"A Man's Gotta Do" is funny, clever, well acted and affecting. It is a good film, though it had the potential to be a great one if the filmmakers had been content to allow these basic elements to stand alone." Sarah Wilson OUR BRISBANE "This is a light weight Aussie Soprano’s with some strong performances that maintain the humour throughout. Alyssa McClelland steals the show as the feisty match to her sometimes over bearing father. Her twisted love songs provide some of the funniest moments of the film. An amusing take on the newly affluent and their inability to connect emotionally." Chris Kennedy SBS MOVIE SHOW

"A Man’s Gotta Do has a lot going for it. John Howard is brilliant (and brilliantly unrecognisable) as the bearish Eddy, all intimidation and gruff blunder, and he’s backed by an equally exciting supporting cast. Grantley and McClelland mark themselves as stars to watch, while Frith is equal parts brittle and hilarious." Erin Free FILMINK "The film is extremely well cast, with the well-known Australian actor John Howard (from TV's "SeaChange" and "Always Greener") performing magnificently in his first lead role in a feature film. He clearly revels in the character of Eddy, and does credit to a very well written role." Sarah Wilson OUR BRISBANE

At A Glance The award winning team that brought us the sensational 1997 film "Doing Time for Patsy Cline", talented writer, director, producer Chris Kennedy and equally as talented producer John Winter join forces again, this time bringing to the big screen a feature film indelibly stamped with that unique brand of aussie humour, "A Man's Gotta Do". Kennedy recalls the inspiration for the film came through his sister. "I remember years ago at my sister’s 21st birthday party, her Irish boyfriend and I were chatting and he said he was going to Melbourne. Innocently I asked, "What for?" And straight-faced he said "well I get there around 3am go see a bloke who owes a bit of money, we make him give us the money and we come back to Sydney". All I could say was " Ah that’s very good". It had never crossed my mind that people did that sort of work, you know demanding money with menaces." Kennedy wrote his first draught script for the film in 1999 and then took it to producer John Winter. Winter read the script. His first reaction to the story was, "The script was so Chris, very funny, full of his dry wit and the characters were great" Now here's the big twist. Way back in 1999, Kennedy's draught had a "Sopranos/Goodfellas" feel about it and resembled little of todays finished product, including the lead character who was an Italian named Rocco. Kennedy says the changes were a natural transformation. But why the big shift from Italian to Australian. "I know more about Australians than Italians so I changed it," Kennedy says "I am changing stories all the time. If we were shooting the film 3 months from now it would be a very different film again." Another factor that affected the final script was the current climate surrounding the financing of Australian films. Kennedy went back to work on the script again. While Kennedy had in mind the films budget, once again there was a flow on effect as Winter explains. He says by "tightening up the script for budgetary reasons what actually happened was that the whole script just got better and better." While they were on a roll with the script there were still a couple of headaches for the pair. One was getting the film financed and the next was finding the right house for the film. The answer to the ideal house came when John Winter was returning to Sydney after a camping trip. He rang Kennedy and asked, "How about moving the shoot 2 hours south of Sydney to the Illawarra Region?" And what was Kennedy's reaction? "Do we have the money?" The answer to that question was a simple, "well … no not yet." Lady luck though, was smiling on the two. A request for extra funding from The New South Wales Film and Television Office was favourably received. The house used in the film was located in a new subdivision at Shellharbour, just outside the city of Wollongong. It turned out to be the new home of a young couple who "had spent two years designing, building and furnishing their 'dream' home and had only just moved in." The task now was to persuade them to allow the film crew to use their 'dream' home for eight weeks. "It could have been difficult persuading them to allow us to come in, change the original colour schemes and generally take over," Winter says. So was it? "They