The heartwarming, true story
of a castaway cattle dog as she struggles to survive LOST, AFRAID and ALONE in a tropical paradise.
About the Film
LOGLINE
SHOOT DETAILS
SHOOT DETAILS
What Jan and Dave Griffith can’t possibly know as they load their picnic supplies and their two-year-old blue heeler onto the family boat for a relaxing weekend cruising Queensland’s stunning South Cumberland Islands, is that their lives are about to be forever upturned and re-defined. A family will be shattered by guilt, anger and loss a
What Jan and Dave Griffith can’t possibly know as they load their picnic supplies and their two-year-old blue heeler onto the family boat for a relaxing weekend cruising Queensland’s stunning South Cumberland Islands, is that their lives are about to be forever upturned and re-defined. A family will be shattered by guilt, anger and loss and will have to learn to trust, laugh and love again. All the time, a dog bred to round up cattle, will have to draw on her instincts, inner-strength and fortitude simply to stay alive. This is the true story of a much-loved family pet - lost and alone on a tropical island for 157 long days. Sophie will endure sunburn, starvation, exhaustion and the worst cyclone to hit the region in decades but she will never give up hope that one day she’ll again be embraced by her favourite humans.
SHOOT DETAILS
SHOOT DETAILS
SHOOT DETAILS
Shoot Duration = 5 weeks
Second Unit / Animals = 2 weeks
Wade Savage was one of the first Producers in Australia get his crew back into production after the national COVID-19 lockdown in March-June 2020. We work under strict but comfortable and effective COVID-Safe conditions.
We are working very closely with the Griffith family to maintain
Shoot Duration = 5 weeks
Second Unit / Animals = 2 weeks
Wade Savage was one of the first Producers in Australia get his crew back into production after the national COVID-19 lockdown in March-June 2020. We work under strict but comfortable and effective COVID-Safe conditions.
We are working very closely with the Griffith family to maintain the integrity of this extraordinary story. They are very happy with what we are doing and are extremely excited to see Sophie given her place in Australian cinematic history.
Katie Brock, one of Australia's most respected and awarded movie animal wranglers and trainers, is already working with a breeder to train and prepare the real star of the film: a pure-bred blue cattle dog - Sophie.
We have found and purchased the original Honey May. The actual vessel from which Sophie fell in October 2008 will feature "as itself" in the movie and in all movie production release publicity.
SYNOPSIS
SHOOT DETAILS
SYNOPSIS
It was a summer’s day like any other in the tropical coastal Queensland town of Mackay, when empty nesters, Jan and Dave Griffith and their faithful, two-year-old Blue Heeler pup, Sophie, went out for a weekend’s cruise around the South Cumberland Islands. It was a journey they’d made numerous times before but on this day it would be diff
It was a summer’s day like any other in the tropical coastal Queensland town of Mackay, when empty nesters, Jan and Dave Griffith and their faithful, two-year-old Blue Heeler pup, Sophie, went out for a weekend’s cruise around the South Cumberland Islands. It was a journey they’d made numerous times before but on this day it would be different. This day would turn out to be catastrophic for the Griffith family and the start of the true story of a 157-day adventure, almost too extraordinary to believe, for their beloved family pet. Sophie had become quite the sea dog. She enjoyed a swim at the beach and loved her nautical adventures on the family motorboat, the Honey May. And since her-own human (Jan & Dave’s youngest child) Bridget had gone off to University in Brisbane, Sophie had grown reliant on her “grand humans” for company and regular tummy rubs. However on that fateful day in October 2008 all was not as it seemed and in one horrifying moment of confusion, Jan and Dave Griffith realised the greatest fear of any pet owner: they had quite literally lost Sophie - overboard! Hours of searching, mapping tides and beaches, of cruising back and fourth calling her name and searching the vast Coral Sea proved fruitless. Sophie was gone and they would have to return home to Mackay with out her. Grief, guilt and loss were all consuming in the months that followed – how could Jan ever hold her head up in the streets of Mackay again? After all, she was “the woman who was careless with her dog and lost her at sea!” Dave, having purchased the boat to ease into retirement was spending more time on the work site than ever. Bridget was simply gutted: she never got to say goodbye. However, what Jan and Dave could never have known was that Sophie did survive the unexpected fall from the moving vessel. Through a combination of sheer strength and determination and a serious dose of good luck (and well-fed sharks in the area that day) she survived some ten hours at sea. She never gave up paddling to keep her head above the water. Sophie was dragged out by the tide and back to land some five nautical miles north of where she first fell in and somehow she managed to drag her exhausted body ashore on Keswick Island. There she