Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis Begin Production for 'Storm' Film

Fred Schepsi's new film 'The Eye of the Storm' began production today in  Melbourne, Australia. The film features Tony Award winner Geoffrey Rush and stage and screen star Judy Davis.

The film is based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Patrick White, and is set in Sydney's Centennial Park.  The plot revolves aound two nurses, a housekeeper and a solicitor who attend to Elizabeth Hunter played by Charlotte Rampling. Her son, Geoffrey Rush, and daughter, Judy Davis, are brought together at Elizabeth's deathbed.

Rush made his theatre debut in the Queensland Theatre Company's production of Wrong Side of the Moon. He worked with the QTC for four years, appearing in roles ranging across classical plays to pantomime, from Juno and the Paycock to Hamlet on Ice.

Rush's acting credits include The Winter's Tale, and Troilus and Cressida. He also appeared in an on-going production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest .  Rush made his Broadway debut in a restaging of Exit the King under Malthouse Theatre's touring moniker Malthouse Melbourne.  Rush won the Outer Critics Circle Award, Theatre World Award, and Drama Desk Award, as well as the Distinguished Performance Award from the Drama League Award, and was the winner of the 2009 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.

Judy Davis is best known for her appearances in  Husbands and Wives, A Passage to India and in the TV mini series Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows.  Her stage work has included playing Juliet opposite Mel Gibson's Romeo. She also played both Cordelia and the Fool in a 1984 staging of King Lear and in 1986 the title role in Hedda Gabler.

Other actors included in the project inclde: Alexandra Schepisi, Robyn Nevin, Colin Friels, John Gaden, and Helen Morse. The film will mark Schepsi's first project since 2005 TV production "Empire Falls".

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.