Overview
Forget Christmas carols — when the end of the year hits, one song stands above the rest in Australia. Maybe you just find yourself singing it as December 21 approaches. Perhaps you make an annual pilgrimage to see Paul Kelly play it, given he usually tours at that time of year for good reason. Or, you could celebrate gravy day by, well, making gravy. The recipe's right there, after all.
The song we're talking about: Kelly's Christmas classic 'How to Make Gravy', which was first released in 1996 on an EP of the same name. More than a quarter-century on, it's as intertwined with the festive season Down Under as prawns and street cricket — and it's being turned into a movie.
As first reported by Variety, How to Make Gravy will hit screens thanks to Warner Bros. Australia and Speech and Drama Pictures — the latter of which is run by musician Megan Washington and writer/director Nick Waterman — who've locked in the rights to make the song into a film. As anyone who knows the words by heart and is currently singing them right now while they're reading this is well aware, Kelly's tune tells a story, starting with a prisoner called Joe who writes to his brother Dan.
Presumably, Stella, Frank and Dolly will all also feature, and Rita, Roger, Mary and her new boyfriend. Junior Murvin will have to pop up on the soundtrack, of course. Also, the words "and give my love to Angus" better get uttered — or would it really be a How to Make Gravy movie?
It's far too early for announcements regarding casts and release dates, but you could probably put money on it hitting screens — big or small, whichever it heads to — on December 21. Whether that'll be this year or next also hasn't been revealed, but you're about to get a new gravy day tradition either way.
(And, given the character of Joe also pops up in other Kelly songs such as 'To Her Door' and 'Love Never Runs On Time', cross your fingers that we're about to get a PKCU — Paul Kelly cinematic universe — too.)
How to Make Gravy, the movie, doesn't yet have a release date — we'll update you when further details are announced.
Via Variety.