The Australian office of Icon Film Distribution has picked up local rights on its first Australian film. Paul Goldman is to direct the UK/Australian co-production The Night We Called It A Day which draws on singer Frank Sinatra's notorious 1974 tour of Australia, during which he became very unpopular with the unions.

The Night We Called It A Day was given the green light (March 19) by the board of the Film Finance Corporation and will go into production in the second half of this year with London-based Winchester handling international sales. The producers are the UK-based Nik Powell and Michael Thomas, and the Australian-based Peter Clifton and Emile Sherman, Ocean Pictures.

The deal reunites Thomas, who wrote the script with Clifton, and Powell who was one of the executive producers on two of Thomas's previous scripts, Scandal (1989) and Backbeat (1993).

This will be the second feature for Goldman who made commercials up until his debut film Australian Rules, which is being released by Palace mid-year.