Emily Watson, John Hurt, Ray Winstone, David Wenham andDanny Huston star in the big-budget UK/Australian co-production TheProposition, which goes into production inthe tiny outback town of Winton on Monday (October 11) amid temperatures likelyto be well over 30 degrees Celsius.

The film reunites director John Hillcoat and music legendand scriptwriter Nick Cave, who worked together on the 1987 picture GhostsOf The Civil Dead. It is set at the end ofthe nineteenth century and is about a local law enforcer who pits threenotorious outlaw brothers against each other.

Autonomous pair Cat Villiers and Chiara Menage drovedevelopment out of London. Their Australian partners are Chris Brown fromPictures In Paradise and Jackie O'Sullivan from Jackie O Productions.

Among the financiers are the Premiere Fund of the UK FilmCouncil, which provided $2.7m (£1.5m) production funding and $55,633 (£31,000) development funding in July,and Queensland film agency the Pacific Film and Television Commission, whichhas tipped in $330,000 (A$450,000).