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The Sun Hearld

 Known as Mr Rent-A-Kill, Christopher Dale Flannery is about to re-enter a new era in Australia’s popular culture.

Flannery disappeared in 1985 accompanied by much lurid speculation played out in the newspapers and current affairs television programs of the day.

But, last week, the handsome hitman portrayed by actor Dustin Clare was back drinking with fellow colourful and equally departed criminals Alphonso Gangitano (Elan Zavelsky) and Brian Kane (Tim McCunn) at the Alexandria Hotel in Sydney.

It can only mean one thing: the next Underbelly television series is back in full production for screening next year.

Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities is widening its focus from Melbourne and will explore the criminal machinations of Sydney.

Alexandria Hotel publican Darren (Harry) McAsey, a former Sydney Swans player, said the history of the hotel gave filming an air of authenticity.

“When I first came here six years ago the pub used to be pretty rough. You could get anything here – except peace,” he said.

“However, the area has undergone a massive makeover and the advent of the Australian Technology Park has seen a massive shift in clientele.”

Ironically, the untouched internal fitout of the pub is being used to portray a Collingwood hotel of the 1980s, complete with Magpies’ supporters paraphernalia.

“Some friends have been giving me some stick about the Collingwood stuff, but that’s OK. I would like to have them filming here every day,” Mr McAsey said.

“Its a great reminder of my youth in Melbourne. I went to school and played footy and went to school with Mark Moran [one of the criminals portrayed in the first Underbelly series].”

Clare said he was aware that portraying Flannery could revive ill feeling in Sydney and beyond.

Flannery survived an attempt on his life in January 1985 but vanished in May that year after telling his wife Kathleen he was going to visit underworld boss George Freeman.

A $1 million inquest found in June 1997 that Flannery died most likely at the hand of someone he trusted.

Coroner Greg Glass said disgraced detective Roger Rogerson was involved in the death or knew who killed him but there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.

Channel Nine is coy about the involvement of Flannery’s wife and other criminals and their loved ones in the series, hoping to avoid legal challenges that originally stopped Underbelly from being screened in Victoria.

One thing the station is encouraging is speculation that the gangland drama will feature more nudity and sexual references than the first series.

Asked about any nervousness getting his kit off before the cameras, Clare drolly paused before replying.

“Well, I came straight from the filming of Satisfaction where I was playing a gigolo, so I should be all right.”

At A wedding this year, a friend’s actor beau mentioned he had scored a role in Foxtel’s set-in-a-brothel drama Satisfaction. Once I had got over that I would almost certainly end up seeing him in the nuddy doing very naughty things with someone who wasn’t my friend (I know he’s an actor, but I’m not, so it won’t make future dinner parties any less weird), I launched into a champagne-fuelled tirade about how Satisfaction was a waste of money and a perfectly good cast, and if they’d spent more time on character development and less on ridiculously elaborate shagging scenes, it would be a much better show.

Perhaps there was a scriptwriter hovering close by, or perhaps my views were widely shared, because series two features a lot less sex.

If you missed series one of Satisfaction, it went a lot like this:

Bonk, bonk, bonk, “What do you do?” bonk, bonk, “I’m a sex worker!” bonk, bonk, bonk, “I’m a lesbian!” bonk, bonk, “I want a divorce!” bonk, “I’m pregnant!” bonk, bonk — you get the picture.

That would be perfectly fine if I was a 16-old-boy at home watching Foxtel (I initially thought it was a joke when I saw that the production company is called Lone Hand Productions), but I need more! I need storylines! I need characters to love! I need a weird-looking-yet-cute-guy-who-never-gets-the-girl-but-gets-all-the-good-lines to obsess over and make my screensaver! (Although I concede it should be a lot easier to get the girl in this show.)

When I first heard that Satisfaction was going into production, I was excited. “Great!” I thought. “A show with lots of roles for local actresses that doesn’t involve them mustering in a full face of make-up or wearing a wig, holding a suitcase and standing next to Andrew O’Keefe. This is gonna be the next Prisoner!”

