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Tuesday 24 May 2011
Australian Release
Cane Toads: The Conquest will open around Australia on June 2 at the following cinemas -
NSW
Sydney
Fox Studios
Hoyts Penrith
Newtown Dendy in 3D
Broadway
Hoyts Broadway
Northern Rivers
Dendy Byron Bay in 3D
ACT
Canberra
Dendy Belconnen
Dendy Canberra in 3D
VIC
Melbourne
Nova Carton in 3D
Classic Elsternwick in 3D
Cameo Belgrave in 3D
Hoyts Chadstone
Hoyts Highpoint
Village Sunshine in 3D
QLD
Brisbane
Hoyts Redcliffe
Dendy Portside in 3D
Hoyts Stafford
Gold Coast
BC&C Pacific Fair in 3D
Sunshine Coast
BC&C Maroochydore in 3D
Cairns
BC&C Cairns in 3D
Mackay
BC&C Mackay in 3D
Townsville
BC&C Townsville in 3D
Toowoomba
BC&C Toowoomba in 3D
Rockhampton
BC&C Rockhampton in 3D
NT
Darwin
BC&C Darwin in 3D
SA
Adelaide
Event Marion in 3D
Hoyts Tea Tree
Mercury Adelaide
WA
Perth
Hoyts Carousel
Hoyts Rockingham
Tuesday 3 May 2011
Australian Release
Just announced - Cane Toads: The Conquest will open in cinemas around Australia on 2 June.
Monday 28 March 2011
Coming soon in 3D
Watch the new promo for Cane Toads: The Conquest in 3D.
Wednesday 23 March 2011
3D Documentaries
Mark Lewis talks with Peter Cowie of Dolby about 3D documentaries and the making of Cane Toads: The Conquest in 3D. Read the interview here.
Monday 21 March 2011
The Official Trailer
Just finished the official trailer - check it out on Youtube!
Wednesday 16 February 2011
Dobby's Story
Just posted Dobby's Story - an excerpt from Cane Toads: The Conquest - on Youtube. 
Saturday 5 February 2011
Berlin Film Market
Cane Toads: The Conquest will screen at the Berlin Film Market on February 12th at Cinestar 7 cinema complex.
Wednesday 17 November 2010
International Documentary Film Festival
Cane Toads: The Conquest will screen in 3D at this years International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam - Sunday 21 November at 9.45pm and Tuesday 23 November at 8.00pm. Check out their website for details.
Friday 22 October 2010
Cane Toads to launch BIFF
Cane Toads: The Conquest in 3D will launch this year's Brisbane International Film Festival on November 4. Check out their website for more information.
Monday 19 July 2010
Tokyo International Film Festival
Don't miss the Japanese Premiere of Cane Toads: The Conquest at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Get tickets here.
creening:
Tokyo International Film Festival
Date: Monday 25 October
Time: 2.20 pm
Venue: Screen 3
Date: Friday 29 October
Time: 12.00 pm
Venue: Screen 4
Sunday 17 October 2010
New Orleans Film Festival
Cane Toads, an Unnatural History AND Cane Toads: The Conquest are screening together at the New Orleans Film Festival.
Go here for more information.
creening:
New Orleans Film Festival
Date: Wednseday 20 October
Time: 7pm
Venue: The Prytania Theatre
Wednesday 13 October 2010esday 1 June 2010
Abu Dhabi Film Festival
Cane Toads will invade the Abu Dhabi Film Festival with two 3D screenings of Cane Toads: The Conquest.
Get tickets here.
creening:
Abu Dhabi Film Festival
Date: Saturday 16 October
Time: 4.30 pm
Venue: Marina Mall 5
Date: Sunday 17 October
Time: 7.30 pm
Venue: Marina Mall 8
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Michael Moore on Cane Toads
Michael Moore on Cane Toads: The Conquest - "Already the first cult film of this decade. There's nothing like it and there's nothing you can do to prepare yourself for it. Even if you see it straight, your mind will be blown."
Thursday 9 September 2010
Zurich Film Festival
Catch Cane Toads: The Conquest in 3D at the Zurich Film Festival on September 24th and September 26th.
Get tickets here.
creening:
Zurich Film Festival
Date: Friday 24 September
Time: 6.30pm
Date: Sunday 26 September
Time: 3pm
Venue: Corso 1
Monday 6 September 2010
Documentary Campus at Munich
To celebrate the Documentary Campus 10th Anniversary there will be a private screening of Cane Toads: The Conquest in 3D on 10th September. On Sunday 12th at 10am Mark will present a case history of the film.
