PRODUCTION NOTES
www.beneathhill60movie.com.au
Producer
Bill Leimbach
Director
Jeremy Hartley Sims
Writer
David Roach
Co Producers
Jeremy Sims, David Roach
Executive Producers
Ross J Thomas, Greg Rains, John Lee
Director of Photography
Toby Oliver
Composer
Cezary Skubiszewski
Editor
Dany Cooper
Production Designer
Clayton Jauncey
Principal and Supporting Cast (in alphabetical order)
ACTOR CHARACTER
ANDY BRAMBLE WILF PIGGOT
MARCUS COSTELLO ERNST WAGNER
BRENDAN COWELL OLIVER WOODWARD
ALAN DUKES JIM SNEDDON
LEON FORD ROBERT CLAYTON
BOB FRANKLIN POTSY
HARRISON GILBERTSON FRANK TIFFIN
TOM GREEN WARREN HUTCHINGS
GYTON GRANTLEY NORMAN “PULL THROUGH” MORRIS
ANTHONY HAYES WILLIAM McBRIDE
CHRIS HAYWOOD COLONEL RUTLEDGE
BELLA HEATHCOTE MARJORIE WADDELL
GERALD LEPKOWSKI WILLIAM WADDELL
JACQUELINE MCKENZIE EMMA WADDELL
STEVE LE MARQUAND BILL FRASER
ANTHONY RIGG STOAT
DAVID RITCHIE OTTO FUSSLEIN
MARK COLES SMITH BILLY “STREAKY” BACON
KENNETH SPITERI KARL BABEK
JOHN STANTON LAMBERT
MARTIN THOMAS GINGER "MICK" O’DONNELL
ALEX THOMPSON WALTER SNEDDON
ADEN YOUNG BRADY NORTH
DUNCAN YOUNG TOM DWYER
WARWICK YOUNG PERCY MARSDEN
PRODUCTION FACTS
Title and Format: BENEATH HILL 60, Feature Film
Logline: “After Gallipoli, there was still a war to be won.”
Production Company: The Silence Productions
Film Distributor: Paramount Pictures Australia
Transmission Films
Principal Cast (in alphabetical order)
Andy Bramble
Marcus Costello
Brendan Cowell
Alan Dukes
Leon Ford
Bob Franklin
Harrison Gilbertson
Tom Green
Gyton Grantley
Anthony Hayes
Chris Haywood
Bella Heathcote
Gerald Lepkowski
Jacqueline McKenzie
Steve Le Marquand
Anthony Ring
David Ritchie
Mark Coles Smith
Kenneth Spiteri
John Stanton
Martin Thomas
Alex Thompson
Aden Young
Duncan Young
Warwick Young
Director/Co-Producer Jeremy Hartley Sims
Producer Bill Leimbach
Writer/Co-Producer David Roach
Executive Producers Ross Thomas
Greg Rains
John Lee
DOP Toby Oliver
Line Producer Michelle Russell
Production Manager Sandy Stevens
Production Co-Ordinator Kelly Vincent
Production Designer Clayton Jauncey
Art Director Sam Hobbs
Construction Manager Tony Giltrap
Special Effects Supervisor Dan Oliver
Casting Director Kirsty McGregor
Costume Designer Ian Sparke
Civilian Costume Designer Wendy Cork
Location Manager Karen Jones
Make Up Hair Designer Shane Thomas
Stunt Co-Ordinator Glenn Suter
Armourer Allan Mowbray
Editor Dany Cooper
Sound Designer Liam Egan
Stills Photographer Wendy McDougall
Townsville Liaison Col Kenna
Filming Locations Townsville, Queensland
DESCRIPTION
BENEATH HILL 60 is a feature film directed by Jeremy Sims and featuring a stellar cast including (in alphabetical order): Brendan Cowell, Leon Ford, Bob Franklin, Harrison Gilbertson, Gyton Grantley, Anthony Hayes, Chris Haywood, Bella Heathcote, Steve Le Marquand, Gerald Lepkowski, Jacqueline McKenzie, John Stanton, Aden Young and Warwick Young.
Website: www.beneathhill60movie.com.au
Short synopsis
The extraordinary true story of Oliver Woodward and his platoon of ordinary Australian miners who tunnelled beneath enemy lines and changed the course of the war on the Western Front.
The epic true story of the civilian Australian miners who changed the course of WW1.
Long Synopsis
By 1916 the Great War in Europe has reached a stalemate. The two massive armies have fought themselves to a standstill. Millions of lives have already been lost. Mining engineer Oliver Woodward returns to Australia from Papua to join a secret Australian Tunnelling Company. Ordinary miners from all over the country are given just two weeks military training before being sent the Western Front. Their task is to undermine the German Lines.