were wonderful, they made it all so easy." Like the house there are many quirky stories about the production, and here's a few. Chris Kennedy saw actor John Howard as they passed on a moving escalator. He wrote to Howard asking if he would like to read his script. Howard did. His reaction? "The characters were very clearly written and it was a ready made film which is not normal, you know it just made me laugh." The original Chantelle was overweight and unattractive. When Kennedy met slim, young, attractive actress Alyssa McClelland he rewrote the part. Why? Because, he says, "there was something about Alyssa that I couldn’t get out of my mind." Gyton Grantley was so nervous about his audition for the role of Dominic. The young man who just about steals the show felt a lot better when he found out where auditions were being held. No, not at a studio location, but at the home of Chris Kennedy. "It made it a lot more comfortable really," he recalled. "You didn’t have to go to a big studio with lots of other people waiting and get all nervous." Is it little wonder then, the film is a charmer. Not at all. I just hope Australians give it the one thing we all want in life. "A FAIR GO!" How about it film fans? They Said What? Chris Kennedy writer/director/producer.
"I have a couple of daughters but they are younger- so it was based on fear of the future and information from friends that have older daughters. Apparently there are years from the late teens to mid 20s for fathers and daughters that is a time fraught with misunderstanding- tears and grief- but it is a hilarious time to look at from the outside."
Alyssa McClelland
"Chantelle is very feisty very ballsy, in fact she will tell anyone what she thinks without censoring herself. I love that because I am not at all like that."
John Winter producer.
"Chantelle’s forever challenging Eddy- she’s the one person who can and who does. . He might be the tough guy but she’s got him wrapped around her little finger. Whilst she has a youthful exuberance that she expresses through her music and her diary, Eddy’s a man who’s not used to expressing feelings- a man of few words. But if he wants to get closer to his daughter and figure out what’s going on inside her head he’s got to open up. The film explores that journey."
John Howard
"There’s a lot of Eddy in Chantelle. She’s a woman with whom you would not fool around. She’s quite happy to shoot your balls off if she doesn’t like you and I think that that makes his need to understand her much greater. He is much closer to his daughter than he is to his wife"
Alyssa McClelland
"Chantelle is 20 and about to marry and fly the coop so there’s that whole independence issue happening with her father where she feels like” don’t tell me what to do but be there for me." Crew Bytes "A Man's Gotta Do" was .......
directed by Australian Writer’s Guild Award winner Chris Kennedy ["Doing Time for Patsy Cline", "This Won’t Hurt a Bit" and "Glass"]; screenplay by Chris Kennedy; costume design by Jane Johnston ["Mission Impossible 2", "Oscar and Lucinda" and "Billy's Holiday"]; production design by Elizabeth Mary Moore ["The Illustrated Family Doctor", "Russian Doll" and "Mullet"]; edited by Centenary of Federation Medal recipient & AFI Award winner Emma Hay ["The Secret Safari", "The Christmas Cake", "Gulpilil: One Red Blood" and "Stolen Generations "]; director of photograhpy 2000 Cinematographer of the Year, Atom Award & AFI Award winner Kim Batterham ["The Potato Factory", "Johnson and Friends", "Master and Commander" and "One Night The Moon"]; original music by AFI & APRA Award winner Peter Best ["We Of The Never Never", "The Picture Show Man", "Goodbye Paradise" and "Doing Time for Patsy Cline"] produced by John Winter ["The Roly Poly Man", "Turning April", "My Mother Frank", "Paperback Hero" and "Rabbit-Proof Fence"] and Chris Kennedy ["Doing Time for Patsy Cline", "This Won’t Hurt a Bit" and "Glass"]; casting by Christine King ["Star Wars: Episode II", "Ned Kelly", "Moulin Rouge", "X-Men" and "Doing Time for Patsy Cline"]. Casting About "A Man's Gotta Do" stars .......
Silver Logie and Best Stage Actor Award winner John Howard ["Japanese Story", "Razorback", "Dating the Enemy " and "Japanese Story"]; Leonardo Da Vinci Award winner Rebecca Frith ["Love Serenade", "Me Myself & I", "Russian Doll" and "The Missing"]; Gyton Grantley ["Swimming Upstream ", "Danny DeckChair " and "Under the Radar"] and Alyssa McClelland ["Queen of the Damned", "Horseplay" and "Deck Dogz"] as Chantelle. From The Directors Chair Director Chris Kennedy speaks about his stars ........
