UK-Australian outfit Brouhaha Entertainment is gearing up to shoot two romantic dramas in 2025: Dominic Cooke’s New York-set Insomniac City for Altitude Film Sales; and Bharat Nalluri’s Australian coming of older-age tale OK Boomer for Blue Fox Entertainment.
Insomniac City, to be directed by Cooke, whose credits include The Courier, is an adaptation of writer and photographer Bill Hayes’s 2017 memoir about arriving grief-stricken in New York from San Francisco, then falling in love with the city – and neurologist and author Oliver Sacks.
“The late great Oliver Sacks was a genius but emotionally undeveloped, especially romantically, whereas Billy was open to the world,” suggested Troy Lum, who runs the Australian office of Brouhaha with Andrew Mason.
Both are producing alongside their UK partner Gabrielle Tana.
“The film is about how, at any age, you can find out who you are and embrace yourself,” says Lum.
Filming will mostly take place in New York, in the third quarter of 2025. No cast is yet attached.
OK Boomer is a relationship comedy, described as “a coming of age for the more mature”.
Bryan Brown and Heather Mitchell will play a couple on the rocks who sell their business to travel around Australia in a camper van, ultimately to attend their daughter’s wedding. Production is scheduled for May 2025 in the New South Wales town of Byron Bay and other locations.
“It is fun, sentimental, and smart,” said Lum, who is producing with Mason. “It’s a road movie with a postcard feel and echoes of Muriel’s Wedding.”
OK Boomer, a term used to mock the Baby Boomer generation by Gen Z and Millennials, has been written by John Collee, Melissa Bubnic, Pete Monaghan and Ruth Estelle.
Nalluri, who moved to Australia in 2019 from the UK, was the set-up director on Boy Swallows Universe, Brouhaha’s first series based on Trent Dalton’s book of the same name. Lola In The Mirror, another Dalton book, is now also being adapted into a series by the company.
Brouhaha is aiming to produce at least two films per year, one each out of the London and Sydney offices, and one series. “One of the producers always takes the lead in a project but we are hoping to do more together as we move forward,” said Lum.
Sean Byrne’s Queensland-set horror thriller Dangerous Animals, described as Jaws meets Wolf Creek, starring Jai Courtney and Hassie Harrison, is in the edit suite for Mister Smith Entertainment.
Anton Corbijn’s Swiss-UK co-production Switzerland, starring Helen Mirren as novelist Patricia Highsmith, is in preproduction and will be shot in Switzerland, Italy and Europe. FilmNation is handling sales.
Since launching in 2021, Brouhaha has produced five features: Firebrand, Lee, The Convert, Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Motel Destino. Firebrand and Motel Destino were in Official Competition at Cannes in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
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