Go here for more information.
Sunday 5 September 2010
Oldenburg International Film Festival
The cane toads are coming to Germany. Catch Cane Toads: The Conquest at the Oldenburg International Film Festival on September 16th, 2010 and September 18th, 2010 at 5.30pm at the CinemaxX7.
Get tickets here.
creening:
Oldenburg International Film Festival
Date: Thursday 16 and Saturday 18 September
Time: 5.30pm
Venue: CinemaX7
Monday 2nd August 2010
"3D is amazing if it is in the hands of filmmakers like, say, Mark Lewis "
Beth Milligan included this review of Cane Toads: The Conquest in her write up of the Traverse City Film Festival:
"If TCFF was an after-school special and there was that scene at the end where I realized I had learned things about myself I never knew before, and that I was all growing as a person or whatever, viewing “Cane Toads: The Conquest” in 3D would totally be that scene. Because I have hated – HATED – everything about 3D since the moment Hollywood discovered the golden egg that is surcharging $3 for 10-cent 3D glasses and retrofitting every film possible with the most schlocky 3D on the planet. (“Saw 3D”? Really Hollywood? REALLY?) But I am here to say, a wise young woman who has come of age in a heartwarming two-hour turn of events, that 3D is amazing if it’s in the capable hands of filmmakers like, say, Mark Lewis."
Read the full review here.
Monday 19 July 2010
Melbourne International Film Festival
Don't miss the Melbourne Premiere of Cane Toads: The Conquest at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
Get tickets here.
creening:
Melbourne International Film Festival
Date: Sunday 25 July and Saturday 7 August
Time: 1pm
Venue: Hoyts
Sunday 18 July 2010
Traverse City Film Festival
Cane Toads is screening at the Traverse City Film Festival and the session is already SOLD OUT. A second screening has been announced for Thursday 29th July at 6pm
Get tickets here.
creening:
Traverse City Film Festival
Date: Thursdau 29 and Friday 30 July
Time: 6pm
Venue: Lars Hockstad Auditorium
Wednesday 7th July 2010
Mark interviewed on KCRW's 'The Business'
Mark was interviewed for KCRW's 'The Business' on Monday. Listen to the podcast here.
Sunday 4th July 2010
"Chaplin comedy, Hitchcock suspense, ecological paranoia and Homeric 3D odyssey"
Bob Ellis of Encore Magazine included this review of Cane Toads: The Conquest in his commentary of the Sydney Film Festival.
"This brings me to Cane Toads: The Conquest , Mark Lewis’s 3D revisiting of his well beloved squat bogeymen whom he teaches us to love, abhor and fear as elsewhere we do the Gremlins, Frankenstein’s monster and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. His comic sensibility, like that of John Clarke, is both tender and sadistic: thus the toad is sometimes a loveable visitant like ET, and sometimes a noisome pestilence rightly gassed in wriggling sugarbags and laid out in thousands for mass burial. Somehow it all works – as Chaplin comedy, Hitchcock suspense, ecological paranoia and Homeric 3D odyssey from Cairns to Broome. This is a master of world cinema, preposterously underemployed."
From Encore Magazine.
Sunday 20th June 2010
"Like Herzog on steroids"
The LA premiere at the Regal 1 cinema in 3D was well received and a lot of fun. Check out some of the tweets posted after the show:
@mattcornell Cane Toads in 3D. Like Herzog on steroids.
@caseythea Eff you James Cameron! I'll take Avatoad (Cane Toads: The Conquest in 3D) over your crappy Avatar anyday!
@alohn I'm no fan of 3D, but 'Cane Toads: The Conquest' utilizes the technology very well! Superb!
@shinyspecialone Cane Toads was such a fun, unique doc. Loved it!
@kallimao Cane toads. In 3D. Thank you, L.A. Film Festival, for bringing the zaniness.
Wednesday 3 June 2010
Los Angeles Film Festival
Catch the LA premiere of Cane Toads: The Conquest is at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June.
Get tickets here: www.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2010/xslguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=4543
creening:
Los Angeles Film Festival
Date: Friday 18 June
Time: 10.30pm
Venue: Regal 1
uesday 1 June 2010
BAMcinemaFEST, New York
Check out the New York premiere of Cane Toads: The Conquest is at BAM in June.
