Legendary actor Jack Thompson reprises his role as a football coach three decades after The Club, in new film Blinder which explores our country's love affair with the greatest sport in the world.

Shot around Torquay, Victoria, the story follows an ex-footballer who, embracing the life lessons his coach once taught him, reignites an old flame after a long absence away from his home town.

The film also stars Josh Helman (Jack Reacher, Animal Kingdom, Mad Max: Fury Road), Oliver Ackland (The Slap, Cloudstreet), Rose McIver (The Lovely Bones), Anna Hutchison (Wild Boys, Cabin in the Woods), Zoe Carides (Death In Brunswick), Bob Morley (Home and Away) and Angus Sampson
(Insidious, Mad Max: Fury Road).

There's nothing more tightly-knit than a small town footy club. So when a scandal blows apart the Torquay Tigers, lives are thrown into chaos. After ten years away, one-time Torquay legend Tom Dunn (Ackland) returns to face his demons and pull the club back together. To reunite their team and rebuild their lives Tom and his mates will have to dig deep, face up to past mistakes and rekindle their love of football. After everything is done and dusted, it's not about giving your best, it's about doing your best.

Directed by Richard Gray (Summer Coda, Mine Games), written by Scott Didier and co-written by Richard and Michele Gray, the film is produced by the three as well as AFL greats Glenn Archer, Adrian Gleeson and Sam Kekovich. Producing credits also go to Virginia Kay and US based Chris Lemole and Mike Gillespie.

The original screenplay was written by businessman Scott Didier 14 years ago and has been in development ever since. Didier approached Richard Gray after seeing Summer Coda and sought his help to make the project a reality. Gray began working on the script with Didier in late 2010.

This is the third film for Richard Gray in as many years. And it's not going to stop there; Gray is currently shooting his next film, US made indie thriller The Lookalike. Written by Michele Gray, the film features an impressive line-up of actors including Justin Long, John Corbett, Luis Guzman, Jerry O'Connell, Gina Gershon and Gillian Jacobs.

Blinder will be released by new theatrical sales company The Backlot Studios, recently launched by Tony Ianiro and Mark D'angelo. Together they have over two decades of experience in the theatrical placement of films with Paramount and Roadshow. Big Dog Creative has also joined the team taking care of the marketing and advertising strategy and implementation throughout the entire 2013 campaign.

Richard Gray
Director/Producer

Richard is a graduate of The Victorian College of the Arts School of Film and Television (Australia). In the last four years, he has directed two feature films, two feature-length documentaries for FOX, a comedy series pilot for The Movie Network, an eight part reality/drama series for FOX, and has written three feature screenplays.

2010/11 saw the theatrical release of Richard's debut feature film Summer Coda (runner-up in Project Greenlight), starring Rachael Taylor (Transformers, Grey's Anatomy), Alex Dimitriades (Head on, The Slap), Susie Porter (Little Fish, Two Hands), and 2011 Academy Award nominee Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom). Summer Coda was selected for the Melbourne International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival and Seattle International Film Festival.

Richard's debut U.S. feature Mine Games, a supernatural thriller that he co-wrote, stars Joe Cross (Running With Scissors, Milk), Rafi Gavron (Breaking And Entering), and Briana Evigan (Step Up 2), and has just entered post-production. He is currently working on his forth feature, Lookalike in the U.S.

"I grew up holidaying with family on the Great Ocean Road and always dreamed of shooting a film there. We have locations from Torquay to Apollo Bay Ð and they're just stunning. I have a huge passion for football and can't wait to bring the action to the big screen, an emotional but uplifting story that a large audience can get behind."

Glenn Archer
Executive Producer

An AFL champion and legend. Robert Rose Award for Most Courageous Player six times in nine years between 1998 and 2006, the most of any player in the award's history. In recognition as one of the best players in the AFL, Archer achieved All-Australian selection three times and also represented Victoria in State of Origin.

Archer is one of the North Melbourne Football Club's greatest players, a dual-premiership and Norm Smith Medalist, he holds the games record for North Melbourne, and is a member of the North Melbourne Team of the Century. Glenn was bestowed the highest honour in North Melbourne history being named the "Shinboner of the Century".

