Hippie Hippie Shake
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Hippie Hippie Shake is an upcoming British film directed by Beeban Kidron and written by Lee Hall and William Nicholson. The film is based on a memoir by Richard Neville, editor of the Australian satirical magazine Oz, and chronicles his relationship with girlfriend Louise Ferrier, the launch of the London edition of Oz amidst the 1960s counterculture, and the staff's trial for distributing a sexually explicit issue. Hippie Hippie Shake stars Cillian Murphy as Richard Neville, with Sienna Miller as Louise.
British film production company Working Title Films began development of Hippie Hippie Shake in 1998, but the film was repeatedly delayed, changing directors and screenwriters. In September 2007, the film finally began principal photography. Hippie Hippie Shake will be distributed by Universal Pictures in 2008.
Premise
Hippie Hippie Shake follows the love story of Oz editor Richard Neville and Louise Ferrier, as Neville and his cohorts launch the London edition of the radical magazine and are put on trial for publishing a sexually explicit issue. The film serves as a metaphorical journey though the 1960s in London.
Cast
- Cillian Murphy as Richard Neville
- Sienna Miller as Louise Ferrier, Neville's girlfriend who posed nude on the December 1968 cover of Oz with Jenny Kee
- Nina Liu as Jenny Kee, who posed nude with Louise Ferrier in the Oz cover
- Emma Booth as Germaine Greer
- Max Minghella
Production
In October 1998, British film production company Working Title Films announced the development of the film Hippie Hippie Shake, based on Hippie Hippie Shake: The Dreams, the Trips, the Trials, the Love-ins, the Screw Ups: The Sixties, a memoir by Oz magazine editor Richard Neville. Screenwriter Don MacPherson was hired to write the adapted screenplay for the film, which was slated to begin production in 1999, at the time depending on Working Title's status following the breakup of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. Production did not begin as anticipated, and Working Title restarted development in February 2002 with director Shekhar Kapur attached to direct Hippie Hippie Shake based on a script by Tom Butterworth. Production did not go underway, and the project was delayed. In May 2007, Working Title announced another attempt to produce Hippie Hippie Shake, with director Beeban Kidron attached to direct a script by screenwriter Lee Hall. The film, which would be distributed by Universal Pictures, was slated to begin production in fall 2007. Writer Richard Neville acknowledged the long development history of the film but considered the film appropriate for the contemporary state of affairs, "Given that the world is at war, it couldn't be better timing to highlight the crazy, fun and political times of the 1960s... I think the timing is pretty terrific. Enough time has gone by to perhaps look at that era in a new perspective and help us reflect on what's going on today," Neville said.
In July 2007, in a piece for The Guardian, feminist author Germaine Greer vehemently expressed her displeasure at being depicted, writing, "You used to have to die before assorted hacks started munching your remains and modelling a new version of you out of their own excreta." Greer refused to be involved with the film, just as she declined to read Neville's memoir before it was published (he had offered to change anything she found offensive). She did not want to meet with Emma Booth, who portrays her in the film, and concluded her article with her only advice for the actor: "Get an honest job." Booth had just told The Brisbane Times, "It's going to be a bit scary playing her. Germaine is this ballsy lady. I am sure she is going to hate me." In contrast to Greer, Louise Ferrier met with director Kidron to discuss the film at length, and expressed the opinion that Kidron was "certainly working to make it authentic." Ferrier said she was unfamiliar with the work of Sienna Miller, the actor portraying her.
