Welcome to Woop Woop

Welcome to Woop Woop is a 1997 Australian comedy film, directed by Stephan Elliott starring Johnathon Schaech and Rod Taylor. The film was based on the novel The Dead Heart by Douglas Kennedy. "Woop Woop" is an Australian colloquialism referring to a fictional location in the middle of nowhere.

Plot

Johnathon Schaech stars as Teddy, a New York bird smuggler who goes to Australia to replace a flock of escaped birds after a deal goes awry. While there he has a wild liaison with a quirky, sexually ravenous girl (Angie, played by Susie Porter) who after a brief courtship knocks him unconscious and kidnaps him. When he awakes he finds himself "married" to her (not legally) and stranded in Woop Woop, a desolate, dilapidated town hidden within a crater-like rock formation in Aboriginal territory. The residents are people who lived there at an asbestos mining camp before the land was handed over to the Aborigines; following a tragedy in 1979, Woop Woop was abandoned and literally "erased" from the Australian map. Not content with the deal given to them by the mining company (residence in Fremantle), they opted to return to their old lives in Woop Woop. At first they repopulated themselves incestuously, which caused wide mental instability. A rule was then enacted ("Rule #3") which bans residents from sleeping with their relatives. Since then, outsiders like Teddy have been occasionally kidnapped to keep Woop Woop populated.

Their only export is dog food made from slaughtered kangaroos. The town is run by Angie's father, Daddio (Rod Taylor), in an authoritarian manner that he disguises as communal (he and the other town elders keep the best luxuries for themselves in secret while doling out only the usual canned pineapple and sub-par tobacco to the others). The only entertainment available to the residents are old Rodgers & Hammerstein movies and soundtracks, the latter of which they play constantly. These are presumably left over from the town's last official contact with the civilised world.

After witnessing another kidnappee, 'Midget' the local hairdresser, get shot to death by Daddio during an attempted escape, Teddy soon realises he will be trapped in Woop Woop for life unless he finds a way out for himself. Initially, he repairs his VW van which had been vandalised by the locals, only to have it vandalised again by Daddio. The Australian Cattle Dog that he adopts is shot as part of 'Dog Day.' He befriends a couple of locals, including the scruffy, affable Duffy, and Krystal, Angie's sister, who help him to confront Daddio's iron-fisted reign, and to arrange an escape plan. Duffy, reprimanded by Daddio for breaking 'Rule #3,' nonetheless elects to stay in Woop Woop, while Teddy, Krystal, and Krystal's pet cockatoo escape.

In the epilogue of the film, the 'twins' that Angie told Teddy she was pregnant with arrive at the New York petshop Krystal and Teddy have started. They are named Sonny and Cher, in accordance with Teddy's joking suggestion to Angie.

Cast

• Rosalie Breen (Woop Wooper)
• Chelsea Brown (Maud)
• Rouslan Churches (Woop Wooper)
• Rowan Churches (Woop Wooper)
• Bella Cooper (Leigh Ann)
• Kevin Copeland (Plato)
• Crookie the Pig (Himself)
• Tara Croucher (Woop Wooper)
• Con Demetriou (Darren)
• Ding (Projectionist)
• Arthur Dunn (Woop Wooper)
• Julie Dunn (Woop Wooper)
• Alan Finney (Barman)
• Pat Gibbs (Auntie Di)
• Aaron Godfrey (Woop Wooper)
• Patrick Gooch (Woop Wooper)
• Rachel Griffiths (Sylvia)
• David Hoey (Dirty Dean)
• Barry Humphries (Blind Wally)
• Bonnie Hunt (Woop Wooper)
• Christopher Hunt (Woop Wooper)
• Sue Hunt (Woop Wooper)
• Baden Jones (Leon)
• Maggie Kirkpatrick (Ginger)
• Rory Laidlaw (Woop Wooper)
• Tina Louise (Bella)
• Paul Michael Mercurio (Midget)
• Richard Moir (Reggie)
• Cale Morgan (Damien)
• Kurt Murray (Woop Wooper)
• Rosalie Nethercott Cast (Woop Wooper)
• Aden Oakley (Woop Wooper)
• Rob Oakley (Woop Wooper)
• Sarah Osmo (Laverne)
• Bob Oxenbould (Moose)
• Jan Oxenbould (Big Pat)
• Cecily Palmer (Woop Wooper)
• Bindi Paxton (Cher)
• Shane Paxton (Sonny)
• Amber Rose Poduti (Woop Wooper)
• Jessica Poduti (Woop Wooper)
• Susie Porter (Angie)
• Poduti Ricki (Woop Wooper)
• Daniel Rigney (Small Kenny)
• Johnathon Schaech (Teddy)
• Dee Smart (Krystal)
• Lecki Taylor Smith (Woop Wooper)
• Breanna Sonsie (Tina)
• Rod Taylor (Daddy-O)
• Chad Wakefield (Woop Wooper)
• Chris Wakefield (Woop Wooper)
• Gavin Wakefield (Woop Wooper)
• Adryn White (Herbie)
• Felix Williamson (Jerome)

Soundtrack

Cover of the Soundtrack to 'Welcome to Woop Woop'.

A soundtrack was released by Universal.

Track listing

1. Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps - Cake
2. There Is Nothin' Like A Dame - Reel Big Fish
3. Timebomb - Chumbawamba
4. I Can't Say No - Poe
5. Welcome To Your Life (Woop, Woop) - Boy George
6. I Got You Babe - Merril Bainbridge and Shaggy
7. Bali Ha'i - Moodswings and Neneh Cherry
8. Dog's Life - eels
9. You'll Never Walk Alone - Robin S.
10. Climb Every Mountain - Peggy Wood / Junior Vasquez

Reaction

Long awaited as the followup film to Elliot's earlier film release, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the uncompleted Welcome to Woop Woop was screened "out of competition" at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.^[1]

References

External links

• Welcome to Woop Woop at the Internet Movie Database
• Welcome to Woop Woop at MGM
• Welcome to Woop Woop at the National Film and Sound Archive

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