foraged for morsels of food and rainwater. She later risked her life a second time to cross the treacherous Egremont Passage to reach the fresh water and more life-sustaining wilderness of St. Bees Island. Sophie never gave up the hope that her people she loved would come back for her. However, as Christmas came and the dawn of 2009 went, a new ‘fur-baby’ was introduced into the quiet Griffith household: a red cattle dog puppy named Ruby. While Ruby would never replace Sophie, the family knew they had to move on and, as Dave said: “Nothing’s fun anymore without a dog!” Ruby grew and was learning all the tricks that make any pet an adored member of the family. All the while, Sophie’s photo remained on the sideboard along with the kids’ graduation pictures and formal family photos: she was gone but was never far from their hearts. Then, an unexpected phone call late one evening at the very end of March 2009 rocked Dave Griffith to the very core: “You can’t be bloody serious!” he gasped down the phone. There was a dog, probably feral and living rough on the nature reserve of St Bees Island and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service were heading out there to try and catch her. “It’s a long shot - could it possibly be?”…. “She’s been gone five months, surely it can’t be Sophie!” … “But, what if it is?” Within 48 hours of that call, Jan and Dave Griffith and the intrepid officers of the QPWS played out one of the most heart-warming ‘man & dog reunions’ ever witnessed as Sophie, the castaway heeler quite literally leapt from her cage and into the arms of the weeping boatie from Mackay. After 157 days lost, presumed dead, Sophie was home again and despite the warnings from the experts of her turning “feral”, to the contrary; Sophie was home and previously an “outdoor dog” could now be found curled up on the Turkish rug at Dave’s feet as he relaxed in his favourite armchair. It was quite apparent that Sophie had very much gone domestic!
ATTACHED CREW
Producers: GLENN TURNER
WADE SAVAGE
Director: TBC
Associate Producer: JO SUNA
Production Designer: NICHOLAS McCALLUM
Director of Photography: TBC
Casting Director: BEN PARKINSON
Animal Trainer: KATIE BROCK
Marine Coordinator: GREG CANNING
Domestic Distributors: PINNACLE FILMS
Legal Representation: JULIA ADAMS / SHIFF & Co. LAWYERS
THE CHARACTERS
JAN GRIFFITH
Jan Griffith is your typical Aussie housewife, mother, transport captain, housekeeper, nursemaid, laundry lady, chief cook and bottle-wash. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.
She’s an attractive lady with a big heart and is aged around 60. Jan has one of those faces that you know, instantly upon meeting her, is going to be your friend. She is sincerely interested when you tell her your story. She and DAVE have enjoyed every moment of their lives together and are extremely proud of their two boys and two girls. The Griffith house has never been without a pet dog since before their first child, MATTHEW was born. She is an excellent cook and enjoys baking her own cakes, biscuits and slices.
In her “spare time” Jan is an active member of the Mackay community, sitting on various fund-raising committees and she regularly volunteers at the local primary school helping children with their reading. Jan is well loved and respected in the tropical hamlet of Mackay and it’s always a source of amusement when she’s out to lunch with one of her friends and one of her husband’s bright yellow DGE company vans drives by!
Jan likes to shop (Dave has provided very well for his family and is very happy for his wife to enjoy the spoils of decades of hard work now they are “empty-nesters” and they’ve entered this semi-retirement phase of life.) Jan is the envy of every teenaged boy in Mackay as she can often be seen driving around town in her shiny, sexy, sporty silver Nissan 350Z. She is clearly a stylish lady and is always very well dressed. She cares about her appearance and can often be seen at one the town’s more chic hairdressers, frock shops or nail salons. And why not – Dave has recently spent HIS spare cash on a boat! Jan Griffith is a real-life, warm-blooded “mum of the year” kind of lady that anyone would feel honoured to call a friend.
DAVE GRIFFITH
Dave Griffith is a broad-shouldered, honest and amiable man also aged around 60. He’s of average build, a non-smoker who is fit for his age and wears a greying moustache. A dedicated family man, he and his wife JAN have four children, the youngest of whom, BRIDGET, has just moved to attend University in Brisbane. They still live in the same old weatherboard Queenslander style home in coastal Mackay that they’ve inhabited in since they were married some 35 years ago.
A champion surfer in the early 1960s, Dave now runs a successful and well-respected local electrical business, now boasting a fleet of 6 instantly recognisable yellow vans and over a dozen staff. Dave’s eldest son also a qualified electrician, now also works at Dave Griffith Electrical. Dave loves his wife and his children unreservedly although he finds talking about his feelings difficult. The reality is he’s spent much of his married life working to provide for his family while Jan brought up the children (and dealt with their issues, fears and growing pains).
