The King (2007 film)
Encyclopedia
The King: The Story of Graham Kennedy is an Australia
n telemovie examining the life of Australian entertainer Graham Kennedy
.
Produced in Australia
by the Sydney
based independent production company
Crackerjack Productions
for TV1
and the Nine Network
, The King was first shown on 20 May 2007 on TV1 for Foxtel
and Austar
and became the highest rating drama ever screened on subscription television in Australia, drawing 511,000 viewers. It later aired on the Nine Network on 27 August 2007.
The film faced criticism from some of those close to Kennedy who felt it did not portray him accurately, feeling that he was portrayed too broadly in a dark manner in the film, as well as what one commentator noted was a "mad rush to out
him, sexually
" .
was written by Jaime Browne and Kris Mrksa; the director was Matthew Saville
and the producer was Jason Stephens. Filming began on 6 December 2006 with a budget and a 20-day shooting schedule. The ABC's
Ripponlea studios were utilised to film the scenes for sequences involving Kennedy's roles on In Melbourne Tonight
and Blankety Blanks
.
Stephen Curry (who plays the role of Graham Kennedy
) lost 14 kilograms (30 pounds) to portray the young Kennedy, and then regained the weight in two weeks over Christmas 2006 to play the older Kennedy.
article published on 28 November 2006 headed "Pals protect mate" reported that Kennedy's friends Bert Newton
, Noeline Brown
and her husband TV writer Tony Sattler were "refusing to help producers of a telemovie about his life."
The article stated that "Bert Newton knocked back an approach to work on The King, telling industry sources Kennedy would not have approved of his story being told" and quoted Sattler as saying "He was never himself, always playing the character called Graham Kennedy, so I don't know how they'd find someone who could manage to play the part." It also stated "The movie is not linked with [the] controversial book "The King & I", launched in the prior month by Kennedy's former lover, Rob Astbury
."
:
Close friends Tony Sattler and Noeline Brown were reported as saying:
Brown was also reported as saying:
And Tony Sattler said:
Kennedy's colleague Bert Newton was interviewed by Tracy Grimshaw in an item which went to air on A Current Affair on the night of the Channel 9 screening of the The King:
The King won the award for Best Telefeature or Miniseries. Curry also picked up the award for Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama and Saville for Best Direction in Television.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n telemovie examining the life of Australian entertainer Graham Kennedy
Graham Kennedy
Graham Cyril Kennedy, AO was an Australian radio, television and film performer, often called Gra Gra and The King of Australian television.-Childhood:...
.
Produced in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
by the Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
based independent production company
Production company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
Crackerjack Productions
Crackerjack Productions
Crackerjack Productions is an Australian independent television production company headed by brothers Mark and Carl Fennessy....
for TV1
TV1 (Australia)
TV1 is an Australian cable and satellite channel available on Foxtel, Austar and Optus Television's subscription platforms.-History:TV1 launched as part of the original Galaxy lineup. The channel is jointly owned by Sony International Television, Universal Studios and Paramount. The channel shows...
and the Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
, The King was first shown on 20 May 2007 on TV1 for Foxtel
Foxtel
Foxtel is an Australian pay television company, operating cable, direct broadcast satellite television and IPTV services. It was formed in 1995 through a joint venture established between Telstra and News Corporation....
and Austar
Austar
Austar is an Australian telecommunications company. Its main business activity is Subscription Television but it is also involved with internet access and mobile phones...
and became the highest rating drama ever screened on subscription television in Australia, drawing 511,000 viewers. It later aired on the Nine Network on 27 August 2007.
The film faced criticism from some of those close to Kennedy who felt it did not portray him accurately, feeling that he was portrayed too broadly in a dark manner in the film, as well as what one commentator noted was a "mad rush to out
Outing
Outing is the act of disclosing a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person's true sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent. Outing gives rise to issues of privacy, choice, hypocrisy, and harm in addition to sparking debate on what constitutes common good in efforts...
him, sexually
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
" .
