The Business
For his first film, Garth Davis embraced the odyssey of 'Lion'
Filmmaker Garth Davis spent years making commercials in Australia before co-directing Top of the Lake with Jane Campion. For his feature film debut, Lion, he's taken on the true story of a boy in India who accidentally gets separated from his family and ends up in Tasmania. He tells us how he came to be at the helm of the film and about casting a five-year old in India and teaching him English along the way.
Even before director Garth Davis had a finished script for the new film Lion -- based on the true story of a man who searches for his long lost family in India -- he heard from Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel, who really wanted to play the lead. But Davis needed to be convinced. He tells us about putting Patel and other actors through their paces, and about seeing thousands of Indian schoolchildren before finding the five-year old who would play the younger version of Patel's character.
Photo: Director Garth Davis on the set of Lion. (Mark Rogers)