Dave and Jan are the first to admit they don’t do “all that lovey dovey talk”. They don’t hold hands when they walk down the street but they DO love each other, they can each read the other like a book. They make a point of going out for breakfast whenever they can. Dave’s your typical Aussie dad with that lovably dry sense of humour. He dotes on his kids (especially the two girls). He’s well respected and liked in Mackay, he enjoys the occasional beer with his mates, throwing a ball for the dog at the nearby park and hosting BBQs by the pool in their well-kept back garden.
Dave has recently invested in a rather impressive 32foot Carver Motor Cruiser called the HONEY MAY. He grew up by the water and always dreamed of being master of his own vessel. He’s studied hard to learn all there is to know about the boat, reading charts and the weather as well as the stunning coastline around Mackay and the southern Whitsundays. He is nothing if not studious and responsible. Dave Griffith is the kind of bloke anyone would like to live next door to.
BRIDGET GRIFFITH
Bridget Griffith is a hard-working student in her first year at University some 800kms from home in the Queensland capitol of Brisbane. Always an outgoing and creative girl, Bridget is studying an Arts Degree and in her free time enjoys both attending and even, on occasion, performing at the university campus Comedy Bar ‘Open Mic Night.’ In Brisbane, Bridget was fortunate to meet and instantly befriend her flat-mate SAMMY.
The girls hit it off from day one and spend a lot of their study and social time together. Sammy is also quite the young comic and a tremendous support for her new friend throughout the ordeal of losing er pet dog, Sophie. It was only after the last family pooch had gone to run free on that big ‘farm in the sky’ that, while still in high school, Bridget had found Sophie peering helplessly out across the shopping mall from her glass prison in a pet shop window. She would often jest that “our eyes met across a crowded mall and we fell instantly in love".
A few hours of serious adolescent “pester-power” was employed and by morning Sophie was free of the shredded paper and officially one of the Griffith family. For the following two years, Sophie and her favourite human were virtually inseparable and although, like her forbears, Sophie was an outdoor dog Bridget would rather do her homework out by the pool with Sophie asleep at her feet than inside the house without her.
This will prove to be a very difficult time for Bridget: separated from her family and heartbroken at Sophie’s apparent demise she wonders if she will ever laugh at another joke … let alone tell one.
PETER BERCK
“Old man Berck” had become somewhat of an institution in the Mackay area, living an almost hermit-like existence on the small plot of beachfront land that remains of a much larger leasehold, once owned by his late parents, on the stunning tropical nature reserve of St Bees Island.
While Peter’s brother DAVID moved to the mainland, studied, married the lovely CAROLINE and started his own business decades earlier, Peter prefers to see out as much of what remains of the fast-expiring 99-year lease alone on the island, relying on a dodgy old diesel generator for power, an unreliable Walkman and a few scratchy old audio cassettes for entertainment and on his Keswick Island neighbours’ generosity for supplies.
Peter Berck is quite the character: a man in his 70s he smiles through a weathered face, he walks with a distinctive limp as a result of an accident years ago and is really not a healthy man. He finds little time for pleasantries or small talk, Berck doesn’t suffer fools lightly however, it must be said he does respect knowledge and ingenuity in his fellow man.
Despite his gruff exterior, he remained quietly proud of the small role he played in this heartwarming family reunion although sadly, Peter Berck will actually pass away within a few months of Sophie’s rescue. There is now a road named in his memory on Keswick Island.
SENIOR CREW
GLENN TURNER
SCREENWRITER / PRODUCER
An accomplished character actor, theatre director, published writer, playwright, production & costume designer, Glenn’s professional experience in the entertainment industry spans four decades.
For five years, Glenn T was one of the regular on-camera design team on the Nine Network’s Changing Rooms and the Renovation Rescue series. In his capacity as National Ambassador for Variety, the Children’s Charity, he fronted regular live crosses to The TODAY Show and in 2006 wrote and hosted a one hour documentary on the story of Variety entitled TODAY on the Variety Bash. Glenn spent 3 years as Art Director of Home & Away and was Production Designer for the Network Ten drama Breakers (1996-1998): Playing it Straight (2004) and for three series of Camp Orange for the Nickelodeon Channel.
In 2003 Glenn formed Leader Entertainment: he re-wrote, co-produced and designed the highly-acclaimed premiere season of the hit Broadway musical, Leader of the Pack which played a twice-extended season at The Star City Showroom in Sydney before moving to the Crown Casino in Melbourne.
Since relocating to Queensland in 2011, Glenn was also a member the Costume Art team for the US mega-series Terra Nova as well as feature films, San Andreas, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle and THOR – Ragnarock and has most recently designed costumes for the 1930s bio-pic In Like Flynn and the big-budget Chinese co-production At Last. Glenn was Production Designer on the feature film Absolute Deception (2012) staring Cuba Gooding Jr. and more recently was Art Director for Sweet River, the Disney / ABC (USA) TV Series Reef Break, TROPPO for the ABC Australia, the Tim Minchin comedy/drama, Upright (S2) and currently on the second season of Rock Island Mysteries for Fremantle Media and Nickelodeon International.
