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Roles - Prey - Articles - Galinsky finds his 'Prey' outback
Galinsky finds his 'Prey' outback
SiouxCityJournal, 25th May 2007
He's in the outback prepping a new film, but Central High graduate Robert Galinsky's mind easily returns nine time zones away, back to his Sioux City upbringing.
Galinsky is producing "Prey," which will be shot in his adopted nation, Australia, where he's lived since 1994. Galinsky is highly enthused about "Prey": "It's a supernatural horror film as opposed to a serial killer or slasher film, which is not our taste. It's a cross between 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'The Sixth Sense,' with a bit of 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' thrown in."
Galinsky now runs his own production company, Top Cat Films, with partner Elizabeth Howatt-Jackman. But nearly 40 years ago he first pursued filmmaking, back when borrowing his Dad's movie camera and running roughshod in the city.
Or, more precisely, "For fun I shot movies and took photos. I stole my Dad's 8mm movie camera and went mental with it."
A son of Milton "Bud" and Muriel Galinsky, who now split time between Sioux City and Florida in the winter after 65 years of marriage, Galinsky also has other relatives in town, including a son, Chris Galinsky and his wife. His other son, Steve Galinsky, lives in Australia. His brother, Andy Galinsky, is sole owner of the Sioux City Foundry family business.
Gushed Galinsky, "Growing up in Sioux City was the best. All winter long, you built snowmen and sled down Summit Street on a steep hill dodging cars. In spring on Valley Drive, where I grew up, the elm trees lined the entire street and we'd bicycle up to the Rose Garden at the bandshell and it was idyllic, a real Norman Rockwell-esque youth. Summer was spent eating snow cones and going to Riverside, which was the first experience I had with guys with tattoos and people who drank alcohol."
Lots of Galinsky's Sioux City recollections go back to an apparent lack of positive results in dating, with deprecating passages like "growing up short, chubby and Jewish did not instantly vault me into a sea of supermodels."
He recounted not even considering being in school plays at Central, but "I wrote for the school newspaper and took photos. I specialized in embarrassing photos of jocks and cheerleaders who were mean to me. In a way, I pioneered the paparazzi movement in Sioux City."
The 1971 Central High grad fondly recalled his mother taking him to movie matinees.
"Back then the Hollywood Theatre and Capital Theatre and Orpheum were the hat trick of movies. I would see at least one or two films a week, then go all day on Saturday to the action or horror pictures," Galinsky said.
A few years later, that 1968 initial 8mm film was shown to Central High friends.
"It was black and white and had a reel-to-reel soundtrack next to the projector you had to keep synching every few minutes. It was a massive buzz making it, and I think that's when I knew my calling, though I skirted the commitment for years," he recalled.
He worked in advertising for years, and in 1994 moved to Australia, which he had been infatuated with since a grade school assignment first steered him to Austria. Bored with the nation famous for "schnitzel, strudel and Hitler," Galinsky added the "al" into the nation's title and wrote about Australia instead.
A naturalized Australian citizen since June 2006, Galinsky comes back to Sioux City frequently. He was in the crowd for a 50th birthday present when comedian Jerry Seinfeld performed in the Orpheum in June 2003, and will be back for a Central High reunion in August, after wrapping "Prey."
Galinsky primarily considers himself a writer (he sold his first script in 1990), but with Top Cat Films he now has more control over his projects.
Galinsky said "Prey" will likely get lumped in with other Australia-originated films like "Saw" and "Saw 2," but said "we feel this is going to be the hottest, scariest supernatural film ever."
Three years in development, "Prey" involves six friends who embark on a four-wheel-drive adventure through the outback and become prey to a supernatural evil. A mythical entity harbored by a local indigenous habitant releases the creature out of revenge for the horrible death of his mother. The beast has a deadly effect on the males, but the women have to deal with something "far more insidious," Galinsky said.
"Prey" will be shot in western Australia in June and July with about a $3 million budget, and likely will be shown at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2008 before moving into theaters. There had been designs on filming at a sacred Aboriginal site, but Galinsky said, "things started getting really weird with permits and things, and we got a few strange and unsettling e-mails and letters without return addresses on them, so we're skirting that plan for a variety of reasons, one of the being respect."
He's pleased to have lined up George Miller to direct -- not the Miller of "Mad Max" fame, but the George T. Miller who directed "The Man From Snowy River (1982)," whom Galinsky called "Australia's most iconic and famous director." Miller wasn't going to be free to take on "Prey," but "by luck of the film gods," Galinsky said, became available when a TV series changed schedule.
"Prey" stars include Jesse Johnson, a son of actor Don Johnson, and Natalie Bassingthwaighte, who Galinsky termed an "uber hot young actress/musician from Australia." Another key player will be "Aussie Joe" Hachem, the Melbourne man who won the 2005 World Series of Poker. Plans to have Don Johnson made a cameo apparently aren't panning out.
One high-profile part of the film will be the appearance of the new H3 Hummer as the vehicle two characters drive into the desert. Galinsky wrangled the Hummer tie-in with General Motors.
"Personally, we feel that Hummers for each of the two producers would give them much better exposure, though (GM) remains unconvinced," he said.
Galinsky figures he's on a roll in Australia after arriving 13 years ago.
"We're actually planning on doing a 'thrillogy,' Miller's Thrillers, three horror films with him, with the second possibly lensing in Iowa or Oregon late this year if some things go our way," he said.
Of the possibility of shooting in Iowa in 2008, Galinsky said, "it'd be fun to do a feature there and come full circle from making 8mm movies as a kid."
