Hippie Hippie Shake

{{Infobox film

| name = Hippie Hippie Shake

| image = HippieHippieShakeOnSet.JPG

| caption =

| director = Beeban Kidron

| producer = {{ubl|Tim Bevan|Eric Fellner|Nicky Kentish Barnes}}

| based_on = {{Based on|Hippie Hippie Shake|Richard Neville}}

| screenplay = Lee Hall

| starring = {{Plainlist|

}}

| music = Dario Marianelli

| cinematography =

| editing =

| studio = {{ubl|Working Title Films|StudioCanal}}

| distributor = Universal Pictures

| runtime =

| country = {{ubl|United States|France|United Kingdom}}

| language = English

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Hippie Hippie Shake is an unreleased British drama film produced by Working Title Films. It is based on a memoir by Richard Neville, editor of the Australian satirical magazine Oz, and chronicles his relationship with girlfriend Louise Ferrier, the launch of the London edition of Oz amidst the 1960s counterculture, and the staff's trial for distributing an obscene issue. Hippie Hippie Shake stars Cillian Murphy as Richard Neville, with Sienna Miller as Louise.

British film production company Working Title began development of Hippie Hippie Shake in 1998, but the film was repeatedly delayed, changing directors and screenwriters. In September 2007, the film finally began principal photography. In 2011, Working Title said that the film would not be released in cinemas.{{Cite news|first=Garry |last=Maddox|first2= Steve|last2= Meacham|url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/hippies-tossed-aside-in-corporate-decision-20110213-1as55.html|title= Hippies tossed aside in corporate decision|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=14 February 2011|access-date=21 October 2012}}

Premise

Hippie Hippie Shake follows the love story of Oz editor Richard Neville and Louise Ferrier, as Neville and his cohorts launch the London edition of the radical magazine, and are put on trial for publishing an obscene issue. The film serves as a metaphorical journey through the 1960s in London.{{cite news | url=http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/newsArticle.php?newsID=186 | title=HIPPIE HIPPIE SHAKE STARTS PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY | publisher=Working Title Films | date=17 September 2007 | access-date=25 September 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071231221037/http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/newsArticle.php?newsID=186 | archive-date=31 December 2007 | url-status=dead}}

Cast

{{cast listing|

Cillian Murphy as Richard Neville
Sienna Miller as Louise Ferrier, Neville's girlfriend
Nina Liu as Jenny Kee
Emma Booth as Germaine Greer
Johnny Whitteridge as Max the flower painted hippy
Hugh Bonneville as John Mortimer QC{{cite web| url= http://www.hughbonneville.co.uk/past-hugh-bonnevilles-previous-projects/item/hippie-hippie-shake.html| title=Home - Past- Film - Hippie Hippie Shake| publisher= HughBonneville.co.uk | work= Official website| accessdate=3 February 2013| quote= Hugh plays John Mortimer QC, who defended two of the accused in court.}}
Margo Stilley as Cynthia Plaster Caster
Tom Goodman-Hill as David Frost
Matthew Beard as Charles
Max Minghella as Martin Sharp
Chris O'Dowd as Felix Dennis
Lewis Clay as Paul Rodgers
Genevieve Gaunt as Trudi
Leah Hinton-Fishlock as Hippie Chick
Peter Brooke as Jerry Rubin
David Anthony as Roger Daltrey
Sean Biggerstaff
Daniel Mays as David Widgery
Derek Jacobi
Arjun Pillai as Eddie

}}

Pre-production delays

In October 1998, British film production company Working Title Films announced the development of the film Hippie Hippie Shake, based on Hippie Hippie Shake: The Dreams, the Trips, the Trials, the Love-ins, the Screw Ups: The Sixties, a memoir by Oz magazine editor Richard Neville. Screenwriter Don Macpherson was hired to write the adapted screenplay for the film, which was slated to begin production in 1999, depending on Working Title's status following the breakup of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.{{cite news | author=Adam Dawtrey | url=https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117487888 | title=Working Title goes 'Hippie' | publisher=Variety | date=29 October 1998 | access-date=23 July 2023 }}

Production did not begin as anticipated.{{Why|date=October 2009}} Working Title restarted development in February 2002, with director Shekhar Kapur attached to direct based on a script by Tom Butterworth.{{cite news | author=Adam Dawtrey | url=https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117860187 | title=Working with tried and true | publisher=Variety | date=5 February 2002 | access-date=23 July 2023 }} Again, the project was delayed.