Get tickets here: http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=2191
creening:
BAMcinemaFEST
Date: Wednesday 16th June
Time: 6.50 & 9.30pm
Venue: BAM Rose Cinemas
Sunday 30th May 2010
Sydney Film Festival
The Australian Premiere of Cane Toads: The Conquest is screening at the Sydney Film Festival in June. Get tickets here: http://tix.sff.org.au/session2.asp?sn=Cane+Toads%3A+The+Conquest
Screening:
SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL
Date: Friday 11th June
Time: 7.00pm
Venue: Event Cinema 5
Tuesday 25th May 2010
Seattle International Film Festival
Cane Toads: The Conquest is screening at the Seattle International Film Festival in 3D this Friday at 7.00 pm.
Buy tickets here: http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=41505&FID=166
Screening:
SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Date: Friday 28th May
Time: 7.00pm
Venue: The Neptune Theatre
Monday 24 May 2010
Cane Toads: The Communal Audience
This great review of the Sundance screening by Zan McQuade is posted on the Sundance website: http://festival.sundance.org/2010/blog/entry/cane_toads_the_communal_audience/
"I hate to use the word "magic" so much. Help me find another. Here, I tend to use it a heck of a lot. The most magical thing, for me, about going to the movie theater is the communal experience. Sitting amidst an audience of people who have come, perhaps with high expectations, to enjoy themselves for a few hours. Hearing other people laugh at the same lines as you is some sort of affirmation of your sense of humor. You know you're not so crazy.
Tuesday night I felt three times less crazy when I experienced the premiere of Cane Toads: The Conquest in 3D.
The moment the test screens came up, and everyone had their glasses on, the "ooh"s and "aah"s rang around Eccles Theater. The audience was one big wow, and instantly we were bonded in our wonder. Mark Lewis's film about the plight of the cane toad, introduced to Australia in the early 20th century and running rampant over the country ever since, was a good chance for us all to laugh together. About the creative ways Australians had come up with to try to rid their country of the "pest." Lewis himself is sympathetic to the little guys, he said, siding with those who think that it's not their fault that they've overtaken a country.
I'd attended a panel called Cinerama Futurama a few days ago, in which new technology in cinema was discussed, and a point was made that 3D is not necessarily perfect for every film. You could argue that I didn't need to see every farmer in three dimensions, but it sure was impressive. And feeling immersed in each scene, in the Australian countryside, in the scientist's lab, took us out of our theater seats and threw each of us up onto that screen."
Monday March 15th 2010
"First they were just Cane Toads.
Now they're Ava-Toads"
The Cane Toads: The Conquest Sundance Premiere was great fun and very well received. The 1200 seat theatre was packed and rows and rows of 3D glasses stared out from the crowd in anticipation. When the lights finally went down, everybody cheered. The following 90 minutes were filled with screams, gasps and peals of laughter as the wonderful characters each told their share of this bizarre story.
I thought I'd share some of the wonderful reactions we received from the press who attended.
“Fascinating…very ambitious…I can’t think of a movie I’ve seen [at Sundance] that was as enjoyable and unusual as Cane Toads.”
- John Horn, LA Times
"And the toads! The sea of toads! Hopping over one another, writhing like a phalanx, is truly an unbelievable sight... Never before has such a benign animal seemed so attractive."
– Brendan Walsh, ScreenCrave.com
"In many ways, Lewis’ film explores the Australian psyche and so the film is ultimately more than just a cane toad film, but a fresh and funny look at a unique culture. A visually masterful film, it is also a work that is richly entertaining and original."
- Paul Fisher, Dark Horizons
“Rarely has an ecological menace appeared as entertaining as portrayed in Cane Toads: The Conquest…Overall production values are first-class, with the 3D cinematography adding eye-popping realism”
- Justin Lowe, ABC News
“A sort of Michael Moore meets Monty Python exposé - It makes for a hilarious and instructive movie.”
- Peter Howell, Toronto Star
“There was such anticipation in the air at the “Cane Toads” premiere, that when the theater darkened people actually cheered. Then the cane toad jumped at the camera and everyone in the audience jumped in their seats and screamed. At that very moment, a cane toad star was born.”
- Robert W. Welkos, Hollywood News
“First, they were just Cane toads. Now, they're ‘Ava-toads.’”
- Tammy Mutasa, ABC News
“Not only is it about cane toads, it's in 3D. If you've never seen a cane toad, seeing one in 3D is quite a momentous way to be introduced.”
- Kenneth Turan, NPR
“The movie is hilarious. Think absurdist Peter Greenaway’s The Falls meets Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. “
- Anne Thompson, Indiewire
“Yes: you will learn more than you ever wanted to know about cane toads, and you will probably enjoy it.”
