The Hunter
All actors and roles (10)
All team (47)
Short description
Martin David is a mercenary who takes on dangerous contracts and has little tying him to a normal life. A secretive biotechnology company sends him from Europe to the Tasmanian wilderness to find the Tasmanian tiger, an animal widely considered extinct, and bring back what the company wants from it. Posing as a university researcher, Martin lodges with Lucy Armstrong, whose zoologist husband has been missing for some time, and he gradually grows close to her and her two children. The locals greet him with suspicion, and a rival hunter is also after the same quarry, while the company presses for results regardless of the consequences. The film is based on Julia Leigh's novel.
Daniel Nettheim directed the film from a screenplay by Alice Addison, with Vincent Sheehan producing. Willem Dafoe plays Martin, Frances O'Connor plays Lucy, and Sam Neill appears as Jack Mindy, alongside Jacek Koman, Callan Mulvey and Dan Wyllie. It was released in 2011 and runs 102 minutes.
The film drew a critics' rating of 6.5 out of 10 from 93 reviews, close to the audience scores of 6.7 on IMDb from around 43,000 votes and 6.7 on TMDB from roughly 740 votes, suggesting a broadly similar reception across groups. Its worldwide box office of about 2 million US dollars was modest for a production shot across Australia and Canada with support from Screen Australia and other backers.
What's left behind the scenes
- Approximately 40% of the film was shot in Tasmania – Australia's southernmost small island. Specifically in Maydena, Deloraine, and Florentine Valley.
- The Tasmanian tiger, also known as the Tasmanian wolf, thylacine, or Thylacinus cynocephalus, which translates from Greek as 'pouched animal with a dog-like head,' is an extinct species of marsupial carnivore. It is called the Tasmanian tiger because of the stripes on its back.
- Julia Leigh, the author of the book the film is based on, is also the director and screenwriter of the 2011 Australian film "Sleeping Beauty," which was released the same year. However, she was not actually involved in either the screenplay or the direction of this film.
- "The Hunter" is director Daniel Nettheim's first feature film since "X Generation" (2000), released after an interval of almost 11 years. During this period, Nettheim worked in television.
- On the film posters, Willem Dafoe is listed first, followed by Francis O'Connor, and then Sam Neill.
- The film's protagonist, Martin David, played by Willem Dafoe, is mentioned only as M. in the original novel.
- The beginning of the film features original black-and-white archival footage of what was essentially the last Tasmanian tiger living in captivity.
- The final shot reads: "Traps and snares are illegal in Tasmania."
- Julia Leigh's novel, on which the film is based, was awarded the French Prix de l'Astrolabe Etonnants Voyageurs and the British Betty Trask Award. The book was noted by the New York Times and was also nominated for several literary awards. In addition, the novel was translated into 9 languages and widely distributed. The film, however, was made only 12 years after the book’s first publication in 1999.
- Following its world premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, Magnolia Pictures acquired the US distribution rights to the film for 2012.
- During filming in the Tasmanian wilderness in Australia, Willem Dafoe had to contend with leeches. He joked to the press that he didn't lose a drop of blood. Ironically, considering his previous Australian film, "Splice" (2009), was about vampires. Incidentally, Sam Neill co-starred with him in both films.
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