In May 2007, Working Title announced its third attempt to produce Hippie Hippie Shake, this time with director Beeban Kidron and screenwriter Lee Hall. The film, which would be distributed by Universal Pictures, was slated to begin production in the autumn of 2007.{{cite news | author=Michael Fleming |author2=Adam Dawtrey | url=https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117964175 | title='Hippie' grooves for Universal | publisher=Variety | date=2 May 2007 | access-date=23 July 2023 }}

Production

File:HippieHippieShakeOnSet.JPG]]

Following William Nicholson's involvement with the script, principal photography began on 17 September 2007. Writer Richard Neville acknowledged the long development history of the film, but considered the film appropriate for the contemporary state of affairs: "Given that the world is at war, it couldn't be better timing to highlight the crazy, fun and political times of the 1960s... I think the timing is pretty terrific. Enough time has gone by to perhaps look at that era in a new perspective and help us reflect on what's going on today," Neville said.{{cite news | author=Erin McWhirter | url=http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,23663,22437591-7485,00.html | title=Sienna makes 60s sizzle | work=The Daily Telegraph | date=18 September 2007 | accessdate=25 September 2007 | archive-date=31 December 2012 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20121231091731/http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,23663,22437591-7485,00.html | url-status=dead }}

Parts of the film were shot in the Hampstead district of London, and a house in South Hill Park was used as the exterior of Greer's home.{{cite web |url=http://www.sienna-miller.org/archives.php?subaction=showfull&id=1192559811&archive=1199167430&start_from=&ucat=2&|title=Sienna Miller Online - Welcome|website=Sienna-miller.org |access-date=31 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207072756/http://www.sienna-miller.org/archives.php?subaction=showfull&id=1192559811&archive=1199167430&start_from=&ucat=2&|archive-date=7 February 2009|url-status=dead}} Until his death, South Hill Park was the home of Anthony Minghella, the film director and father of Max Minghella. All Saint's Road was also used as a substitute for King's Road.

Release delays

In July 2009, "creative differences" led Beeban Kidron to quit during post-production; her husband, screenwriter Lee Hall, had left the production earlier.{{When|date=October 2009}} According to The Times, Kidron said: "I worked on the film for as long as I could and as hard as I could and then I had to walk away. It was very wounding."{{cite news | title=Hippie Hippie break-up as director walks | work=The Times | date=21 July 2009 | url=http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/celebrity/article6721082.ece | access-date=8 October 2009 | quote=Working Title insists that the film won’t go straight to DVD, with a smallish 100-print release scheduled for next February. | location=London | first=Adam | last=Sherwin | url-status=dead | archive-date=15 June 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615194824/http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/celebrity/article6721082.ece }} A 100-print release was scheduled for February 2010, but never happened.{{update after|2010|2|28}}

Reactions

The people depicted in the film have had a range of reactions to the film.

In July 2007, in a piece for The Guardian, feminist author Germaine Greer vehemently expressed her displeasure at being depicted, writing, "You used to have to die before assorted hacks started munching your remains and modelling a new version of you out of their own excreta." Greer refused to be involved with the film, just as she declined to read Neville's memoir before it was published (he had offered to change anything she found offensive). She did not want to meet with Emma Booth, who portrays her in the film, and concluded her article with her only advice for the actress: "Get an honest job."{{cite news | author=Germaine Greer | author-link=Germaine Greer |url=http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/07/hippie_hippie_shake_is_back_an.html | title=Hippie Hippie Shake is back, and the flesh-eating bacteria turn to me | work=The Guardian | date=16 July 2007 | access-date=27 September 2007 | location=London}} Booth had just told The Brisbane Times: "It's going to be a bit scary playing her. Germaine is this ballsy lady. I am sure she is going to hate me."{{cite news | author=Emily Dunn | url=http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2007/06/21/1182019268759.html | title=They were telling me how to have sex | work=Brisbane Times| date=23 June 2007 | access-date=27 September 2007 }}

