Where was wog boy 1 filmed?

Returning to Australia, where the pandemic was seemingly under better control, the former stand-up followed through with his directorial ambitions with Wog Boys Forever, the latest chapter in the popular Nick Giannopoulos headlined franchise.

Wog Boys Forever closes off the unofficial Wog Boy trilogy, preceded by 2000’s The Wog Boy and 2010’s The Kings of Mykonos, with Lotito’s effective ability of tapping the series’ Aus-centric nostalgia – having spent several years as an honorary Wog Boy himself, appearing in various stage productions of the Wog-verse – bringing a fresh but familiar adventure starring the film’s slacker protagonists Steve Karamitsis (Giannopoulos) and Frank (Vince Colosimo).

You’ve been vocal about the disappointment you felt with the way Growing Up Smith was handled and distributed after its initial success at film festivals. Did the experience taint your ambitions as a filmmaker?

“We opened the Montreal World Film Festival with Growing Up Smith. We did eight screenings simultaneously and had like two and a half thousand people watching the film at the same time. It was just such a huge buzz, but unfortunately the distributor shelved the film for a year. So things didn’t quite gel.

“But Nick Giannopoulos saw Growing Up Smith and really loved it. And gave me the job to direct Wog Boys Forever based off the screening he saw.”

You’ve worked with both Nick Giannopoulos and the Wog Boy franchise before, but as a stage actor. Was it strange to step behind the camera to direct, as opposed to interacting one-on-one with these characters?

“Yeah, I mean I started my career in this industry as an actor. Specifically, as a comic stage actor. I don’t like to use the word ‘wog’ comedy, I never really did ‘that’. But, my comedy was based on my upbringing as an Italian Australian, so it became tagged as ‘wog comedy’ or ‘ethnic comedy’. But really it was just me telling stories.

“I had become good friends with Vince Colosimo and in 2014, I was in the US producing another film. I got a call from Nick Giannopoulos offering me a job on the Wog Boy stage show back in 2015 because he had seen some of my work online. I had a four-month break, and so I went over and did the stage show with the guys, with Vince, Nick and Alex Dimitriades.

“To be honest, I had kind of steered away from that stuff at the time. I just felt like it wasn’t challenging for me anymore. And I really wanted to move into film and television.

“But the whole time we were rehearsing, I thought, ‘Is this stuff funny, are people actually going to come and watch this stuff?’ But we opened the show, and it was a huge hit.

“I think it’s that nostalgic thing because the show had been done before, the Wog Boys Live stage show and so that existing audience, that fanbase, would come and see the show and then the kids would come and see the show as well. This kind of new generation of audience.

“We played to sold out shows. We did Her Majesty’s Theatre [in Melbourne] and sold out every night and we did shows at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, which was a 2000-seater, and sold out every night. Then at the end of the tour, we were like, ‘We should keep on going?’ We could have kept on going for the whole year, but I had to go back to the States and do another film, so we couldn’t.

“But when Nick saw Growing Up Smith, he saw that I really wanted to direct features and kept me at the back of his mind. And true to his word, he offered me the gig. It was my first gig since the pandemic started.”

The pandemic was a true shitshow, not just for the film industry, but across the political and social spectrum of well. What kind of vibe was your end goal for this one?

“We shot during lockdown number four, so it was a bit of a challenge, but we got through it. We got the film done, and it’s what audiences will expect of the Wog Boy movies.

“It’s more in line with the first Wog Boy, so all the old characters come back and Nick’s character, Steve Karamitsis, is at the centre of it all. It’s 20 years later and I don’t know if you remember in the first movie – [Derryn] Hinch kind of made him [Nick] famous. He was the wog boy who was on the dole and all that sort of stuff… And in this one, Steve is a down and out kind of guy; he’s a taxi driver, lives in a garage… He’s kind of alone. He doesn’t have a girlfriend or wife or a family and without giving away too much, he reconnects with his old mate Frank, played by Vince Colosimo, and they get that Wog Boy spark back again.

“There is a bit of a political subplot, where it’s the Wog Boy against the system. And of course, he saves the day at the end, but it’s a lot of fun getting there. There’s some big characters and some new characters that come on board. Audiences are really going to lap it up.”

You mentioned Derryn Hinch making his famous cameo in the first Wog Boy film. With the franchise having such longevity in Aussie comedy culture, did you manage any notable cameos for this latest chapter?

