The Nostradamus Kid

Production

The project had been around for a number of years since David Puttnam suggested Bob Ellis turn his upbringing into a film and hired him to write it in 1979. Ellis:

It was quite an amazing experience, written against his impatience in 11 days in a shed that I rented two houses up, written out of memory and written with a great deal of anguish because I realised what a fool I'd been all my life and I was continuing to be the same kind of fool in the same kind of ways.

It was originally announced that it would be made in the early 1980s with Paul Cox as director, Patric Juillet and Jane Ballantyne as producer, and Robert Menzies and Sarah Walker in the lead roles. Later on John Duigan, Carl Schultz and Chris McGill were attached as directors. Phillip Adams, who was to produce with Puttnam, said "we couldn't raise the dough. It was obliterated during the 10BA rush because it wasn't expensive enough." Ellis then became a director and wanted to make it himself. He eventually succeeded in raising the money through the FFC.

Another actor was originally cast in the lead role but the FFC had reservations and suggested Ellis look further. He ended up casting Noah Taylor. "He was much less the sort of soft wimp that I'd assumed, and it was one of the happiest experiences I've ever had, working with him and those wonderful young actors," says Ellis.

The original cut was 148 minutes but Ellis got it down to 122 minutes. He then reduced it to under two hours, but thought losing those last two minutes hurt the film.

Box office

The Nostradamus Kid grossed $242,800 at the box office in Australia. Ellis:

It ended up opening in October when all the kids who might have otherwise gone to see it were studying for exams and so on. So it didn't quite break out. It was dogged at every turn by The Piano (1993), which I both detest and resent because it is a conscienceless piece of American betrayal of a story that wasn't very good in the first place.