Paul Kelly’s How to Make Gravy, a much-loved Australian song about a man in prison writing home to his brother at Christmas time, is to be adapted into a film.
Variety reported on Thursday that Warner Bros Australia, with Speech & Drama Pictures – run by Australian musician Megan Washington and screenwriter and director Nick Waterman – has acquired the exclusive international film rights to the song.
The 1996 epistolary ballad, released by Kelly in 1996, tells the story of Joe, a prisoner writing to his brother Dan about his instructions to look after his family at Christmas, and his worries that Dan and his wife might fall in love in his absence.
It remains to be seen if the film will be released on the 21st of December, the date mentioned in the song’s opening lyrics and informally celebrated in Australia as Gravy Day.
Michael Brooks, managing director of Warner Bros International Television Production Australia, told Variety that this gave the song “cult status” and that it was a “privilege … to unravel the mystery and meaning captured in Paul’s now iconic lyrics and bring this incredible story to screen.”
“Its characters are already beloved by so many who have imagined the story behind Joe’s letter themselves – there’s so much to be found in the space between what he must be feeling in prison at Christmas and what he writes in his letter to his brother,” Washington and Waterman said.
“This song holds a special place in our hearts. It’s an honour to be bringing it to life.”
Kelly has previously stated that he feels Joe has appeared in two of his other songs, saying, “I’ve got a feeling it’s the same guy”: the 1987 song To Her Door and 1994’s Love Never Runs on Time.
