The Snowtown (2011) and Assassin’s Creed (2016) director’s upcoming film about the famous Kelly Gang bushrangers has received a casting update.
George MacKay will be playing Ned Kelly and he’s joined by an impressive list of supporting cast members that will include Russell Crowe, Nicholas Hoult, Essie Davis, Travis Fimmel (pictured above) and young rising talent Dacre Montgomery.
The film will be called True History of the Kelly Gang and is based on the book of the same name by Peter Carey.
It’s scheduled to film in Australia in the first quarter of 2018 and will be developed in collaboration with Film4, Screen Australia and Film Victoria.
There have been many a film that have told the story of Australia’s most popular historical crime figures in the Kelly Gang, however Justin Kurzel should definitely bring a new spin on it.
His film Snowtown was disturbingly brilliant, and his follow-up Macbeth (2015) was just as good.
His latest film based on the blockbuster video game Assassin’s Creed was for the most part a flop, however it’s hard to lay blame on the director for that one, and it appeared he did the best with what he had to work with.
George MacKay is a good choice for the role of the Kelly Gang leader Ned, though I think Fimmel might have the better look.
You can’t fault MacKay’s acting abilities though, as seen in his great performance in Captain Fantastic – one of 2016’s best films.
Kurzel’s style could make this the definitive Ned Kelly film, but we’ll just have to wait and see when it’s released, presumably in 2019.
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