Valentine's Day Telemovie

ABC TV came to Mt Evelyn recently and filmed part of the telemovie ‘Valentine’s Day’, a feelgood film to make us all believe it’s possible to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

The Mt Evelyn Reserve and football oval were used to film the football match. Many locals came to make up the football crowd. The filming covered three days at the oval, which was ideal as it had a 360 degree coverage of trees around the perimeter. The weather also proved to be ideal ‘footy’ weather, with intermittent rain and plenty of mud! The clubroom was decorated with ‘Rushworth Bears’ colours and signage, and the crowd wore the colours of the competing teams.

Valentine’s Day tells the story of Ben Valentine who drifts into a small Victorian country town of Rushworth. He quickly finds himself in trouble with the law. As a famous Aussie Rules footballer fallen on hard times, he is given 200 hours of community service coaching the town’s ‘no-hoper’ football team. But is he in fact who he seems to be?

Starring Rhys Muldoon in the lead role of Ben Valentine (Bastard Boys, Blackjack), Freya Stafford (All Saints, The Bali Project) and Anita Hegh (Last Man Standing, MDA, Stingers) the 90-minute telemovie is a co-production between ABC TV and December Films (Carbon Cops, Family Footsteps, Revealing Gallipoli). Written by one of Australia’s most acclaimed writers Peter Temple (Bad Debts, Black Tide) and directed by award winning Peter Duncan (Unfinished Sky, Hell Has Harbour Views, Children of the Revolution), Valentine’s Day is a story about footy, about a close knit community and the fate of the local pie factory.

ABC TV’s Head of Drama Miranda Dear says, “I'm so pleased that we have director Peter Duncan back working with ABC TV Drama. It's a gem of a story about how a little faith and a good season of Aussie Rules can pull a community together. And I can't wait to see Peter bring it to life, not to mention the brilliance that Rhys Muldoon will bring to the role."

Producer Tony Wright says “When we first asked novelist Peter Temple to write Valentine’s Day we wanted to tell an uplifting story set in rural Australia. A simple story about the little guy getting to fight another day. A story of great hope and redemption. Peter Temple’s sense of humanity just shines through in the script.”

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