"An Aussie Rules film has been a long time coming. Considering it's the most watched and most tribal sport in the country, Blinder will be a film that will capture the imagination of the footy world. There are millions of people that tune into the games every week, attend local footy and judge how their weekend was depending on the result of their team's match. BLINDER will encapsulate everything great about that game, insights into the life and times of footballers and hopefully inspire people."

Sam Kekovich
Executive Producer

Sam is a North Melbourne Kangaroos superstar and media personality.

He played 124 games for North Melbourne and was best and fairest winner and leading goal kicker. Sam was a superb player ahead of his time and was also included in North Melbourne's team of the Century.

His direct and flamboyant style has made him a hugely successful television and radio personality; having won many awards and is now a familiar Australian face. Sam often gives up his time for charitable organisations and is well known for his generosity.

"There's three things I'm passionate about: lamb, wine and football. Blinder is the latter and it's about time we had a film like this! It's un-Australian not to get onboard."

Scott Didier
Writer / Producer
CEO - Johns Lyng Group

Scott is a successful businessman with a sincere love of Australian Rules Football. Owner of several businesses in the construction industry operating in all Australian states. Scott's companies jointly turnover approximately 140 million per annum and employ up to 260 people.

As well as being a keen aviator and pilot, Scott is the founding chairman of the 'Starball'- having commenced in Sydney 1998, the ball raises in excess of $1m.

The idea for Blinder came after growing up in Melbourne and being involved in local footy, Scott moved to Sydney. He soon realised how lucky he'd been to play such a great sport and meet so many great people and forged lifelong friendships via the football club environment.

Scott wrote Blinder as a treatment between 1998-2000 mostly on Friday nights and while sitting around airport lounges. Blinder is based on a lot of true events and exposes the life lessons that young men and woman learn along the way. He then presented the concept to a couple of scriptwriters who worked with him to develop the script into a shooting script.

In 2010, Scott meet Richard Gray - a very logical and extremely talented Director and Filmmaker -
as well as Virginia Kay, a production manager. To help make the film a reality, Scott engaged some very good friends Adrian Gleeson, Glenn Archer and Sam Kekovich who became the Executive Producers. Blinder was filmed in Torquay and then later in Boston, USA in Feb/March 2010 with post production completed in Hollywood in the later part of the year. It's been a very long yet rewarding journey for Scott and his team, and they've gained a a lot respect and appreciaton for the filmmaking process and what it takes to bring a project such as Blinder to the big screen.

Virginia Kay
Producer

Virginia's is a producer from Melbourne, Australia, and now currently based between Melbourne and Los Angeles. Her feature work with director Richard Gray includes producer on New Orleans feature film, The Lookalike (currently in post-production), producer and production manager on Blinder, producer and production manager on her debut US feature film, Mine Games, and producer and production manager on Richard Gray's debut feature film Summer Coda.

In addition Virginia is also credited for her work as production man-ager on the horror/thriller feature Crawlspace (produced by Wolf Creek Films), production coordinator on The Cup (Dir. Simon Wincer), and line producer on Amiel Courtin-Wilson's, Hail (www.hailmovie. com). Virginia is currently based between Melbourne, Los Angeles and New Orleans.

Jack Thompson
Coach Chang

Legendary actor Jack Thompson reprises his role as a football coach three decades after The Club, in new film Blinder which explores our country's love affair with the greatest sport in the world.

An Australian icon whose acting career paralleled that nation's emergence into mainstream cinema, Jack Thompson first gained prominence as the star of the Aussie TV series Spyforce. He solidified his reputation during the 1970s with movies like Petersen (1974), Sunday Too Far Away (1975) and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) before giving an award-winning performance as the defence attorney in Bruce Beresford's Breaker Morant (1980), his first film to get wide exposure in the USA.

Jack has also worked with fellow Aussie Baz Luhrmann in Australia and Luhrmann's upcoming adaptation of The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Oliver Ackland
Tom Dunn

Recently, Oliver appeared as 'Toby Raven' in the highly acclaimed mini-series realisation of Tim Winton's Cloudstreet, directed by Matthew Saville, and as 'Rhys' in The Slap, adapted from the multi-award winning novel by Christos Tsiolkas.

