page_title: Blackrock (film)
section_title: Film adaptation
hierarchical_section_title: Blackrock (film) / Production / Film adaptation
caption_attribution_description: Stockton Ferry, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
context_page_description: Blackrock is a 1997 Australian teen drama thriller film produced by David Elfick and Catherine Knapman, directed by Steven Vidler with the screenplay by Nick Enright. Marking Vidler's directorial debut, the film was adapted from the play of the same name, also written by Enright, which was inspired by the murder of Leigh Leigh. The film stars Laurence Breuls, Simon Lyndon and Linda Cropper, and also features the first credited film performance of Heath Ledger. The film follows Jared, a young surfer who witnesses his friends raping a girl. When she is found murdered the next day, Jared is torn between revealing what he saw and protecting his friends.
  Leigh's family opposed the fictionalisation of her murder, though protests against the film were abandoned after it received financial backing from the New South Wales Film and Television Office. Blackrock was filmed over a period of two weeks at locations including Stockton, where Leigh was murdered, a decision that was opposed by local residents who said that memories of the murder were still fresh.
context_section_description: While the revisions to the play Blackrock were still being finalised, Enright started working with first-time director Steven Vidler to direct a film version, which would also be titled Blackrock. By December 1995, Vidler was working with Enright as an unofficial script editor, although they were having trouble finding financing for the film. Vidler said he considered directing the film Blackrock after having watched and been moved by the theatrical version, saying the play was  "absolutely what it was like [for him] growing up in the Western Suburbs ... It's about keeping bonded with your mates. Nothing else matters ... It's about the unbelievable lengths boys will go to keep those bonds solid." Leigh's mother Robyn campaigned to have production of the film halted, but her attempts failed after the film received government financial backing from the New South Wales Film and Television Office.
  Blackrock was filmed over a period of two weeks with a cast and crew of about 70. A call for extras received an enthusiastic response by many teenagers in the Newcastle area. Filming locations included Stockton, Maroubra Beach, Caves Beach, and NESCA House. Notable Stockton landmarks seen in the film include the Stockton Ferry and Stockton Bridge. 
  The community of Stockton opposed filming in the area, as memories of Leigh's murder were still fresh and the details of the script were "too close for comfort". When filmmakers arrived in Stockton in late August 1996, locations that had previously been reserved were suddenly no longer available. The local media treated them with hostility. Former Newcastle deputy mayor and Stockton resident Frank Rigby criticised the film during production, saying "I would just love it to go away and so would everybody else." Brian Joyce was also critical of the decision to film in the area, saying the filmmakers had to acknowledge the choice they had made in doing so. The situation was exacerbated by the filmmakers' denial that the film was specifically about Leigh, despite their choice of Stockton for filming. During production  in September 1996, Elfick told The Newcastle Herald that he was "getting a bit bored" of people mentioning Leigh's murder. While acknowledging that the comments were understandable, Elfick concluded, "Unfortunately, that event happens all over Australia. We wanted to take the events of that murder and many other murders". He was also quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald as saying, "The movie is bigger than the Leigh Leigh thing". Elfick hoped that people viewing the film would see it as a positive way of looking at the circumstances that led to Leigh's death, and that it would make people think and maybe stop something like that happening to someone in the future. Leigh's family were vehemently opposed to the film, saying that the filmmakers were "feasting on an unfortunate situation", insensitively trivialising and exploiting her death, and portraying her negatively while doing so. One of Leigh's aunts wrote to The Newcastle Herald later that month, saying "David Elfick doesn't seem to mind  free publicity even if it comes from the tragic and brutal assault, rape, and murder of a fourteen-year-old virgin, not as he called it: 'the Leigh Leigh thing which happens all over Australia.'" Enright said that while Leigh's murder served as the inspiration, the completed film is about the way a small town reacts when one of its own members murders another.
caption: The Stockton Ferry, one of several locations in Stockton used for filming[15]
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