BABE DIRECTOR RECOMMENDS BRITAIN FOR PERIOD PIECES

Director Chris Noonan would rather shoot in Britain than his home town of Australia for period films. Keywords:Babe, Miss Potter, Victorian, London.

It’s been over 10 years since Babe director Chris Noonan got behind the camera. For his new film Miss Potter he chose not to return to his hometown of Australia because shooting down under was just too modern for the period film.

Instead he chose London for the early 1900s setting. He says the old city provided the necessary look for Victorian England.

“I come from Australia where it’s a very young country and everything is sort of new looking like America. It’s a relatively new looking place. Britain and London in particular, there’s a lot of areas of London which just look exactly the way they did except for a few sort of parking meters or the odd touch here and there. As long as you could deal with those and you can get rid of traffic lights and that kind of thing then you have Victorian England.”

England is so used to being a resource for olden times; Noonan says they even maintain museums to serve just that purpose.

“There are a number of organizations in Britain which are like museums for trains where you can order up a train of the right vintage. What color do you want the carriages and what sort of style of locomotive do you want? And it’s all possible to put that together. We’re very blessed to be able to have that. If I was shooting this in Australia we have had no chance whatsoever.”

The next period piece for Noonan will be set during apartheid times in 1970s South Africa based on the true story of an under 15 year old soccer team who strive to become multi-racial.