In contrast to Greer, Louise Ferrier met with director Kidron to discuss the film at length, and expressed the opinion that Kidron was "certainly working to make it authentic." Ferrier said she was unfamiliar with the work of Sienna Miller, the actress portraying her.{{cite news | author=Barbara McMahon | url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2115950,00.html | title=Film to lay bare Greer's hippy days | work=The Guardian| date=1 July 2007 | accessdate=27 September 2007 | location=London}}

Publisher Felix Dennis was also more cooperative, and agreed to meet up with Chris O'Dowd, the actor who portrays him in the film. "He was an incredibly charismatic man", O'Dowd stated.{{cite web

|url = http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Chris+O%27Dowd%3A+The+IT+Man+From+The+IT+Crowd/

|title = Chris O'Dowd: The IT Man From The IT Crowd

|publisher = SuicideGirls.com

|date = 9 May 2009

|access-date = 11 May 2009

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120410210003/http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Chris%2BO%27Dowd%3A%2BThe%2BIT%2BMan%2BFrom%2BThe%2BIT%2BCrowd/

|archive-date = 10 April 2012}}

Test screening reviews

Several advance reviews of Hippie Hippie Shake have surfaced across the Internet. Ain't It Cool News interviewed a person who had attended a test screening, who said: "There are some predictable scenes, some hammy acting, some bad jokes, but they couldn't spoil my enjoyment. I'm sorry, but I really liked it." The viewer was especially impressed by Sienna Miller, saying, "And yes, there is full-frontal nudity from Sienna. She has a natural, un-made-up look for most of the film, one might even say uglified in places. But when kneeling in a garden drenched in daisies and with a beatific expression on her face, she poses for an 'alternative' Oz centrefold – she is stunningly, stunningly beautiful."{{cite web |date=24 November 2008 |author=Moriarty (Drew McWeeny) |url=https://www.aintitcool.com/node/39222 |title=We've Got A Test Screening Review of HIPPIE HIPPIE SHAKE!! |publisher=Aintitcool.com |access-date=2 February 2023 }} Jandy Stone from The Frame opined: "All the actors carry their parts well." Of the film, she concluded that "since there's no release date in sight yet, they may well improve it into quite a decent '60s biopic."{{Cite web |url=http://frame.the-frame.com/2009/09/21/hippie-hippie-shake-preview-screening/ |title=Hippie Hippie Shake (Preview screening) |website=The-Frame.com |access-date=21 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110627114217/http://frame.the-frame.com/2009/09/21/hippie-hippie-shake-preview-screening/ |archive-date=27 June 2011 |url-status=dead}}

Matt Robinson said: "Starring Cillian Murphy and Sienna Miller the film captures the time period effectively presenting both drama, sex and drugs against a setting of media scrutiny and restrictions." He wrote: "Colourful, funny and dramatic this is not only a good film it is educational too. A good document of history that many journalists and nonjournalists will enjoy."{{cite web|url=http://mattrobinsonjournalism.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/hippie-hippie-shake-the-verdict/ |title=Hippie Hippie Shake – Review | Matt-Robinson.co.uk |publisher=Mattrobinsonjournalism.wordpress.com |date=18 May 2009 |access-date=2 February 2013}}

Felix Dennis, quoted in The Times of 21 July 2009, wrote: "I was eventually, after asking several times, permitted to see a copy of the film, which I think is quite possibly the worst film to be made in the 21st century... an absolute stinker...a dog's breakfast."{{Cite news|title=Hippie Hippie break-up as director walks|work=The Times|page=15|first=Adam|last=Sherwin|date=21 July 2009|quote=But that'll be scant consolation for one of the film's characters, Oz alumnus and publisher Felix Dennis. "I was eventually, after asking several times, permitted to see a copy of the film, which I think is quite possibly the worst film to be made in the 21st century," he tells People, adding that he fears that the film will prove to be "an absolute stinker ... a dog's breakfast made of a terrific story".}}