The surfing world hasn't seen much love since Kathryn Bigelow's "Point Break," with most pics since then merely excuses to get good-looking actors in swimsuits. There does seem to be one film on the horizon that aims to be different though, the surfing-based action-drama "Drift" starring Sam Worthington, Xavier Samuel and Myles Pollard. A handful of images from the film have arrived, and while there may not be much skin, there is a lot of Worthington hair.
Co-directed by Morgan O'Neill and Ben Nott, the story follows the Kelly brothers as they start a new life in a remote Australian coastal town where they come up against suspicious locals, killer waves and ruthless bikers as they struggle to kick-start a new business based on surfing, their greatest passion. Interestingly, Worthington takes the passenger seat, playing photographer/filmmaker JB with Samuel and Pollard playing the leading pair, Jimmy and Andy Kelly. Here's the full synopsis:
Australia, 1970s. The Kelly brothers, Andy (28) and Jimmy (22), have one great passion: riding big waves. As kids, their mother escaped from Sydney to Margaret River, a sleepy coastal town with some of the world’s most challenging and dangerous waves. For the next 12 years, the boys perfected their surfing skills, always searching for the perfect ride.
Free-spirited Jimmy is a gifted surfer and innovator but he starts to slip toward a life of crime to help the family out of debt. Andy makes a big decision. Quitting a stable job, he bets on Jimmy’s surf inventions and his own business skills and launches a backyard surf gear business. They rethink board design, craft homemade wetsuits and sell their merchandise out of their van. Encouraged by their new friends, travelling bohemian surf photographer and filmmaker JB (Sam Worthington) and his gorgeous Hawaiian surfer companion, Lani, who stirs the two brothers’ hearts, they start to seek ways to expand.
After they get mixed up with a local drug dealer, it looks like everything they built up, will be ruined… Set in breathtaking locations and inspired by the true story of Australia’s legendary surfwear moguls, the film chronicles the rise of surf brands and the expansion of the laidback surf attitude as a global lifestyle. A story of passion and corruption, friendship and loyalty, deadly addictions and fractured relationships, Drift tells a tale of courage and the will to survive against all odds.
Shot late last year in the Australian summer, "Drift" was initially planned for a release this summer, though no release date has arrived just yet. [TF1 International]
