan Elliott
Elliot picked up a strain of Hepatitis during pre-production scouting and the illness set back the production of "Big Red" back two months. One of the major problems was the heat.
"The crew went through 3500 litres of water a day, camera parts melted, generators baked and virtually everything broke down at one stage or another. At times there was no water or power, but always lots of heat and flies. There were a few problems, like when a Northern Territorial artist threaten to sue the production for damaging his $20,000 artwork that he donated to the film."
The shoot, although tough, seems to have had some sense of enjoyment.
"The shoot, Gardiner says, was tough and relentless but she always enjoys her collaborative relationship with Elliott. 'we both know what each other is thinking anyway. It is complete freedom.'
In terms of the collaborative effort the 'team' seems to have worked well. Most of the artistically involved crew members are praised in the reviews of the film, and Nik Powell was greatful that Elliott is able to assemble such a crew.
"We have an Academy Award winning costume designer who is responsible for the highly imaginative costumes in the film, a production designer who has done a wonderful job, and in Mike Molloy, a director of photography who has really captured the wonderful light and colours of the surroundings. Steph brings all those things and more."
At Cannes the film recieved little good press and was shown with the proviso that it was a work in progress.
Elliott subsequently cut 24 minutes out of the film. The film was set for release, first, in Australia on January 8, 1998. But due to marketing problems the film's release was pushed back to April and then later August 23, 1998.
The post-production of "Welcome to Woop Woop" perhaps reflects the film itself. Elliott showed the film at Cannes when it was not finished, by his own admiitance. And the time taken to release the film suggests problems in trying to finish the film, and this is visible in the film, which many critics claim is slow and going nowhere. Is the film confused??