After a break out role as villain Riley in the ‘Twilight‘ franchise, rising thespian Xavier Samuel is looking to establish himself: he already has a leading role in Roland Emmerich‘s period-conspiracy-drama “Anonymous” in the works but has now also joined the cast of Morgan O’Neill and Ben Nott‘s Australian ’70’s surfing drama “Drift.”
The film will follow the true story of the Fisher brothers as they battle “suspicious locals, killer waves and ruthless bikers as they struggle to kick-start a business from their greatest passion – surfing” in what has been described as “the first character-driven action movie set in the surfing world since Kathryn Bigelow‘s ‘Point Break.’”
Despite being the biggest name of the bunch, Worthington will actually play “a photographer and journalist” who plays a major role in the brother’s rise with Samuel and producer/star Myles Pollard presumably taking the roles of the brothers, Jimmy and Andy. A synopsis of the project on the website of French distribution shingle TF1 further details the brothers’ story (and also provides a look at the teaser poster above);
Australia, 1970s. The Fisher brothers, Andy (28) and Jimmy (22), have one great passion: riding big waves. As kids, their mother escaped from Sydney to Margaret River, a sleepy coastal town with some of the world’s most challenging and dangerous waves. For the next 12 years, the boys perfected their surfing skills, always searching for the perfect ride. Free-spirited Jimmy is a gifted surfer and innovator but he starts to slip toward a life of crime to help the family out of debt. Andy makes a big decision. Quitting a stable job, he bets on Jimmy’s surf inventions and his own business skills and launches a backyard surf gear business. They rethink board design, craft homemade wetsuits and sell their merchandise out of their van.
Encouraged by their new friends, travelling bohemian surf photographer and filmmaker JB (Worthington) and his gorgeous Hawaiian surfer companion, Lani, who stirs the two brothers’ hearts, they start to seek ways to expand. After they get mixed up with a local drug dealer, it looks like everything they built up, will be ruined…
Lensing is set to get underway August 1st on the Margaret River in Western Australia with an $11.3 million budget in place for O’Neill and Nott, who have already set a summer 2012 release in mind.
