Wild about Things

By Tania Martin
GEMBROOK will be put under the spotlight this week with the town’s Gilwell Park taking to the silver screen in Where the Wild Things Are.
The film joins a long list of small screen productions that have chosen the rugged setting of the park.
It has been used to film Australian soap operas such as Home and Away, Neighbours and even A Country Practice.
Park Manager Bill Oakley said the release of the film would be a great boost for the park.
“It will give us an extra profile boost,” he said.
“We’ve used it for a couple of shows and now we are starting to become a budding movie set.”
Mr Oakley said it was exciting to be connected to a box office smash.
“It’s always good fun for the park to use in that way – as a movie set.”
The highly anticipated adaptation of the classic Maurice Sendak story has already won over audiences in the US with a $73 million return at the box office.
Residents will finally get to see what all the fuss was about after almost three years.
In September 2006, a tight veil of secrecy had remained around the production as it filmed somewhere in the middle of Gilwell Park.
Director Spike Jonze scoured the world for 18 months looking for the perfect destination to create the visually diverse and stunning island backdrop to this classic story.
Film location manager Russell Boyd said Gilwell Park was one of the key locations in the movie.
“It was the set for where the creatures lived,” he said.
“We needed a forested area but a big enough area for the creatures to move around…they were 14-15 feet tall and needed a lot of room to move.”
Mr Boyd said the park had also recently undergone a burn off which had left it blackened.
“It gave us a really interesting, graphic look,” he said.
The film will hit the big screen in Victoria on Thursday.