Taglines: After that summer nothing would ever be the same again.
December Boys movie storyline. An adult nicknamed Misty is narrating a story about one summer in his life when he was an adolescent in the late 1960s. He was living in a Catholic orphanage in the Australian outback. His best mates were the “December boys” – Maps, Spark and Spit – the four of them so named because they were the boys in the orphanage born in the month of December. With a recent windfall, the orphanage decided to give each of the boys a group vacation for each of their birthdays, the December boys the first to go.
Their vacation was to Lady Star Cove on the Australian coast, to stay at the home of Mrs. and Mrs. McAnsh – Bandy and “Skipper”. Their relatively carefree Christmas vacation took a turn primarily from three events: learning the reason the McAnshes hosted the boys specifically at this time; Maps, the oldest in his mid-teens, exploring his sexuality with a girl named Lucy, who was also visiting Lady Star Cove for the summer; and Misty secretly learning that a young couple in the cove, Fearless and Teresa, were thinking about adopting one of them, the couple who were unable to conceive a child of their own.
Beyond the dreams of especially the younger three to be adopted by a loving family, Fearless had the extra wow factor of being a stunt motorcyclist as his profession. Misty, the youngest, tried the hardest to be the one chosen, even initially keeping the fact of Fearless and Teresa thinking about adopting one of them from the other three. Misty concludes his story with the reason why he is telling it at this stage in his life.
December Boys is an Australian 2007 drama film directed by Rod Hardy and written by Marc Rosenberg and adapted from the 1963 novel of the same name by Michael Noonan. It was released on 14 September 2007 in the UK and US and 20 September 2007 in Australia.
The film marks Daniel Radcliffe’s first major role outside the ‘Harry Potter’ character. He plays Maps, one of four orphan boys. The three other orphans are played by Christian Byers, Lee Cormie and James Fraser. Jack Thompson co-stars as Bandy McAnsh, the retired naval officer who takes charge of the boys during their summer holiday. Sullivan Stapleton and Victoria Hill play the young couple who befriend the boys. Ralph Cotterill is Shellbank, the old fisherman. Frank Gallacher plays Father Scully; Kris McQuade plays Bandy’s wife Mrs. McAnsh and newcomer Teresa Palmer plays Maps’ love interest, Lucy.
Background Information
It was over ten years ago that producer Richard Becker bought the film rights to “December Boys.” Becker says that he had always enjoyed stories about humanity, friendship and love, and that he was very moved by the story of these four orphan boys: “I think everyone has a summer they can remember where they suddenly grew up, where the journey was particularly profound, where meaningful things happened. That’s what I read in this story and that was its appeal. I wasn’t an orphan and I certainly didn’t experience some of the things that they boys went through, but it resonated with me.”
In 1998, writer Mark Rosenberg came on board the project and then, says Becker, “the script really started to take shape. By 2000, we had a script I was truly proud of and we started to work on putting the finance together.” By that time, Becker had asked Rod Hardy to direct the film.
Says Hardy: “I thought it was a magic story. I’ve always been attracted to films about people growing up, and this story has a particular charm about it.”
Location
The film was made on location in Adelaide and Kangaroo Island, with interiors at the South Australian Film Corporation Studio. Directed Rod Hardy had worked some years ago on Kangaroo Island, “I knew what a unique place it is. The script called for a Cove where the film is set that was beautiful, but also desolate. Coves aren’t that easy to find but the one at Kangaroo Island was perfect. It sits directly west so the sun sets between the headlands and gives it a magical feeling. We were also able to build our own town there. It meant we could work out of Adelaide and film there, but then not have too far to travel to Kangaroo Island.”
Adds producer Richard Becker, “South Australia has an unusual coastline that you don’t often find, which was perfect for this film. In addition to Kangaroo Island, we also filmed at The Remarkables, at Admiral’s Arch and at Secret Valley. So it’s a compilation of locations that blend together to form the imaginary Cove where our characters live.”