For reasons he can’t really fathom, Woodward is made an officer and finds himself commanding a small platoon of tunnellers amidst the blood and carnage of the Western Front near Armentiéres, France. The Australian tunnellers are suspicious of newcomer Woodward.
There is resentment too from the British Infantry, who are convinced that the tunnellers will put them in even greater danger. But after leading a daring raid across No Man’s Land to destroy an enemy machine gun emplacement, Woodward begins to win the respect of his men and the infantry.
With the intensity of the war increasing, Woodward and his men are sent across the border to Belgium near Ypres. The Messines Ridge with its notorious Hill 60 is rumoured to be the bloodiest part of the Western Front. The tunnellers’ task is to defend a labyrinthine and leaking tunnel system that snakes beneath the enemy Lines. The tunnels hide a deadly secret. Directly beneath strategic sections of the German lines, the allies have crammed the largest amount of explosive ever collected in one place.
Woodward’s company must protect the tunnel system until he receives the order to blow the mines. But no one seems to know when the order will be given. With constant inundation of mud and water and the endless vibrations from heavy artillery, the tunnels are in imminent danger of collapse. Woodward decides on a risky strategy to save them. The Allied Commanders are suspicious of Woodward’s plan, but he convinces them it will succeed.
Disaster looms as the Germans discover the Australian’s underground activity and begin sinking a shaft towards the Hill 60 mine. The whole allied strategy is now in jeopardy. Back in Queensland, Marjorie has had no news for weeks. She fears the worst. While the bloody battle rages in the muddy fields of Flanders, a deadly cat-and-mouse game is played out thirty metres below between the German and Australian tunnellers.
Woodward learns that being a leader in this dreadful war is not just about commanding and protecting his men, it’s also about being prepared to sacrifice them. And as zero hour approaches, he must make a terrible decision...
THE CHARACTERS
OLIVER WOODWARD BRENDAN COWELL
Oliver Woodward is a young mining engineer from Tenterfield. He has been managing a small copper mine in remote Papua when he hears that war has been declared. At first he is reluctant to go to war, but when he hears that they are looking for miners, he joins up. Woodward is made an officer. A bit of a loner, it takes his men a while to warm to him. But Woodward is smart and physically capable and soon wins their respect. He becomes increasingly numbed by the war and by the dreadful decisions he must make.
FRANK TIFFIN HARRISON GILBERTSON
A soft-faced boy in a uniform, tunneller Tiffin is from Wollongong. He started down the mines at 15. He tried to join up when he was 16 but they wouldn’t let him. When he heard about the tunnelling company he knew they were desperate for experienced miners. So he got in. His mother was distraught but his dad was encouraging. He told him it would be the adventure of a lifetime. Lonely and terrified at first, Tiffin finds his strength and later, astonishing courage. Tiffin dreams of becoming a carpenter like his dad and “getting out of them pits.”
BILL FRASER STEVE LE MARQUAND
Outspoken and battle hardened, Lieutenant Fraser is a proper soldier. He joined up two years before war broke out, after getting jack of the mining game out in Kalgoorlie. When the AIF began to build tunnelling corps they looked, first, for serving men with mining experience. Fraser was perfect. After the death of his sergeant, Fraser has real expectations of being fast tracked to officer status, or at least to Sergeant. So he is not impressed with the idea of being led by Woodward, a mine manager who has been made a Lieutenant with only 2 weeks of training and no battle experience. Suspicious and at times morose, Fraser has a heart but hides it well. He is capable of surprising tenderness.
NORMAN “PULL THROUGH” MORRIS GYTON GRANTLEY
Gangly, myopic tunneller Norm Morris is also known as “Pull Through”, (a thin implement used to clean the barrel of a rifle.) He’s laconic but also has a temper. Morris is loyal, a team player but is quite prepared to switch to the strongest leader.
COLONEL RUTLEDGE CHRIS HAYWOOD
Colonel Rutledge is the commanding officer of the three tunnelling companies. He has never been a miner. He hides his secret claustrophobia, his fear of death and of people and of failure with arrogance. It’s a front. Privately doesn’t know how he ever ended up in this hellish place.
WALTER SNEDDON ALEX THOMPSON
At 18 years old, fresh-faced Walter Sneddon is big and strong but still a kid. When his father found out that Walt had signed up to go to war, he joined up the following day. Walt is shy, softly spoken. He is inexperienced in the ways of the world. He is still living in his father’s orbit, which he gently tests from time to time.
JIM SNEDDON ALAN DUKES
Tunneller Jim Sneddon joined up to look after his son, Walter. Before they joined, Jim and Walter were coal miners at the West Wallsend colliery in the Hunter Valley. Ferociously protective of his son, Jim is a quiet but dogged country bloke. He puts his family before everything. Even himself.
