The Pitch

Whale Rider meets Shakespeare in Love.

Synopsis

Oscar is a hotshot young actor in the bustling Elizabethan Wellington theatre scene, loved by the Publicke, but resented by the authorities. When he is kicked out of his theatre company for ‘improvising’, he must fight, not only to get his job back, but also to stop the Queen from pushing the country into all-out war…

What if Wellington were the centre of the Elizabethan world, pioneering an explosion in theatre, fashion, new music and coffeehouses at the birth of the modern age?

The Player and the Advocate is a New Zealand digital feature film written by John Parker – a cleverer-than-thou comedy, which takes swipes at Shakespeare and New Zealand film heritage with equal glee. Joyfully misappropriating the conventions and language of Elizabethan drama, The Player and the Advocate posits an alternative universe in which Wellington is the heart of a vibrant and competitive theatre culture, characters order their lattes in blank verse, and the consequences of being an out-of-work actor may be a date with the gallows!

Project Goals

• Complete 1st draft by September 2006

• Complete rewrites by December 31st 2006

• Start seeking pre-production partners and funding early 2007

• Start production summer 2007-08

• Film release winter 2008

Project Milestones

• First treatment reading - Sunday 1st October 2006

• Electronic Press Kit available for download.

• Website launch. The Player and the Advocate website is live. Follow the progress of the film’s production through the Production Diary.

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