ON WORKING IN AUSTRALIA: FRANK VON ZERNECK...PRODUCER. 

 Executive producer Frank von Zerneck, along with his partner Robert Sertner, heads the company, von Zerneck/Sertner Films which they formed in 1987. Together they have produced more than a hundred movies for television, working with all of the networks and all of the primary cable channels. Von Zerneck's career has spanned more than twenty five years and has also included producing Broadway plays and theatrical motion pictures, such as 'Living in Oblivion' and 'God's Lonely Man'. He has also been nominated for several Emmy and Golden Globe awards, is in the International Television Movie Awards Hall of Fame, and in 1995 was named the American Film Institute Producer of the Year. AUSUS Magazine spoke to von Zertner about working in Australia, 'Looking for Natalie Wood' and looking back on his career.

 Q: How many television movies have you made in Australia?

 I think about five. I've been producing movies there for over ten years. It started back in nineteen ninety two with 'Survive the Savage Sea', which starred Robert Ulrich and Ali McGraw. Most recently we filmed 'Looking for Natalie Wood' down in Sydney.

 Q: Tell me about 'Looking for Natalie Wood'?

 It's a mini series for ABC. What's interesting about it is that it's Hollywood in nineteen seventy. The picture was ordered in November. We do a lot in Canada but they needed it right away and Canada was white, it was frozen. So we decided to shoot in Sydney because it doubles very well for Los Angeles. Sydney was used for 'The Three Stooges' at ABC. When ABC heard we were considering Sydney they said '...oh great, fabulous. It looks just like California'. My director was Peter Bogdanovich who had never been there, I don't think. He had to be talked into it but once he got there he saw it was perfect. We were based at the Fox Studio and we interfaced with Village Roadshow. They do our below the line stuff. They're great. Every picture I've done down there I've done with them. It was a forty day shoot and we did the post back here because ABC wanted to stay very involved.

 Q: Why have you shot so many productions there?

 Well there's many reasons for that. The main one is the cost factor. The American dollar is so strong compared to the Australian dollar. If I have a million American dollars I can buy a lot more for my dollar down there. I get almost two million dollars for it, though that is starting to change with the resurgence of the Australian dollar. It's also a lot cheaper for us to shoot in Canada, which we do a lot, but there's better weather in Australia. The crews down there are also very good. They seem to have a different work ethic than the American crews. They have a 'no worries' attitude. If something needs to be done they'll get it done. You don't have the same problems with the unions that you do in the U.S. Here everything is very departmentalized. Each job has a different title and can only be done by the person with that title. I also love working with the Australian cinematographer's. I've worked with some great ones. Nino Martinetti, who is originally from Italy, and has that unusual Italian - American accent. John Stokes on 'Looking for Natalie Wood'. Also, Sydney looks a lot like California. North of Bondi looks like Malibu, for example, so if it's also cheaper, it makes sense to shoot there.

 Q: Is there a law regarding the use of American versus Australian actors?

 No there's no law about this. I can use as many or as few Australians as I like. I could use all American actors if I wish but there's no point to this. There's a huge talent pool of actors in Australia. For the Natalie Wood project we only brought over a few actors from the U.S. The rest of the actors were found by our casting director, Ann Fay at Maura Fay casting, who we were really happy with. Even though it is still called Maura Fay Casting it is now headed up by her sister, Ann Fay. Maura passed away about a year and a half ago. Ann is terrific and knows every actor in Australia and New Zealand. She has a very efficient operation with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast. I like the actors down there because they seem to have good training. And a lot of them continue to do theater. I've worked with a lot of good Australian actors, such as Rachel Griffiths.

Q: Do you get very involved in the casting process?

Yes. Absolutely. We look at the actors the casting director has picked for us. Some of the actors we saw had originally auditioned in Melbourne and Queensland and if we liked them, then we saw them in Sydney. Q: Which projects have you made that you are particularly proud of? I'm proud of many of our productions. 'Crazy Horse',which aired on TNT, was a good production. That was Ted Turner's native American series. It was written by Robert Schenkkan, a Pulitzer Prize winner. 'The West Side Waltz' with academy award winners Shirley MacLaine, Kathy Bates and Liza Minnelli was also good. Then there was 'Tornado!' for Fox which, at the time, broke their previous ratings records, and 'The Other Woman' for CBS which starred Lloyd Bridges and won a Humanitas award. I've also produced a couple of interesting docu-dramas about the Olympics. 'Miracle on Ice' was about the victory of the US Olympic team at Lake Placid, and '21 Hours at Munich', which focused on the conflict between the Arabs and the Israeli's at the seventy two Olympics.

 Q: You've also produced a couple of low budget indie films?

 Yes. We produced 'Living in Oblivion' starring Steve Buscemi and directed by Tom DiCillo, and 'God's Lonely Man', written and directed by Frank von Zerneck, Jr. Both films were accepted in to the Sundance film festival.

 Q: Are there any specific authors you like to work with?

 Yes. Several. I really like Scott Turow. I've got a copy of his 'Reversible Errors' now. We've also worked with many other best selling authors. For example, Sidney Sheldon, Gore Vidal, Jackie Collins and Joyce Carol Oates. Q: What are you working on next? We're making a television movie of the Elizabeth Smart story. There was quite a bidding war over the rights to this story. We're about to go into production.

 Q: Any plans to go back to Australia to shoot?