But despite the talented cast, it hasn’t delivered. The Satisfaction characters in both series are one-dimensional, unlikeable, and I just don’t care about them. Bea, Lizzie and even pathetic little Dor would have had the heads of this bunch under the industrial ironing machine the minute they stepped through the doors of the Wentworth Detention Centre.

And on the odd occasion that I do become involved in a character’s storyline, the writers offer up something so ridiculous that I start yelling at the television all over again. I put it to you that as unfolded on a recent episode, on “losing” a condom after an encounter with a young man, a prostitute would be unlikely to climax while it was being retrieved in the emergency room for three reasons: (1) A duck-bill speculum is not a sexy object; (2) The doctor looks like her granddad; and (3) She’s losing money the whole time she’s on the table.

And it’s not just the female characters who are uninteresting. The blokes cop it too. I may have been the instigator of many an “all men are bastards” rant in my time, but even in my drunkest, darkest place, I’ve never made them out to be the scumbags that Satisfaction does. We have the violent “client” with a schoolgirl fetish, the ageing alcoholic artist who wants to sleep with his dead friend’s daughter, the rich barrister with three kids who likes to do sexy time on his wife’s appliances, and the guy who makes a girl neigh like a horse. And that’s just in the first two episodes of this second series.

On the positive side, series two finally presents some much-needed conflict between the main characters, a welcome change to the Brady Bunch-brothel feel of series one. Kestie Morassi’s character Natalie steps out of the periphery and engages in a power struggle with Mel (Madeleine West) over the ownership of 232 (the best little whorehouse in Melbourne), after the death of her father Nick (who was also Mel’s lover, though where she found the time to have one I do not know — I need a nap after just watching some of her exploits.)

And Bojana Novakovic (Tippi) is finally given a decent storyline befitting her talents, rather than being the brothel’s resident angelic airhead.

So, a slight improvement on the first series, but that’s not saying much, considering it’s got a brilliant cast and the kind of budget that would make any Australian independent filmmaker weep into the faded cushions of their brown, share-house couch.

And I hope it gets better, I really do, because I am not yet satisfied.

Satisfaction screens on Showcase.

After trying his luck in Hollywood, Dustin Clare is counting on a blossoming acting career back home with roles in McLeod’s Daughters and Satisfaction.

Dustin Clare is awe-struck by his recent good fortune.Whether it’s luck or fate, the actor, who wooed female fans of rural drama McLeod’s Daughters playing farmer Riley Ward, is in demand.

Having spent the past 12 months attempting to carve a career in Hollywood, Clare has found more success back home. It’s a nice paradox, considering he left here because of a lack of opportunity.

The actor is delving into the grim, murderous and bloodthirsty underworld as Christopher ‘‘Mr Rent-a-kill” Dale Flannery in the highly anticipated Underbelly prequel, Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities.

He also plays a hunky sex worker in TV series Satisfaction. Clare joins Alison Whyte, Peta Sergeant, Kestie Morassi, Diana Glenn, Bojana Novakovic and Jackie Weaver as Sean, the brother of Mel, the straight-shooting but vulnerable madam (Madeleine West) in Satisfaction.

Viewers were introduced to Sean when he stumbled upon Mel (West) having steamy sex in her apartment.

Most brothers would run away in embarrassment, but Sean took it all in his stride, with the siblings even joking later about him perving on her.

From the outset it cements their friendship and says plenty about the interesting take their parents had on relationships.

’’This is something Australia hasn’t really touched on before, especially on TV,” Clare says of Satisfaction.

‘‘These are high-class sex workers who need to make a living, but also have other lives. Sean is a fun and likable guy who is thrown in among the girls to shake things up. But let’s just say he’s not always completely aware of the consequences of his actions.”

