Bob Yari Productions is tohandle international sales on an ambitious $US 26.7m (A$32m) Australian film, ClancyOf The Overflow, a story about a quintessential bush hero to be directed bySimon Wincer.

The producers are Yari, afinancier and partner in the Stratus Film Company, Wincer and Mark Pennell.Patrick Edgeworth has written the script and Michael Edgley and Michael Sanchezare the executive producers.

No cast have been named butthe production company alongside Edgley International is DHM Entertainment,which is owned by Pennell and husband-and-wife actors Hugh Jackman (VanHelsing) and Deborra-Lee Furness.

Documents were released thisweek aimed at raising the money from private investors for the production.

Bob Yari Productions isproviding investors with a 60% guarantee on their investment and the AustralianTax Office has indicated that investors will be able to claim the investment asa tax deduction. The minimum investment is A$10,000.

Clancy Of The Overflow is based on a short poem that romanticises rurallife by contrasting Clancy, who is off droving, with someone breathing foul airin a dingy city office. It was written in the late 1880s by AB (Banjo)Paterson, who also wrote the poem that inspired the 1982 local hit The ManFrom Snowy River, which was executive produced by Wincer and Edgley.

The producers are promisinga 'benchmark' Australian film in terms of cultural importance and boxoffice returns. It had better be: its budget amounts to three-quarters of thetotal spend on all 19 Australian films that went into production in the 12months to June 30 last year.

Wincer's credits as adirector include the IMAX film Young Black Stallion, Crocodile Dundeein LA and The Phantom, hit miniseries Lonesome Dove, US filmsOperation Dumbo Drop and Free Willy, and such 1980s Australianfilms as Phar Lap and The Lighthorsemen.

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