- Melena Ryzik, New York Times
“After all the hype surrounding Avatar, and all the talk of how it was going to “change the way movies are made,” this may be the film that proves it. While studios may continue to use 3-D as a gimmick…Cane Toads: The Conquest shows that it can be seamlessly integrated with traditional styles of filmmaking, and simply add, and pardon the pun, another dimension to the way audiences experience movies.”
- Brendan Walsh, Screencrave
Ben and Paul at the Premiere Mark and Molly at the Premiere
Wednesday January 27th 2010
Cane Toads: The Conquest Premieres
Cane Toads: The Conquest premiered to raucous laughter, cheers and loud applause at the packed Eccles Theatre last night. Check out the latest reviews here.
Tuesday January 19th 2010
Road to Sundance
After the long production process, the finished 3D film has made its journey over the Pacific and arrived at the Eccles Theatre.
.
On the 8th January Paul Nichola and I travelled to Park Road post in Wellington, NZ, where we tech checked and took delivery of the Digital Cinema Package (DCP). The DCP is one secure file which holds the entire film, in all of its 3D high definition glory. The entire file fits on a small hard drive which I easily carried with me on the plane to LA.
Mark and Paul at Park Road Post in NZ for
tech check and delivery of the Dolby DCP
.
Last weekend I took the DCP to Park City for final installation and tech checks. Two Barco technicians, along with cinema installation experts Russell Allen (Dolby) and Chapin Cutler, installed and aligned two brand new Barco cinema projectors in the Eccles Cinema. The projectors and 3D system have been installed especially for the Cane Toads screening - the only 3D screening at Sundance this year.
Eccles Cinema - Aligning the projectors for 3D Russell Allen from Dolby Corporation and Mark
at the Eccles Cinema
.
The DCP was then loaded into the Dolby Digital Cinema server, and we were able to view the finished product. It looked absolutely fantastic.
The film is loaded onto the Dolby Digital Cane Toads Premiere loaded and ready
Cinema server at the Eccles Cinema to go
.
Sundance 3D technical check and run through
Thursday January 14th 2010
The Official Sundance Poster
The official Sundance poster has just been finalised - and it looks wonderful!
Check out some of our other poster art:
Monday December 21st 2009
The Post Path
I have just returned from 7 weeks in Sydney following the intensive finish of the film. During that time the sound mix and picture grade was completed. Andrew Plain at Huzzah Sound was the Supervising Sound Editor and Robert Sullivan finished the mix in 5.1 at Soundfirm.
Colourist Adrian Hauser in the Dolby 3D glasses Stereographer Paul Nichola in the Dolby glasses
Friday December 4th 2009
Cane Toads: the Conquest to Premiere at Sundance
After so many months of production and the
challenging post production process, we are pleased to be near the completion of the film.
The exciting news released today is that the film has been invited to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, in January 2010. It will be a great showcase for the film and reflects on the great work that so many have put into it. The film will be presented in glorious 3D.
In a few weeks we will have confirmed the dates of the screening – check back soon for more info! Check out our press release for more details.
May 2009
That’s a wrap – now for the hard part…
After 22 weeks of shooting and many thousands
of miles through four different states, we have finished
principal photography.
The filming went remarkably well - considering we
were using brand new camera technology that would
enable us to capture everything from an extreme
close up of a toad's eye through to grand panoramas
of the Australian landscape in glorious 3D.
Car rig and crew on location
The final filming block took place at our Mullumbimby
studio. The last few weeks have comprised many
days of location shooting, set work and close-up
photography of our toad friends. Our production
designer, Daniel Nyiri, has been hard at work building
sets and props for some of the more involved re-
enactments, while our stereo solutions team has been
building special rigs in the studio to capture amazing
angles in 3D.
Richard Kickbush on the studio
We are now into the post production phase and have many months of picture edting, composite
work, CGI, music and sound editing ahead of us. We edit "one eye" only during this time and a
final ‘stereo conform’ is not performed until the end of the process - the final result in 3D will not
be seen until delivery. Of course, we need to make sure the film looks stunning in 2D as well!
March 2009
Retracing the journey of the toad
We have just returned from the second shooting block
after filming in North Queensland for 7 weeks. All went
well - despite encountering some of the worst floods in
over 30 years.
Several towns on our shooting schedule were cut off
by flood waters and we were sometimes stranded for
several days as we waited for the flood waters to
recede.