West, who rose to prominence playing Dione Bliss in Neighbours, adds: ‘‘I think with sibling relationships you go either of two ways. You either live out of each other’s pockets or don’t speak. Mel and Sean know each other too well.”

Though 30 per cent of men have experienced a brothel or escorts, it’s female viewers who have connected most strongly with the characters and storylines of Satisfaction.

In the second series, the writers focus on peeling back the personal rather than the physical layers.

Heather (Sergeant), a lesbian escort, is reeling from a miscarriage and the breakdown of her relationship — and is doing ‘‘a terrible job of dealing with it”, Sergeant says.

‘‘She’s really not taking anything that seriously because she’s afraid if she thinks too much about it, all of this stuff is just going to come like a big tsunami,” Sergeant adds.

Signs Heather isn’t coping surface early in the series when a client asks her to make ‘‘house calls” while his wife and kids are away.

‘‘If married men come in (to the brothel) and take their wedding rings off, there’s an element of illusion that I think protects both the client and the worker,” Sergeant says.

‘‘Heather gets put into this position where that illusion gets shattered. I think because of what’s just happened to her, with her own loss, and the kind of things that she really wanted — which was a family and this long-term relationship and this child and a house — everything she’s lost gets too much for her.”

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source: .urbancinefile.com.au
10/7/2008

The directorial short film debut from writer/director/actor Dustin Clare, Cane Cutter, will have its world premiere at the prestigious Palm Springs International ShortFest in August. Dustin travelled previously to Palm Springs as the star of a Perth-shot short film Iron Bird, directed by Chris Richards-Scully.

The 8-minute film Cane Cutter was shot in the country town of Ballina on Super 8 by DOP Jim Lounsbury, produced by Dustin Clare and Clarke Richards for their production company Fighting Chance Films and stars Gillian Alexy (West, McLeods Daughters), Clarke Richards and Dustin Clare.

“Palm Springs International ShortFest is a wonderful festival, from the quality of films they select to the marketplace they run. You have the opportunity to meet producers and production companies and you can forge relationships with film makers and directors, which is what I was able to do last year. To be invited to screen there with my first film as writer/director is something I am really excited about,” said Dustin. Cane Cutter is a story of mateship, and the lengths one will go to, to protect it.

Dustin this week joins the cast of Satisfaction series two, now shooting in Melbourne and scheduled to air on showcase this summer, and is previously best known in Australia for his role as Riley Ward on McLeod’s Daughters.

TV Week Logie Award winner Dustin Clare has joined the cast of Satisfaction.

He will star alongside the ensemble of Diana Glenn, Kestie Morassi, Bojana Novakovic, Peta Sergeant, Madeleine West and Alison Whyte.

Clare will be introduced as a new character, Sean, the brother of Mel, played by Madeleine West.

Clare is best known for his role as Riley Ward on the long-running series McLeod’s Daughters and won the TV Week Logie Award in 2007 for Most Popular New Male Talent.

Since graduating from the WA Academy of Performing Arts in 2004, he has appeared in guest roles in All Saints and Headland and played the role of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in the ABC docu-drama Air Australia.

Clare starred in the 30-minute short film Iron Bird and recently wrote, directed and starred in the short film Cane Cutter, which will premiere at the Palm Springs International ShortFest Film Festival in August.

For the last 12 months he has been living in the US after being signed by a manager, and he returns to Australia to take up the role in Satisfaction.

Speaking about joining Satisfaction, Dustin says,” This is the kind of role that you don’t get many opportunities to play so I am very excited about it. Joining such an amazing cast is a fantastic opportunity for me to learn, and be part of something which takes risks and produces great results.”

Set in and around 232, an up-market city brothel, Satisfaction reveals the world of five high class escorts and their manager as they juggle the pressures of their private lives with their secret profession.

Unlike anything seen on Australian television, season one of the show received nominations for five ASTRA Awards including Most Popular Program, and three TV Week Logie Awards with Alison Whyte winning the Silver Logie Best Actress for her role as Lauren.