Production
The screenplayScreenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was written by Jaime Browne and Kris Mrksa; the director was Matthew Saville
Matthew Saville
Matthew Saville is an Australian television and film director, who began his career working as a titles designer for many Australian television series...
and the producer was Jason Stephens. Filming began on 6 December 2006 with a budget and a 20-day shooting schedule. The ABC's
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
Ripponlea studios were utilised to film the scenes for sequences involving Kennedy's roles on In Melbourne Tonight
In Melbourne Tonight
In Melbourne Tonight, also known as "IMT", was a highly popular nightly variety television show produced at GTV-9 Melbourne from 6 May 1957 to 1970....
and Blankety Blanks
Blankety Blanks
Blankety Blanks was a popular Australian game show based on the American game show Match Game. It was hosted by Graham Kennedy on Network Ten. It ran from 1977-1978.Regular panelists were Ugly Dave Gray, Noeline Brown, Carol Raye and Stuart Wagstaff...
.
Stephen Curry (who plays the role of Graham Kennedy
Graham Kennedy
Graham Cyril Kennedy, AO was an Australian radio, television and film performer, often called Gra Gra and The King of Australian television.-Childhood:...
) lost 14 kilograms (30 pounds) to portray the young Kennedy, and then regained the weight in two weeks over Christmas 2006 to play the older Kennedy.
Cast
- Stephen Curry (Graham Kennedy)
- Stephen HallStephen HallStephen Charles Hall is an Australian actor and writer.-Television:Halls' career in televisions includes both acting and production duties...
(Bert Newton) - Shaun MicallefShaun MicallefShaun Patrick Micallef is an Australian actor, comedian and writer. After ten years of working in insurance law as a solicitor in Adelaide, Micallef moved to Melbourne to pursue a full-time comedy career in 1993...
(Colin Bednall) - Monica MaughanMonica MaughanMonica Maughan was an Australian actor with notable and well-known roles in film, theatre, radio and television.-Early life and education:...
(Nan) - Jane AllsopJane AllsopJane Claire Allsop is an Australian actress, best known for her role as Jo Parrish on Blue Heelers.-Personal life:...
(Noeline Brown) - Angus SampsonAngus SampsonAngus Murray Lincoln Sampson is an Australian actor, voice-over artist, director and writer based in Los Angeles and Melbourne.-Early life:Sampson was born in Sydney, Australia. A former ward of the state, he was educated at the Trinity Grammar School in Sydney prior to winning a place at The...
(Ugly Dave Gray) - Steve BisleySteve BisleySteve Bisley is an Australian film and television actor, who attended the National Institute of Dramatic Art .-Acting career:...
(Harry M. Miller) - Leo TaylorLeo TaylorLeo Taylor is the name of:*Leo Taylor , fictional character*Leo Taylor , MLB player for the Chicago Cubs in 1923*Leo Taylor, drummer for London-based band The Invisible and Hot Chip collaborator...
(Sir Frank Packer) - Beau BradyBeau BradyBeau Brady is an Australian actor, best known for his role as Noah Lawson on the drama Home and Away.-Biography:Brady was educated at Oakhill College in Castle Hill, Sydney....
(Tim) - Bernard CurryBernard CurryBernard Curry is a Sydney-based Australian actor, best known for his role in soap operas Neighbours and Home and Away.-Career:...
(John Wesley) - Kodi Smit-McPheeKodi Smit-McPheeKodi Smit-McPhee is an award-winning Australian actor, most known for his roles as The Boy in the The Road and Owen in Let Me In. He has also appeared in Australian films, Romulus, My Father and Matching Jack....
(Young John Wesley) - Beth BuchananBeth BuchananBeth Buchanan is an Australian actress. She is best known for the television roles of Gemma Ramsay in Neighbours, in the early '90s, and Susan Croydon in Blue Heelers from 1994. She is also a long-standing member of the Ranters Theatre company.-Early life:Buchanan is the daughter of musician Tony...
(Val Wesley) - Garry McDonaldGarry McDonaldGarry George McDonald, AO is an Australian stage and screen actor.-Early life and career:McDonald was born in Sydney and was educated at Cranbrook School and National Institute of Dramatic Art....