“Yeah, Hinch is back. He does a new cameo. Then we have Seb Costello from A Current Affair playing a journalist as himself. And there’s a very popular group at the moment called Sooshi Mango made up of three guys, and they’re in this movie. What’s funny is, one of them plays an Italian mother and when the editor started putting the film together, he’s like, ‘It’s really good that you’re being inclusive in this film’, because he thought the guy was transgender and I said, ‘No, no he’s just playing a character’.”

Speaking of which, it’s been twelve years since The Kings of Mykonos. A lot has changed since then, especially with cancel culture and rise of Twitter trolls and accountable woke-ism having a real-world effect on the entertainment industry. Did you feel the need to be actively aware of how you approached certain topics, or themes in Wog Boys Forever?

“Yeah, look it was a tough one. Obviously, with cancel culture and this woke generation, it’s there, in the back of your mind. I did stand-up for a little while. I did a show a couple of years ago, a one-off stand-up show. I hadn’t been on stage for about six years prior to that and things had changed, and even then, I was kind of worried. ‘Should I say this? Should I say that? Is that going to really rub people up the wrong way?’ And so, you’re constantly in the back of your mind questioning whether this is kosher, if this is the right kind of way to do it, or say it? So yeah sure, to answer your question: Yeah.

“But just like back then, I think what Nick does best, is he knows his audience. He knows that a particular thing is going to get a laugh. Or this scenario, they’re going to get a kick out of. He’s not too worried about what other people are going to say or whether he’s going to get cancelled. Just as long as he is giving his audience what they want. So, I guess in retrospect there are things in the film that might rub people up the wrong way, but I also feel like audiences are going to get a real kick out of it.”

And should audiences keep their eyes open for a Frank Lotito cameo in Wog Boys Forever?

“No, no I’m not in the film at all. I was very close to doing a cameo. We shot during a period where not only was the pandemic on, but there was also a lot of productions reopening at the time. The Americans were doing shows, the Australians were doing shows and so crews were very hard to come by. We really struggled to find enough crew.

“We called in a few favours from friends of ours, a couple of whon happen to be actors. And we thought, ‘why don’t we just get these guys in the film as well? They can do a day here and a day there and do some of these smaller characters’. They work so hard – some of these guys have never done unit work before. This was just something that they really wanted to help out with and get involved in.

“So, that one cameo that I was going to do, I actually gave it to one of the unit guys that came in and he did a fantastic job. I thought it was really nice to kind of give back a little.”

Wog Boys Forever is in cinemas now.

“Ah, the serenity!”

The classic Australian film that’s as embedded in our culture as thongs, AFL and Big Things, the 1997 comedy was filmed over 11 days in and around Melbourne.

Lauded as one of the greatest Australian films ever made that deserves to go straight to the pool room, it focuses on the Kerrigan family and their home next to Melbourne airport. When the airport authorities want them to vacate to make room for a new runway, they tell him he’s dreamin’ – with some classic larrikin laughs along the way.

“I think we've got some hoon trouble...”

Arguably putting the Australian film industry, our cars, and Mel Gibson on the global entertainment map, Mad Max has become one of Australia’s most successful exports, going on to become an apocalyptic film franchise that has made over US$475 million worldwide.

The original Mad Max, where it all began, was filmed right here in Victoria, in the regional areas of Geelong, Little River and Clunes and Point Wilson, as well as in the coastal suburb of Seaford and the Melbourne metropolitan area.

“A life lived in fear is a life half-lived!”

From Australian director Baz Luhrmann (who recently filmed Elvis on the Gold Coast), came the black comedy Strictly Ballroom, catapulting actors like Sonia Kruger to instant fame.

Scenes for the film about an Aussie ballroom dancing competition were shot in St George’s Theatre in Yarraville, as well as what is now known as the AIA Centre in Richmond.

“Revenge… one stitch at a time.”

Starring British Oscar winner Kate Winslet with a convincing Australian accent, the film set in the 1950s Outback focuses on a woman who comes back home after years away to solve a mystery. Along the way, she brings her high couture skills to the community as she takes revenge on those who crossed her path.

The set for the fictional town was built on the Mount Rothwell Conservation and Research Reserve in the You Yangs Regional Park, roughly 50 kilometres southwest of Melbourne.

“Let the wild rumpus start!”

Based on the beloved book of the same name, Where the Wild Things Are focuses on a boy who escapes reality into a fantasy world of Wild Things.

The movie was primarily filmed at the Docklands Studios, Melbourne. Combining voice effects, animatronics, live-action and CGI, it also was merchandised into a video game, toys, a novel, skateboards and shoes.

