The upcoming remake of Storm Boy now has a release date, following its acquisition by Sony Pictures. The film will open on 10 January 2019, in the thick of the competitive school holidays period, suggesting Sony have faith in its box office prospects.
Based on the beloved 1964 novel, which was adapted into the classic 1976 film, the new Storm Boy will follow the titular character, a young boy (Finn Little) growing up on the coastline South Australia. There he rescues three pelicans and becomes best pals with them.
One of them is Mr Percival. The real-life pelican who starred in the original film lived until his mid-30s, passing away in a South Australian zoo in 2009.
The second Storm Boy movie was directed by Shawn Seet, director of television shows such as Deep Water, The Code and episodes of Underbelly. It was written by Justin Monjo, who recently wrote Jungle, Spear and the ABC series The Secret Daughter. The rest of the cast includes Geoffrey Rush and Jai Courtney, with a cameo from David Gulpilil.
The pelicans in the Coorong region in South Australia were the inspiration for the original story, which was written by author Colin Thiele. The producer of the new film, Matthew Street, told ABC News that the shooting locations would stay true to the locations used in the original.