He worked as Associate Producer on Channel 10 series, Mako: Island of Secrets (S2) and again on The Bureau of Magical Things (S2) for Jonathan M. Shiff Productions, Nickelodeon USA, ZDFE and Network 10.
Glenn wrote the one-man play about the extraordinary life of his childhood hero, country music and Aussie radio legend, the late Smoky Dawson. An Audience with Smoky & Herb played a short season at the Cremore Theatre at QPAC in 2018. He has since re-written updated Smoky’s 1985 memoir. Published by Origin Publishing, Smoky Dawson: A Life was officially re-released in January 2022 (and is now available online and in all good book stores!)
WADE SAVAGE
PRODUCER
Wade Savage has a broad and unique perspective of film & television production resulting from his complimentary roles as Line Producer, Unit Production Manager and First Assistant Director on a broad range of Australian and internationally produced ventures.
He is also principal of Savage Production Services.
Starting in 1988 as a Third AD on Mission Impossible, Wade moved through Second AD positions to first AD and UPM roles in such productions as US mini-series Childhood’s End, and Camp for NBC Universal, the BBC / Foxtel series Banished, the Australian mini-series Hoges for Fremantle, and the globally acclaimed feature film The Nightingale by Jennifer Kent.
His First Assistant Director credits range from Monsters of Man, shot on location in Cambodia, the independent Australian feature 48 Shades, the Bollywood film Singh is King and Sanctum Australia’s first 3D feature, executive produced by James Cameron. Wade’s television credits range from the award winning telemovies The Road from Coorain to Riot directed by Jeffrey Walker.
Wade’s television First AD credits include The End for Foxtel, Seachange for the Nine Network, Chris Lilley’s Lunatics for Netflix and the globally successful teen series H20: Just Add Water, Mako Mermaids and Lighting Point for Jonathan M. Shiff Productions. More recently he has moved into the Line Producer’s office on projects such as The Bureau of Magical Things (Season 2) again with JMSP, The Possessed with Giddy-Up Films and most recently starting on the mega-Disney series, Nautilus, currently in production at the Village Roadshow Studios.
Wade’s ability to successfully manage productions with both national and international elements in a variety of locations ensures his continuous engagement around Australia.
NICHOLAS McCALLUM
PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Nick McCallum is one of Australia’s most respected Production Designers of feature films, television drama series and theatre productions across Australia and throughout the world. He has been involved in over 50 productions, not only working locally but also in China, Poland, Great Britain, France, Japan, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, Spain, Switzerland, and Germany.
He designed the action-adventure 3D feature films: Sanctum starring Richard Roxburgh and Ioan Gruffudd, Nest (Guardians of the Tomb) starring Li Bing Bing, Kellan Lutz and Kelsey Grammar and Bait starring Xavier Samuel, Sharni Vincent, Phoebe Tonkin and Julian McMahon.
Sanctum, produced by James Cameron, is set entirely in a flooding cave environment built entirely in the Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast. Nest (Guardians of the Tomb) is set in an underground Chinese palace temple complex infested with deadly funnel web spiders. Bait sees a tsunami hitting the east coast of Australia, trapping a pack of man-eating tiger sharks in a flooded supermarket. Other feature film Production Design credits include, In Like Flynn, starring Thomas Cocquerel, David Wenham, Clive Standen and William Moseley, The Black Balloon starring Toni Collette; Kokoda, Getting Square starring Sam Worthington, Timothy Spall and David Wenham; The Clinic Subdivision with Gary Sweet, Steve Bisley and Bruce Spence; The Nugget starring Eric Bana; The Goddess Of 1967 with Rose Byrne and In A Savage Land starring Rufus Sewell and Martin Donovan.
Television Production Design credts include Answered by Fire with David Wenham; The Potato Factory starring Ben Cross and Lisa McCune and the hugely successful Spellbinder series, starring Ryan Kwanten and shot throughout Poland and China. Most recently Nick designed the big-budget ABC (US) / Disney series Reef Break, the ABC’s mystery-drama TROPPO and the Tim Minchin comedy, UPRIGHT (s2). Theatre design credits include the national tour of Grease – The Arena Spectacular starring John Farnham, Craig McLachlan, Natalie Bassingthwaighte & Magda Szubanski.
Nick has been nominated four times for Australia’s top film awards - twice for the AFI AWARD for “Best Production Design” for a Feature Film for In a Savage Land and Getting’ Square and twice for the Inside Film IF AWARD for “Best Production Design” for a Feature Film for Kokoda and The Black Balloon.