Base Camp. Mulgrave River
Other times, we were forced to shoot through torrential downpours, as the flood waters steadily
climbed in the background of our shots. However, despite the delays, the frustration and the
general sogginess, it was a successful shoot.
After completing this journey across the country I am excited that the journey of the toad will
provide great visual contrast. We follow the toad from the lush rain forests of Puerto Rico, to
the vibrant cane farms of far North Queensland, through the mangroves of the Gulf Country
and into the harsh and arid landscape of the Northern Territory. The journey ends in Wester
Australia where thousands of toads are now poised only a few miles from the border. With
the coming wet season, the floodwaters will spread them West into the uniquely beautiful
Kimberly region.
Above all, I am enthused by the characters. We filmed with some wonderful characters and
the new film will be rich and funny with a very strong cast. They are a funny and laconic bunch
of people, all at logger-heads with the toad. This will provide suitable comment on the greater
role of humans and animals.
Unfortunately, the toads have not changed - I blame filming
amphibians for the fact that my hair has now gone completely white with frustration, wondering
when the blighters will hit their mark.
We still have more hard work to do in production – one more block of shooting at our studio in
Mullumbimby where we will cover some of the more complicated shots and sequences. Our
December 2008
Shooting in extreme conditions
The first leg of the shoot went well with many good characters and stories captured by our
intrepid crew as we tracked the journey of the toad across the Top End.
The toads are
much cleverer than most people think: they are now poised at the Western Australia border
and will soon be across the entire top end. In the twenty years since the I made the first film
it is surprising to how many more people are now involved in the war with the toad.
Despite the untried technology and the extraordinary
heat, the 3D process and equipment has been
working well. The camera heads are rated to
40 degree heat (104F) – over this temperature,
digital equipment can begin to fail.
We were expecting temperatures to range between
39 to 46 degrees (102F to 114F) in the extreme
climate of the Top End, so we built fans and cooling
options into our recording unit.
Right Eye, Left Eye
The extreme heat did slow us down but I am happy
November 2008
Filming a ‘moving carpet’ of toads at the
Croc Tank Lagoon
“The Croc Tank” is the name given to Bally-Angle Lagoon situated on Auvergne Station,
a large cattle property just behind the toad front-line and not far from the Western Australian
border. It is so named for good reason – there are 50 or so fresh water crocodiles living in
the lagoon.
It was a good time to see large congregations of toads – as the territory was
reaching the peak of the dry season and the toads were known to seek out the remaining
water around the dwindling lagoons and water holes.
We were only days away from the beginning of
the wet season when the monsoonal rains would
transform the landscape, making the road tracks
impassable, and the toads would disperse. The
Department of Environment made available 4-wheel
drive vehicles for the three-hour drive from Kununurrra
to Auvergne. The drive was long and uncomfortable;
we forded the West Baines river. We bumped around
as we made our way past washouts and rutted terrain.
West Baines River
We arrived at sunset and set up our equipment. The
sunset was spectacular and a full moon rose through
the trees. We could see crocodiles cruising through
the lily pads. There were few signs of the toads. Most
of them were buried deep in the dried mud and fissures
around the sides of the lagoon. As soon as night fell we
could hear rustling as the toads slowly emerged from
the cracks in the mud.
The Croc Tank
Raising my flashlight I could see thousands of tiny
eyes glistening back at me from the side of the
lagoon. They appeared to be everywhere – emerging
on the banks and also creeping down towards the
lagoon from the surrounding shrub grasses.
Gradually they began to congregate in the mud –
some of them doing a wiggly dance so they could
settle deep into the wet.
Cane Toad in the mud
There was never an end to their arrival – even after
two hours they were still coming toward the lagoon.
There was a consistent and unrelenting march of the
toads towards the water. In front of us was a moving
carpet of adult toads, some stacked on top of one
another, others struggling to hydrate in the mud, and
thousands more coming down the banks and through
the rushes.
Night Shoot
We were forced to leave, as the tide was rising at the
river crossing and we in danger of being trapped for
the night. Just before I got into the vehicle, I stepped
once again into the thicket at the side of the lagoon. It
was still crawling with thousands of toads – so many
toads were still ambling down towards the water, it was
impossible not to step on them as I waded deeper into
the thicket.
The Cane Toads emerge
The wet season and the monsoon rains were only days away. When the monsoon starts,
these toads will be flushed down the river. They will continue their travel west, across the border
and into Western Australia towards the majestic Kimberlys and into the river systems of the
country’s top-end. Then, their conquest will be complete.