Giannopoulos – joined by Sarah Roberts and comedian Sooshi Mango – leads the new film that sees Karamitsis still single and working as a taxi driver, two decades later. The film also features Liam Seymour and Annabel Marshall-Roth.

“I am so excited to finally release Wog Boys Forever. Especially after two long hard years,” Giannopoulos said on Facebook announcing the films premiere on 22 September at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre.

“My father passed away just before we started filming. This film is dedicated to him & to all of our parents & grandparents who came to this country to create a better life for us,” he added in a separate post, stressing the importance of this film.

A hero’s journey, albeit unconventional, Wog Boys Forever explores the dark night of the soul Karamitsis has to go through before coming back to his truth, that “Where there’s a Wog there’s always a way!”.

His sad and lonely life continues to pass him by until one day an old flame unexpectedly jumps into his cab. He quickly realises ex- girlfriend Cleo, might be the one that got away all those years ago.

Steve attempts to win her back but Cleo’s 18 year old son Michael thinks he’s a has-been loser, not to mention she already has a boyfriend, the notorious nightclub owner Goldi.

Despite these set backs, Karamitsis is still determined to win her over. But just when he thought life couldn’t get more complicated, Brianna Beagle-Thorpe, the Minister for Immigration, hatches out a plan with her brother Clayton to exact their revenge on the Wog Boy for destroying their late mother Raelene’s political career, 20 years earlier.

With the help of Frank, Karamitsis will once again be forced to fight the corrupt forces of evil and use all of his Greek-Aussie wit to try and outsmart her.

The film is strictly 15+ and will also screen in Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane.

When: World Premiere on, Thursday 22 September at 7pm, then 23-24 September at 4pm and 25 September at 3pm

Where: Melbourne Palais Theatre, Lower Esplanade, St Kilda, Vic

Production. The film features a Greek ethnic style house in Reservoir, Melbourne, that the production crew had witnessed for sale in a real estate advertisement. It was granted for use by the vendor before the new owners purchased it.

The Wog Boy is a 2000 Australian comedy film directed by Aleksi Vellis and starring Nick Giannopoulos, Vince Colosimo, Lucy Bell, Abi Tucker, Stephen Curry, Tony Nikolakopoulos and Derryn Hinch.[1][2][3]

At the ARIA Music Awards of 2000 the soundtrack was nominated for Best Original Soundtrack Album.[4] It is the first part of Giannopoulous's eponymous Wog Boys Trilogy (aka "The Blue Valiant Trilogy") preceding Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos, and the 2022 released final installment in the series, Wog Boys Forever.

Steve (Nick Giannopoulos) is a first-generation Greek Australian. Steve is unemployed, but manages to get by, helping out here and there. His pride and joy is his VF Valiant Pacer. Whilst helping out a compensation-oriented neighbour, Steve has a minor car accident involving the Minister for Employment, vampily played by Geraldine Turner. The net result of this encounter is twofold: Steve gets to meet Celia (Lucy Bell) whom he is instantly attracted to but who initially hates him, and Steve gets outed on national television by Derryn Hinch as the worst dole-bludger in Australia.

Steve manages to turn this around to his advantage, and becomes famous as The Wog Boy, spearheading a campaign to improve the employment status of the country. In the interim, he makes variable progress with Celia.

Steve (Nick Giannopoulos) is seen driving a dark blue 1969 VF Valiant hardtop during the movie, which was allegedly given to him by his father. During the film, it is said that the car's original engine was a 245-cubic-inch (4.0 L) 6-cylinder hemi, which was later replaced with an 8-cylinder engine.

The Australian Chrysler Valiant range of cars were often and sometimes still referred to as "Wog Chariots" or "The Greek Mercedes."

A soundtrack was released, composed by Cezary Skubiszewski. It featured the single "Breakin'... There's No Stoppin' Us" by Ilanda, which was used to promote the film.

The track "Get Tzatziki With It" was also in the film's promotional campaign, and is played in the actual movie itself. It was written by John Von Ahlen, Jaime Jimenez and Nick Giannopoulos[5] and recorded at Subterrane Recording Studio.

A sequel, Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos, began production in October 2009 with Nick Giannopoulos and Vince Colosimo returning in the cast. The sequel was released in Australia on 20 May 2010.[6]

In June 2021, a third film Wog Boys Forever was released in October 2022.

The Wog Boy grossed $11,449,799 at the box office in Australia.[7]