Maxine Frith and Christine Sams in Melbourne's The Age
"Australia's most expensive horror film, Rogue, premiered in Darwin last night, with tourism bosses predicting its killer croc star would attract visitors to the Northern Territory rather than frighten them off.
"When Wolf Creek, the debut film from Rogue director Greg McLean, came out in 2005, the British media claimed it would do for Australia's outback what Jaws did for swimming in the ocean. But backpacker visitors to Australia increased by 9 per cent in the year after the film was released.
"Rogue, which tells the story of an American travel writer's encounter with a killer croc, is expected to prompt even more visits to Australia."
Rogue stars Michael Vartan (top photo), Radha Mitchell, and Sam Worthington. The film, which McLean also wrote, has been nominated in the original screenplay category for this year's Australian Writers' Guild award, the Awgie.
Now, can you see the croc on the poster?
Frith and Sams' article also talks about writer-director Dee McLachlan's The Jammed, which, despite positive reviews, has failed to find distribution in Melbourne. The problem lies with the subject matter: sex slavery and corruption in Australia's pristine southern metropolis. The Jammed stars Veronica Sywak as a private investigator who gets enmeshed in Melbourne's dark underbelly.
More information on The Jammed here.