FILM SCRIPT | WRITER BIOGRAPHY | FILM STORYBOARD

 

Talking Big Production’s current project is an already a well known literary work. The feature film ‘Salt Rain’ is currently being adapted from the novel of the same title written by Sarah Armstrong.

Sarah was born in Sydney, Australia in 1968. She has a BA in Communications from Mitchell College in Bathurst. Sarah started her career in journalism as a trainee on the flagship ABC radio current affairs programs AM, The World Today and PM. In 1993 she won Australia’s premier journalistic award, the Walkley, for a radio feature on diggers returning to Gallipoli. She then joined ABC TV’s Foreign Correspondent program as a researcher and occasional field producer.
In 1997 she realised that the demands of journalism would always keep her from dedicating herself to writing so she resigned from the ABC and moved to the sub-tropical north coast of NSW. The year she moved into a small rustic cabin in an overgrown rainforest valley was by far the wettest it had been in years, which provided much of the inspiration for her first novel.
“Salt Rain” was published by Allen and Unwin in July 2004 and was short listed for the 2005 Dobbie Award, the 2005 Miles Franklin Award and the 2005 Queensland Premiers Award.

Various reviews:

Sarah Armstrong writes in a distinctively Australian, vigorous vernacular. Her characters ring true as does the way they speak; she balances the flow of action perfectly with a deep love of place in the telling of her tale.
“Comments from the judges of the 2005 Miles Franklin Literary Award”

Her viscerally realised characters and her enclosed, red-mud, rain soaked valley landscape lodge in the reader’s imagination, and become for a time, as some books do, part of a personal mindscape.
“ Adelaide Advertiser”

Salt Rain is full of surprises. Sarah Armstrong demonstrates her maturity in understanding the human condition, the big themes in apparently small lives. She shares with the reader her characters’ experiences in rich evocative language without wasting a single word with her crisp style. The story left me as a reader, satisfied, staying in my head and heart for some days. Salt Rain will earn Sarah Armstrong recognition in Australian literature as a new addition to the list of worthwhile writers.
“ Byron Shire Echo”

In this carefully observed family story, Armstrong is at her best when evoking the outsized landscape and extravagant weather of her Australian setting.
“ Book List (USA)”

The adaptation of ‘Salt Rain’ has previously undergone several developmental stages. In early 2006, several key scenes were consolidated and entered in the short play festival ‘Short and Sweet’. From over 1000 entries our scenes were shortlisted in the top 90 to be performed at the festival. Furthermore, several actors were auditioned and over a period of several weeks the script was workshopped towards a 45 minute promotional reading. The screenplay is currently undergoing further adaptations with the intention of a completed final draft being available soon.
Letters of intent have been signed by award winning Cinematographer Ian Jones ACS and 1st Assistant Director Karen Mahood. Both Ian and Karen worked on the recent successful Rolf de Heer film Ten Canoes.