(Nicky Whitta) - Roz HammondRoz HammondRosalind Hammond was born in Western Australia, often credited as Ros or Roz, is an Australian comic actress and writer.Her television appearances include 3 series of The Micallef Programme...
(Kathleen Whitta) - Kate Doherty (Panda)
Pre-release
A Herald SunHerald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
article published on 28 November 2006 headed "Pals protect mate" reported that Kennedy's friends Bert Newton
Bert Newton
Albert Watson "Bert" Newton, AM, MBE is an Australian television personality, known for hosting television series such as In Melbourne Tonight, Good Morning Australia and 20 to 1. Newton has also hosted the Logie Awards on numerous occasions through his career.-Early life:Newton was born in...
, Noeline Brown
Noeline Brown
Noeline Brown is an Australian actor and comedian. She has appeared in many films, television shows, plays and radio programs....
and her husband TV writer Tony Sattler were "refusing to help producers of a telemovie about his life."
The article stated that "Bert Newton knocked back an approach to work on The King, telling industry sources Kennedy would not have approved of his story being told" and quoted Sattler as saying "He was never himself, always playing the character called Graham Kennedy, so I don't know how they'd find someone who could manage to play the part." It also stated "The movie is not linked with [the] controversial book "The King & I", launched in the prior month by Kennedy's former lover, Rob Astbury
Rob Astbury
Rob Astbury is a former Australian television sports journalist who was once Australia's highest paid TV sports presenter and is more recently known for being the ex-lover of variety show legend Graham Kennedy...
."
Post-release
Kennedy's biographer Graeme Blundell wrote in The AustralianThe Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
:
Stephen Curry gets most of this right in his compelling portrayal of the sphinx-like and teasingly evasive television comedian [...]
He is so very, very good his career may never recover. The "Weren't you Graham Kennedy?" syndrome will likely pursue him every time he tries to buy groceries. As it did the King [...]
Curry is terrific and, although instantly recognisable as the oyster-eyed performer, doesn't impersonate him (though he says he tested prosthetic eyes) so much as inhabit him [...]
Close friends Tony Sattler and Noeline Brown were reported as saying:
"The film was obsessed with his homosexuality. I don't think people cared about that" [...] "If people had said, 'I'm not going to watch a poof on TV', then he'd never have rated. "He was Australia's most famous, successful entertainer but how much do we see of that in the film? We see f--- all of it."
Brown was also reported as saying:
"I thought it was very bleak and it was a portrait of somebody not very like the Graham Kennedy I knew for many years."
And Tony Sattler said:
"The bitter and twisted figure portrayed by Stephen Curry is not the Graham Kennedy that I knew."
Kennedy's colleague Bert Newton was interviewed by Tracy Grimshaw in an item which went to air on A Current Affair on the night of the Channel 9 screening of the The King:
Tracy Grimshaw: Do you think that you might watch the movie, when it goes to air on Nine?
Bert Newton: Chances are I will, because I wouldn't like anyone to think that I've got some sort of vendetta against this movie ... I know that Graham would not have wanted a movie to be made about his life.[...]
Tracy Grimshaw: The intensely private King of Australian television had made his feelings perfectly clear: he didn't want his story told.[...]
Tracy Grimshaw: This movie paints him quite dark. Was there a prominently dark side to him?
Bert Newton: Well, I guess everyone's got a dark side, I'm trying to think of what his dark side would be. I suppose it might be that ... well I really can't come up with one.
Tracy Grimshaw: Sort of sad and tortured would be the impression I get from him from watching the movie -
Bert Newton: No, I've never seen him tortured, I've (laughing) -
Tracy Grimshaw: (laughing) Not physically ...[...]
Tracy Grimshaw: It seems that since he's died there's been this mad rush to out him, sexually.
Bert Newton: Yes. I don't know why, and you know in the twenty-first century that's (not) all that important. I would think that from a sexuality point of view, when he began in television, that would be a problem, because it was a different world then. I mean back then, if someone didn't marry well they must be ... you know.
Awards
At the 2007 Australian Film Institute AwardsAustralian Film Institute Awards
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,...
The King won the award for Best Telefeature or Miniseries. Curry also picked up the award for Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama and Saville for Best Direction in Television.