Article - Courier Mail - August 15, 2006

Australian Star is born
Des Partridge
August 15, 2006 12:00am

WILLIAM McInnes is rapidly winning acclaim as an author but it's his acting that made him Australian Star of the Year at the International Movie Convention.

Announced on the Gold Coast last night, McInnes earned the award on the popularity of his most recent films, Alister Grierson's Kokoda (in which he plays a battle-weary colonel), and Look Both Ways (as a cancer-stricken journalist) written and directed by his real-life wife, Sarah Watt.

Previous recipients include Hugh Jackman and Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Geoffrey Rush. The presentation, at the Royal Pines Resort, was a highlight of last night's themed Australia on Show event.

Held for the past three years by the Australian Film Commission, it's designed to showcase the next batch of Australian film releases for more than 500 movie exhibitors from Australia and New Zealand attending the annual four-day convention.

McInnes has been stomping the country to promote his second book, Cricket Kings, and arrived on the Gold Coast yesterday after literary duties in Byron Bay, Brisbane, Sydney and Tasmania in the past 10 days.

His reaction to the award? "It's always good to win, isn't it, even if it's a chook raffle.

"Seriously, it's great. Gee, I'll have to make certain I don't get any tickets on myself."
Later this year McInnes will be seen in the Australian drama Irresistible, appearing with Sam Neill, Susan Sarandon and Emily Blunt.

After duties at the Brisbane Writers Festival in September, he'll spend a month working on the first-feature film by Brisbane-based New Holland Pictures, The Unfinished Sky.

"I'm really excited by that," says McInnes, who will co-star with a Dutch actress, Monic Hendrickx in the film to be made around Beaudesert by writer-director Peter Duncan (Children of the Revolution).

Brisbane producers Mark and Cathy Overett describe The Unfinished Sky as "a powerful love story with a thriller twist".

McInnes, who came to national prominence in the TV series SeaChange says there was no contest between acting and writing. He enjoyed them both.

He wrote Cricket Kings, his second book after his first, A Man's Got To Have a Hobby sold 40,000 copies, on his portable computer each morning while rehearsing a play in Melbourne.

"I have to use the laptop because I can't read my own writing," he says.

The ex-Queenslander, whose mother, Iris, still lives at Redcliffe where McInnes grew up, says he enjoys telling stories, and looks for films that also have strong stories.

After gaining some of the best reviews of his career for his work in his wife's film, he says Watt has "one or two things" in the pipeline that might see them collaborate again.

"It's all about the story.

"We have some great Australian directors such as Sarah, Rowan Woods, Rolf de Heer, Greg McLean, the 2.37 guy, (Murali K. Thalluri), who all recognise the story is the centre of a good film."