Private Project

Great White

A blissful tourist trip quickly turns into a nightmare when five passengers on a seaplane become stranded miles from shore. In a desperate bid for survival, the group tries to make it to land before they either run out of supplies or are taken by a menacing terror lurking just beneath the surface.

  • Martin Wilson
    Director
  • Michael Boughen
    Writer
  • Michael Robertson
    Producer
  • Neal Kingston
    Producer
  • Katrina Bowden
    Key Cast
    "Kaz"
  • Aaron Jakubenko
    Key Cast
    "Charlie"
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 30 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 15, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    6,000,000 AUD
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    Anamorphic
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • North American Cinema release July 16th 2021
Distribution Information
  • Universal Pictures
    Distributor
    Country: Australia
    Rights: All Rights
  • RLJE Films
    Distributor
    Country: United States
    Rights: All Rights
  • Shudder
    Distributor
    Country: United States
  • Altitude
    Sales Agent
    Country: United Kingdom
Director Biography - Martin Wilson

With a career spanning nearly 25 years, Martin Wilson is an internationally awarded film director from Perth, Western Australia. His debut feature film Great White was released in the United States in July 2021 through RLJE Films and horror streamer Shudder, it stars Katrina Bowden (30 Rock, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil)
and Aaron Jakubenko (Tidelands, The Shannara Chronicles). The New York Times film reviewer said, " Director Martin Wilson, follows in the footsteps of Deep Blue Sea and 'The Meg’ to deliver a hair raising survivalist set pieces…it’s still not safe to go back in the water.” GREAT WHITE OFFICIAL TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq0aok0pEDw

Nice quote rom Katrina
I spoke to the star, who plays Kaz, about what attracted her to the Martin Wilson film, how efficiently he ran his set, facing her fears on set as an action lead, and bonding with her co-stars prior to filming.

Lead actor Katrina Bowden was taken on how meticulous Wilson ran his set despite it being his feature film directorial debut. "Marty was one of the most prepared directors I've ever worked with," she said. "He really wanted to focus on the characters and the relationships. He obviously wanted everything to be as grounded and realistic as possible. He worked so hard in pre-production that it really made our lives so much easier once we started shooting. He wanted to make it fun, exciting, and lively, but he really wanted to really make sure that the actors had a lot of time to get our things right, which I know myself and other actors. We just appreciate it so much, especially sometimes when we are shooting an action type of movie like that. There are so many different parts and moving components. So to have that the time to make sure that our performances were spot on was just so foreign to all of us."

Martin’s short film 'Wait ’Til Your Father Gets Home’ had a string of success across prestigious international festivals including; St Kilda, Telluride Independent Festival, New York Festivals and gained entry into the Melbourne International Film Festival and Palm Springs.

He also directed 2004 film 'Roll ', which was funded
and distributed by ShowTime, Screenwest and SBS Independent.
WAIT TIL YOUR FATHER GETS HOME https://vimeo.com/27566765
His extensive television commercial work includes the national 'Cowards Punch' TVC campaign with world boxing champion Danny Green. This ground-breaking national campaign has won and been
nominated for several awards. The campaign has garnered International acclaim rebrandin terms like “King
Hit" and “One Punch" attacks as the “Coward's Punch". This term has now become part of the national vernacular and is recognised through the Urban Dictionary. COWARDS PUNCH CAMPAIGN: https://vimeo.com/581728163

Martin has written several screenplays and is a Bill Warnock Award nominee. His screenplay Wolf Force
One was recently optioned by Ambience Entertainment (Storm Boy, Tomorrow, When The War Began, Killer
Elite). He is an Australian Directors' Guild 2018 Award nominee for his work on Helping Minds – Real stories
documentaries. HELPING MINDS REAL STORIES: https://vimeo.com/250796310

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Directing Great White, my first feature film was a huge undertaking and challenge. I had only got 25 shoot days and you’re faced with so many variables in particular when you’re shooting on water where you're fighting the elements as well as time.

The deeper the water and the further out you go means you are all walking off boats which adds considerable infrastructure that means you move more slowly.

Then you had the added challenge of the of filming underwater where you often can't tell what’s the shot until you have a camera down in that environment and can see whether it's working or not. It takes time because you might have to change a lens and you've got to bring the camera back up, put it back in a housing. And with actors working underwater, they can hardly see in front of them; so, they're faced with a big challenge of communication between themselves and the crew.

I felt the script by Michael Boughen had a strong visual scope to use the locations evocatively as a dynamic and dangerous place. The setting itself was a really important character in the film for me. I wanted to showcase the northern tropical waters of Australia as vast, beautiful and beguiling. But there was something primal and dangerous lurking underneath.

With this film we were not trying to re-invent the wheel, we were aiming to entertain and thrill people. A fun roller coaster ride. We wanted to create the sense of claustrophobia that is being stuck on a raft juxtaposed against the vast and ever-changing force that is the ocean.

This film is very much like a love story and a little bit of a tragedy between the two leads. The way we shot the death scenes, there is more an element of emotion and heart. You feel the tremendous loss for the lead character. You take away that feeling as you (the audience) has invested time watching these characters and liking them. That was a key element that you feel like there’s some sort of sense of loss or tragedy that would stay with you at the end. So, amongst all the action and all the suspense; and all that stuff. But as one of the first things I said to the actors was, ‘what if there was no shark in this movie? What if we didn't have a shark? What you're left with is the characters and the performances and how they related to each other. And to be people that transcended the genre. So, if you took away the shark, I still think you would have an interesting character study. That's what we're trying to do.

What I hope it that audiences feel after they've seen Great White is, you know, it's a sense of the one of the key elements that I was originally looking at was to try and transcend the film through the characters. They're human, they're authentic and real.

And to put the audience in that character's position, what would you do if you were lost in the middle of the ocean with sharks stalking you and your raft was sinking, what would you do?