BILLY “STREAKY” BACON MARK COLES SMITH
Sinewy, young Aboriginal tunneller Billy Bacon is nicknamed ‘Streaky’ by his mates. Streaky is fast in both body and mind. He has picked up a bit of mining experience here and there and seems to fit in wherever he finds himself. He is funny, adept and capable of great courage.
PERCY MARSDEN WARWICK YOUNG
Tunneller Percy Marsden was a miner from Charters Towers, not far from Townsville. As soon as the call for volunteers went out he signed up. He experienced the horrors and chaos of Gallipoli before being wounded and subsequently evacuated. He took up the offer of a tunnelling job because of what he had been exposed to above ground. But underground he finds new horrors. He’s a good soldier, but intense and psychologically damaged by the war. He tries a little too hard to please and ends up pleasing no one. Percy becomes increasingly isolated by the terrors inside his own head.
GINGER "MICK" O’DONNELL MARTIN THOMAS
Ginger comes from a large, poor Irish family where he had to struggle to survive. He’s a tough kid with a mean streak who tends to attach himself to power. If the war has taught him anything, it’s that if you look after the man beside you, he’ll look after you.
MARJORIE WADDELL BELLA HEATHCOTE
Marjorie is 16 years old, feisty and beautiful. A capable country girl on the cusp of womanhood. She is rebellious but not quite ready to let go of her childhood. Warm, romantic, unpredictable and sexy. She has only just found love and can’t quite believe that it has been taken from her. Marjorie knows even at 16, that Woodward is going to come back changed from the war and loves him in spite of that.
WILLIAM WADDELL GERALD LEPKOWSKI
William Waddell is a stern, hard-working Scotsman who has made something of his life. He and Emma have been married for 26 years. He worked hard as Mine Manager to get the money to buy the family property. Retired now, but busier than ever running the farm, William is not a man who laughs easily. He is controlling. He demands attention and respect and gives protection in return. He is uncomfortable when deep feelings (his or others,) come to the surface. Although he rarely expresses it, he loves his family deeply. The news that his son has been killed in Gallipoli devastates him. He will never entirely recover.
WILLIAM MCBRIDE ANTHONY HAYES
William McBride has been in Armentiéres for three months. He and Woodward trained together at the Queensland School of Mines in Charters Towers and then went their separate ways. McBride could never have imagined that the next time they would meet would be in a muddy dugout in France. McBride was a private school boy. He hides his vulnerability with an ironic grin and responds to smart people because he knows what he doesn’t know. He has great respect for Woodward’s skills. The chain of command works for him. He is capable of both subservience and leadership where necessary.
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
EMMA WADDELL JACQUELINE MCKENZIE
Emma has made a full life for herself with William. She is a wise and funny woman, loving, protective and capable of great tenderness. Emma is humane and observant. She is more in control than she lets on and runs more than her fair share of the family business. There is no doubt that Marjorie is her favourite, and she barely tries to hide it. Still, the idea of Marjorie marrying young and missing out on a chance to be something more than a housewife in this new world is one that troubles her.
TOM DWYER DUNCAN YOUNG
Dwyer was a schoolteacher in a previous life. He had worked down the mines in the Hunter Valley as a kid, but quickly realized that it wasn’t the life for him, and managed to put himself through University by working nights. When he graduated his entire family came down to Sydney to see him get his ‘piece of paper’. He was the first in their family to get a degree but his teaching career was interrupted by the war. Dwyer wants to be just one of the boys but is always slightly the outsider. He compensates by showing off his knowledge. He dreams of being under a tree somewhere reading a book.
ROBERT CLAYTON LEON FORD
Clayton is a blue blood British officer in his 20s. The third son in a family that has an aristocratic heritage in Lancashire going right back to the Norman invasions. He is expected to do his duty. Of his older brothers one is an officer in the Royal Navy and the other has already been killed at Loos. Clayton joined up immediately that war was declared and after a three-month office training course was sent to the Western Front and given a section to command. He is brave, yet reticent; careful to hide personal weakness, courageous, responsible and fiercely protective of the men under his command, but he is not a natural leader. Clayton finds strength in ritual, routine and a sense of the ‘proper’ order of things.
POTSY BOB FRANKLIN
British infantryman Potsy is cockney and proud of it. Street smart and smart-arsed, he uses jokes to mask his insecurities and talks before he thinks. Attack is the best form of defence for Potsy.
WARREN HUTCHINGS TOM GREEN
At 16, stretcher-bearer Private Hutchings is compassionate and capable. He is straight talking and personable and survives by trying to make light of things. But even at his young age he has seen enough horror to last a lifetime.