Oliver has also featured in the comedy horror film, 100 Bloody Acres, directed by Colin and Cameron Cairnes, and the ABC telemovie, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.

Angus Sampson
Franky Tanner

Having collaborated with Spike Jonze on Where the Wild Things Are, featured in the AFI Award winning Film The King, TV series Wilfred and Thank God You're Here, to name a few, his experience in the industry is vast. Angus has an extensive body of creative work spanning film, theatre, television, photography, broadcasting, journalism and copywriting.

Angus has currently been working on Mad Max: Fury Road and the hit TV series Howzat! Kerry Packer's War.

Josh Helman
James "Morts" Mortimer

Since graduating from Brisbane's QUT in 2006, Josh Helman has worked on several feature films and plays in both Australia and in the US, where he currently resides. His Australian credits include Home and Away, McLeod's Daughters and Animal Kingdom. He also appeared as "Chuckler" Juergens in the HBO miniseries The Pacific. In the United States, he worked on stage in Play With The Penguin at 59E59 Theatre in New York City and in Small Engine Repair for Rogue Machine Theatre in Los Angeles, which ran for six months and won several Ovation Awards, including Best Ensemble.

He most recently appeared in Paramount Pictures' Jack Reacher and will next be seen in Mad Max: Fury Road for Warner Brothers, opposite Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. He currently lives in New York City.

Rose McIver
Sammy Walton

At 17, McIver got her big break, winning the starring role in post-apocalyptic fantasy series Maddigan's Quest followed by neighbours-at-war tale Rude Awakenings.

In 2009 McIver scored a role in Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold novel The Lovely Bones; she played Lindsey Salmon, sister of the girl around whom the story revolves.

Anna Hutchison
Lily Walton

Anna Hutchison is one of New Zealand's most widely recognised young actors and is already making an impact in both the Australian and US markets.

She is widely recognized in Australia for her co-lead role of 'Alison Dine' in the critically acclaimed and enormously successful 2009 TV series Underbelly - A Tale of Two Cities. Also in 2011, Anna appeared in a leading role in the Channel Nine telemovie Panic at Rock Island and she also filmed a lead series role for Seven Network's Wild Boys.

Anna recently starred alongside fellow Aussie Chris Hemsworth in the 2011 feature film Cabin in the Woods produced by Joss Whedon, director of 2012 mega hit The Avengers.

Zoe Carides
Ally Dunn

Zoe's talent and diversity as an actor has meant that she's easily traversed the film, television and theatre world

Some of her favourite stage roles have been Conchita in Anna in the Tropics for B Sharp Belvoir St (2007), Penelope in Grounds for Marriage for Takeaway Theatre (2006), Penelope in The Suitors for The Old Fitzroy (2006), and Zehra in David Williamson's Influence for the Sydney Theatre Company, which she won a Helpmann Award for in 2005. More recently, she was selected by Steven Soderbergh to be in his groundbreaking theatre piece for Sydney Theatre Company Tot Mom, followed by Chekov's The Seagull for Siren Theatre Co, and the black comedy Murderers for The Ensemble.

Numerous film and television roles include Dr Sonia Kapek in GP for the ABC, Liz Murray in Grass Roots for ABC, Lydia in My Husband, My Killer for Screentime, Sarah in All Saints for Channel 7, roles in Packed To The Rafters, Cops LAC and an acclaimed role in the Spielberg/Hanks-produced The Pacific.

Feature films include Death in Brunswick, Beware of Greeks Bearing Guns, Police Rescue - The Movie, The Black Balloon, and Brilliant Lies, for which she received an AFI nomination.

Bob Morley
Nick Reagan

Bob is best known for his role as Drew Curtis on the Australian drama series Home and Away.

After graduating from high school, Morley did half a year of geological engineering before deciding to get back into acting and pursue it as a professional career. He started a degree in Creative Arts at La Trobe University in Melbourne.

Prior to Home and Away, Morley had several roles on the stage Falling to Perfect, Tale From Vienna Woods, in short films The Couple and the feature film Road Train, until a part in the new Australian play Angels with Dirty Faces brought about a meeting with Home and Away's casting agents.

Bob has most recently featured in Sea Patrol and as Aidan Foster in Neighbours.