Look of the Film
The film begins in the outback, but rather than making it a very red, very hot looking location, as we’ve seen so many times before, the producers kept a much more subdued feel to the outback scenes. Says Hardy, “There’s a feeling in the orphanage that the Catholic Church is very much overseeing these boys, so we went for very subdued color. As we progress through the story, the colors get brighter, and when they arrive at the carnival there’s a dancing of lights and the colors are getting richer. By the time we get to the Cove and the boys run freely across the sand, the sea is sparkling and the sky is really blue. The change also progresses the mood of the film.”
The film’s design, says producer Richard Becker, was larger than life. That’s because we’re watching the film through the thoughts and memories of a now adult Misty. “Our memories are always different from reality,” says Becker. “When many of us go back to look at the house we grew up in, it’s always much smaller than we remembered it as a child. So we enhanced the design and the look of the film to reflect that.”
Casting the Film
Daniel Radcliffe plays Maps, the oldest of the boys. Christian Byers plays Spark, Lee Cormie plays Misty and James Fraser plays Spit. Lee and Christian both had some acting experience, but James had none. Daniel had only a short window of time available between filming the fourth and fifth “Harry Potter” films, so once he was on board casting the other boys around him was the producers’ main concern. Says Becker: “Casting the other three boys was very difficult. We had to find young boys who could deliver their roles and who looked good together as a group.” The search went right across Australia and New Zealand, and over 1,000 boys were seen before the final three were chosen.
Daniel Radcliffe says he had always planned to make another movie between the fourth and fifth “Harry Potter” films. “I was sent a lot of scripts but none of them really appealed to me,” said Radcliffe. “When I read DECEMBER BOYS I loved it. It was a very simple story but I thought it was very beautiful. And my character Maps is very, very different to Harry, so I knew that would be a challenge for me. I’ve been playing Harry Potter for five years, so it was quite amazing to do something different. Hopefully people will see me in a new light after this.”
Having Daniel on board was a big plus for the other boys. Becker exclaimed, “The day Daniel arrived on set his professionalism and focus really lifted the other boys and he really helped to glue them together. He’s a consummate performer and an extraordinary actor.”
Christian Byers (Spark) said, “Spark is the real fun loving guy of the four. He looks at all the lingerie ads, he smokes, he’s out there looking for fun. He was a great character to play.” Christian says that the four of them were great friends: “We had heaps of fun making the film. And I really liked the fact that the story was about four boys whose friendship brings them together – and it’s about going through tough times together.”
Lee Cormie (Misty) added, “Misty is the youngest, but he’s the most mature. He’s the one that says ‘don’t do that, don’t do this’, and he makes his hair nice and tucks his shirt in. I really liked the story and I thought it was very well written. It’s taken the producers 14 years to make this film – that’s before I was born!” Lee says how much he enjoyed working with Daniel, “He’s a great bloke! I thought it was fantastic that he was going to be in the film and I was very excited to meet him. He’s really nice. He’s also very focused. It was a great learning experience for me because I could just follow in his footsteps.”
James Fraser (Spit) said, “When I first read the script I just knew that I would love to be in this film. I play Spit – a character who loves himself and thinks that the sun doesn’t rise without his permission! Maps is his idol though: he sees him as a parental figure.” For James, staying in focus was the hardest challenge, “I have a very happy home life but Spit doesn’t. So I had to imagine how that would feel and then keep that feeling for long periods of time. That was the most difficult part.”
For director Rod Hardy it was very important that “we find four boys who had chemistry together but who also had the maturity to understand the work and the hard effort that goes into making a film. I found all that with these four boys – they were fantastic.” Adds producer Richard Becker, “The four of them made a great combination. There’s a real friendship between them that radiates from the screen and was central to making this film work.”
December Boys (2007)
Directed by: Rod Hardy
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Teresa Palmer, Christian Byers, Lee Cormie, Jack Thompson, Suzie Wilks, Victoria Hill, Kris McQuade, Frank Gallacher, Paul Blackwell
Screenplay by: Marc Rosenberg
Production Design by: Leslie Binns
Cinematography by: David Connell
Film Editing by: Dany Cooper
Costume Design by: Mariot Kerr
Set Decoration by: Karen Hannaford
Art Direction by: Andrew Walpole
Music by: Carlo Giacco
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, nudity, underage drinking and smoking.
Distributed by: Warner Independent
Release Date: September 14, 2007
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