Straight off the plane from New York, where he is mid-production on the Netflix series “Black Rabbit,” debuted his new documentary “Ellis Park” at the Melbourne International Film Festival. “Ellis Park” follows the eventful life of composer Warren Ellis and the wildlife sanctuary he co-founded on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Combining Ellis’ irreverent humor and unbounded creativity with the moving story of the sanctuary’s role as a home for animals rescued from the black market, “Ellis Park” is set to be one of the most impactful Australian documentaries of recent years.
Following the film’s premiere at Melbourne’s Astor Theatre, Kurzel said making the documentary has profoundly influenced his forthcoming productions. Alongside “Black Rabbit” these include “The Order” — a wintry thriller starring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, and Marc Maron set — and the series “ ,” starring Jacobi Elordi, Odessa Young and Ciarán Hinds, currently in post-production. “When we went over to Indonesia, we thought we were going to be seeing a lot of events,” Kurzel said at a post-screening Q&A.
“Animal traffickers and police at the port, some of the rescues, but none of that ended up happening while we were there.” “Creatively, it was pretty scary. Usually, you go into a film with very strong ideas, and I realized very quickly that I had to let the people, and Warren and the animals flow into the storytelling.
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