The best theology in The Man Who Sued God hinges around seeing God as the author of love. “How can I sue the God who led me to this woman? I can’t sue love.” If this is secular Australia’s take on God, it will do me! The rainstorm was shot on the very last day - soon afterwards Sydney was enveloped in real bushfire smoke (as it often is, because it suffers from an inversion layer which traps smoke within its basin). Australian audiences more used to seeing Judy Davis in dramatic roles are in for a treat, explains Gannon, who also praises the exceptional ensemble cast for agreeing to take on supporting roles. She always was ready for the things I would do in a scene and that is terribly impressive. I like her very much as a person - I like talking to her about life. I don’t speak to actors, directors or producers about drama. I want to know where they come from, who their parents are, how they met their husbands … I like to work at that human level, not on a technical level.” Seven network newsreaders Ross Symonds (wiki here) and Chris Bath (wiki here) can also be seen reading the news in several places.

Frivolous Lawsuit: The main character is a fisherman whose boat is destroyed by lightning, but he isn't allowed to claim damages from his insurance company because the lightning was "an act of God." So he sues God. (God is represented in court by clergymen.) This film needed to be precise and worldly - it is filled with worldly ideas that involve a humanistic approach to life, but it also is hugely entertaining!”

Watson has done his theological homework. “The god of the act of God does not exist.”“Here, here,” I cheered! I booed when the cardinal argues in court that God sends deadly lighting bolts “as signs”.

But in the hands of director Mark Joffe (Cosi, Spotswood), writers John Clark, a.k.a. Fred Dagg (The Gilles Report,) and Don Watson (The Gilles Report, Passion), as well as a terrific cast headed by the wild and wooly Billy Connolly we are given plenty of fun moments. When Connolly arrives in Sydney, and the camera observes his car travelling over the Anzac bridge (he calls it the wonderful Glebe island bridge), Joffe jokes that it was a “semi-legal” helicopter shot. So far as Bille Brown’s character is concerned, write Don Watson thinks it comes straight out of the nexus between the Catholic church and Australian politics. He suspects the character might easily have been a seminarian before jumping the fence and going into law. The link between him and the Cardinal is organic - they’d gone to school together - and as a lawyer he’s as tough as nails, a “Catholic hard man”. When the dog was thrown into the water, off the jetty, he didn’t know what was going to happen, and it was done in one take. In 2014, New Films International hired Larry Charles to write a remake of the film. [8] However, the remake has yet to be produced.Mark Joffe recognised that Billy Connolly and Judy Davis would make a great comedic double: “Once we thought of Billy it was impossible to consider anyone else really. He was the one person who could deliver that intensely clever dialogue in an earthy, funny way. For the 28’05” headland scene between Davis and Connolly, Bridie says they called the cue “Aphex Twin” because the rhythm layers underneath it sounded a bit like the Sheffield band. He used a piano, accordion, valve mikes and layers of programming underneath to get an organic feel, a technique he used for quite a few of the film’s cues. For Joffe, the opportunity to bring his own take, taste and instincts to the film was a challenge he relished. “What is reflected in the film is the great joy of working on something that you really like rather than just taking a job for money or playing 'the director'.” Bridie says they were trying to get a sad Mozartian feel to the aria, with singer Miriam Clark from Newcastle doing the singing (though again ironically in the credits, she’s listed as Miriam Allan).

Impossible Insurance: Inverted. Steve sues God (through the clergy) because his insurance company exploited the standard loophole of " acts of God " to prevent paying him. Steve, a runaway lawyer, decides to sue God, and his/her representatives, the Churches for the money. It would seem that the Churches could well have to argue against the existence of God to defend the case. In the DVD commentary, director Mark Joffe notes that one of the earlier drafts of the script had Billy Connolly’s character nearly drowning in the opening storm sequence, and to save himself from drowning, chopping off his toe. He jokes that to be truthful, the reason they didn’t do it had nothing to do with the concept; it was expediency - they couldn’t afford to go underwater, and do all that, but he doesn’t think it affected the film. Writer Don Watson agrees, though he thinks the drowning scenes were terrific. Joffe adds that the budget for the special effects etc, were astronomical. My biggest quibble, though, is with the casting of the two principals. Connolly, a very talented actor, played the whole thing with a degree of high amusement which I found highly improbable given the financial disaster which was staring him and his nearest and dearest in the face. I'm not sure whether this was his fault or the director's. And his broad Scots accent meant that Colin Friels had to adopt a Scots accent (native, apparently), which failed to convince throughout. Around the 74 minute mark, with Connolly in church, there’s a faintly religious piano driven cue, which Bridie suggests supports the argument for keeping film music quite simple.c. 19’06” - when Connolly walks into the Law Society to become a lawyer again, Joffe recalls that over many years of development, there were various explanations of the character’s status as a lawyer, including that he’d been one in Vanuatu, but he thinks it was done better as a shorthand way of being a lawyer - a couple of looks in lawyerish surroundings, and then putting on his suit. They began to develop the script together and over the years worked with several writers in an attempt to fully realise the initial brilliant idea. Writer Don Watson joined the team around four years before production began.

Frank Whitten as the Primate: Frank Whitten died in 2011, and has a reasonably detailed wiki listing here. He can also be found at NZOnScreen here. According to Joffe, the opening sequence was filmed at Bermagui, where coincidentally he used to go for holidays for many years. After looking up and down Australia’s east coast, he felt it was a perfect setting for the film.

The Man Who Sued God has examples of:

From around the 42 minute mark, there’s another long cue linking a number of scenes, and Bridie notes that it took a lot of reworking, as often happens with cues given the job of running through and linking scenes. We searched up and down the coast to find something closer to Sydney, but Bermagui is very distinctive so it was evident after about two weeks of pre-production that we would have to travel to get the feeling we needed,” Luigi says. According to Joffe, he and the cast spent two weeks in rehearsals, working up the script and ironing out any issues. The screenplay was always going to be difficult as I was determined to make a satire, and to combine it with an adult romantic comedy. I wanted to make an adult, intelligent film. So often films that aspire to intelligence get dumbed down in the development process, but I was uncompromising and my producer Ben Gannon was uncompromising. We wanted to make a film that we would want to see and not make excuses for,” says Joffe. THE MAN WHO SUED GOD is the first comedy Billy had acted in on film. Most comedians, he says, because they live a life of laughter also relish exploring the dark side of life.