John Howard
He asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted him to change everything. His posture, his walk, his hairstyle, his beard, and most particularly his voice. Get rid of Bob Jelly and John Taylor. Make himself unrecognizable. It was a big ask. He just nodded and walked away. Meanwhile I held my breath. A month later I found this huge, mean looking guy sitting on my balcony in the caravan park. Who was this guy?
Rebecca Frith
Rebecca’s humour is in the small gesture. The shifting gaze. The blank expression. The tiny hand movement. She does most of her best work in the silences. I saw her peer through a Venetian blind at a next-door neighbour in ‘Love Serenade’, a total of five seconds work, but I knew I was looking at my Yvonne.
Alyssa McClelland
Alyssa was a gift. When most actors are sad, they are sad. When Chantelle is sad, she is sad, but also funny. When she is happy, she is happy but also funny. And when she is angry, she is angry but also funny. The angrier she gets, the funnier she gets etc, etc. That’s what I was looking for. An actor with that extra layer.
Gyton Grantley
Gyton was a surprise packet. He was so perfect for the role and technically adept, that I was perhaps a little unfair and didn’t pay enough attention to him. He almost stole the show. I knew he was very good, but I didn’t realise how good until we got into the editing room. But it was all there. Dominic has become a larger character than on the page, and audiences have responded to him surprisingly strongly . As for his attitude, you could hit him over the head with a steel pipe and he’d ask if the ringing in his ears was bothering anybody. The Story Eddy does what he has to do to give his family what they want. He owns a fishing trawler, has a beautiful new home with all the mod cons, an attractive wife Yvonne, and a 19 year old daughter, Chantelle, who is engaged to an air-con specialist Rudi. Life seems pretty normal, except for the last 25 years, Eddy has been secretly moonlighted as a “standover” man, purely to provide his wife with her dream house. Eddy finds it hard to express how he feels, especially now that his “little girl” is engaged and will soon be leaving the family home. Chantelle believes her emotionally blocked father has only two feelings 'angry' and 'very angry' and feels her father just doesn’t understand her. Eddy is perplexed: 'what’s to understand?' Eddy hatches a plan to better understand his daughter and recapture the closeness they once had. He enlists his new right-hand man Dominic, to secretly read Chantelle’s diary to him. Suddenly, Eddy seems to understand his daughter, he's able to anticipate Chantelle’s every need. But when Rudi fails to turn up to meet Chantelle's parent, she suspects her dad may have have something to do with his sudden disappearance. Eddy protests his innocence. Forced into a corner Eddy agrees to find Rudi. The Verdict "There's a real feel of innocence about writer, producer, director Chris Kennedy's new film "A Man's Gotta Do", innocence reminiscent of those charming aussie comedies "The Dish" and "The Castle". Lot's of clever, subtle humour here as well as quite a few laugh out loud moments. "A Man's Gotta Do" has all the hallmarks that make a good ausie comedy. "A Man's Gotta Do" may not be the biggest comedy produced down under it's still a hell of a lot of fun and within it beats a big heart. Superb cast headed up by outstanding performances from the 'real' John Howard as Eddy and Gyton Grantley as Dominic. Recommended viewing." The Cast

John Howard Rebecca Frith Alyssa McClelland Gyton Grantley Amie McKenna Rohan Nicol Tony Barry Helen Thomson Jo-Anne Cahill Lynne McGimpsey Manuel Terron Nicholas Brown Grant Bennett Rowan Jackson Robyn Ormiston Vasa Gavriloska

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Eddy Yvonne Chantelle Dominic Delores Paul Dr Savage Tina Sylvia Josephina Rudi Young Doctor Police Officer Nigel Photographer Svetlana

The Crew Directed by Chris Kennedy Written by Chris Kennedy Produced by John Winter & Chris Kennedy Director of Photography Kim Batterham Editing by Emma Hay Production Design by Elizabeth Mary Moore Costume Design by Jane Johnston Composer Peter Best Casting Director Christine King Run Time 89 minutes Rated M15+ [AUST] Copyright ©2004 - Hopscotch - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2004 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved