A controversial Indian honour killing, where a young couple who had eloped were beaten to death by their families, has inspired a new Australian thriller.

Director Bill Bennett, best known for The Nugget, In a Savage Land and Kiss or Kill, has made more than 20 visits to India to research and write Defiant since reading about the killings in the Times of India eight years ago.

After a long period of development with Toni Collette attached to play an Australian journalist drawn into the drama, he plans to shoot it in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan next year.

The thriller draws on the story of a young couple who were tracked down and murdered by their vengeful families.

Bennett says he knows that with an estimated 1000 honour killings taking place every year — often not reported to authorities — the film will be covering a contentious topic in India.

"It's less to do with honour and more to do with power and politics," he says. "So we're very conscious of the fact that we're going to have to be careful in making the film — where we shoot and who we get on site and so forth."

Bennett's American agent has described Defiant as Titanic meets Slumdog Millionaire.

"It's a class story but it's also a love story but ultimately it's a really pacy thriller," he says.

The story is told through the eyes of an Australian journalist who becomes emotionally involved and risks her life to try to save the couple.

When Bennett read about the real life case, he was stunned that the families, including brothers and uncles, went after the eloping couple.

"I immediately thought this is a modern Romeo and Juliet story because the girl was from a much wealthier family and the boy was just a village boy,' he says. "I thought there was the basis of a good film there."

But Bennett, who wil produce the film with Anupam Sharma, wanted to familiarise himself with Indian culture before writing Defiant.

"It's going to be taking a fairly critical look at the patriarchal nature of Indian society so it has to be factually correct and able to withstand scrutiny," he says.

The thriller adds to the Australian filmmaking interest in India that includes Sharma's UnIndian and Garth Davis' Lion.

"I think generally there's a lot of interest in India, not just in Australia but internationally," Bennett says. "It's certainly a country of extremes — extreme wealth and extreme poverty and extreme social customs.

"Wherever there's extremes, there's conflict. And whether there's conflict, there's drama. And it's exotic."

Filmmaking talks before awards

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts has announced three days of Meet the Nominees events to coincide with its awards next month.

In one of the highlights, Jocelyn Moorhouse from The Dressmaker, Jeremy Sims from Last Cab To Darwin and Neil Armfield from Holding The Man will talk at a directors session.

Other sessions, at the Australian Film Television and Radio School in Sydney, will feature cinematographers, sound teams, composers, editors, writers, production designers, documentary makers and producers.

The talks will take place on November 29 and 30 and December 8.

The AACTA Awards industry dinner will be on November 30 with the main awards, telecast on the Seven Network, on December 9.

Spectre lags behind Skyfall

Opening down on the previous instalment ... Daniel Craig in Spectre.

Despite a wave of hype — partly whipped up by gushing reviews from the hometown British media — Spectre has opened in Australian cinemas well down on Skyfall three years ago.

The latest James Bond movie dominated the box office on the weekend — responsible for more than two-thirds of all ticket sales — in taking a strong $11.3 million from 618 cinemas.

But Skyfall, Sam Mendes' previous Bond movie, took $1 million more in almost 40 fewer cinemas when tickets were cheaper three years ago.

The Australian comic drama The Dressmaker continued to do well — adding another $2 million to reach $11.6 million. It has become the fourth Australian film — a record number — to crack the $10 million mark this year.

It has also overtaken another Australian hit, Oddball, which has reached $10.7 million during an impressive nine weeks in cinemas.

Survival thriller wraps

After an under-the-radar shoot, filming finishes on the survival thriller Killing Ground this week.

The feature debut for writer-director Damien Power centres on a young couple whose camping trip turns into a violent ordeal when they stumble across a shocking crime.

The cast includes Aaron Pedersen, Ian Meadows, Harriet Dyer and Aaron Glenane.

Power is best known for the shorts Peekaboo, Boot, Bat Eyes and Hitchhiker. Mushroom Pictures plans a cinema release for the film, which has been shooting in Sydney, next year.

Festival of horror

Bianca Bradey in A Night of Horror Volume 1.

Zombies, demonic entities, cannibalism and, yes, the delights of self-surgery are among the attractions at A Night of Horror International Film Festival next week.

Opening night features A Night of Horror Volume 1, an anthology film that includes Enzo Tedeschi's Life Imitates, about a young woman who wakes up in a macabre art gallery, Bossi Baker's Hum, set in a woman's apartment where a mysterious humming keeps her awake at night, and Rebecca Thomson's I Am Undone, about a cosmetic surgeon who oversamples her products.

Tedeschi says the films range from "the hilariously macabre to the seriously dark and unsettling".

The festival runs at Sydney's Dendy Newtown from November 26 to December 6.

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