The Great Plane Robbery movie Qantas tried to kill

“Call me Mister Brown,” the gentleman reported, as even though he was in a conference contact, not making a bomb risk. Qantas flight 755 from Sydney to Hong Kong was carrying an explosive, he warned. And it was established to detonate as the plane arrived in to land.

It is the bigger-than-daily life tale of Australia’s good plane theft — a single of the nation’s most brazen aviation heists, born out of greed and undone by sheer stupidity.

For a mere $five hundred,000, Peter Macari (aka Mr Brown) would lead authorities to its exact spot, sparing the life of all those on the flight.

He bought his cash and drove off in the only canary yellow Kombi van in the Southern Hemisphere. Turns out there was no bomb.

Macari was at some point caught soon after he went on a paying spree, buying prestige cars and a Bondi penthouse with the utilized $twenty payments.

Oscar-nominated director, Adelaide’s own Scott Hicks remembered the 1971 hoax, but it wasn’t until finally he found a book on the affair that he definitely realised the cinematic possible. He wrote the script, sourced funding and cast a stellar ensemble including Chris Haywood as Macari himself in Phone Me Mister Brown.

“The authentic tale for us began as soon as we commenced taking pictures,” Hicks tells the Sunday Mail in advance of the tale airing on Nine’s Australian Crime Stories this 7 days.

“We’d been extremely diligent in seeking to get Qantas to speak to us about any stability fears.

“They would not give us the time of day.”

Hicks pressed on. Qantas sent a delegation to Adelaide to “monster” then Leading John Bannon to quit the film. He refused, declaring his government wasn’t in the exercise of shutting down movies.

The Traveling Kangaroo even experimented with calling Hicks himself to inquire how a great deal it would value to get the rights to the film so they could burn off it.

“We reported ‘well, it value a little bit a lot more than a million dollars, so we’d require that for starters, and then we would require to make some cash on major of that’,” Hicks reported, incorporating with a chortle “I quickly imagined ‘Oh my God, we’ve come to be Mr Brown’.”

Qantas ultimately gained, putting the thumbscrews on the network declaring they’d pull all of their advertising and journey discounts.

The network experimented with to renege on its deal with Hicks, but ultimately settled on by no means airing the film.

And hold out, there is nonetheless a lot more.

Soon after flying back again house to Adelaide (on Qantas of training course), Hicks realised he left his taking pictures script and its intricate storyboard drawings in the seat pocket.

He named Adelaide Airport and was informed all the rubbish experienced been placed in a dumpster. Hicks jumped into that enormous skip stuffed with “hideous garbage” but could not find it.

To this day, he’s not confident if he basically could not locate it in the mess or if – befitting the tale’s twists and turns – Qantas maybe ruined the important document.

Considering that that day, Hicks puts his scripts in a big enormous, book that cannot be lost. .

Phone Me Mr Brown has been seen all more than the environment – even in Israel – but by no means in Australia.

Ironically, it was nominated for Greatest Telefeature at the 1982 AFI awards. “It was a authentic blow to me,” Hicks shares.

“It was many years worthy of of perform and it just disappeared.”

He’s hoping a single of the networks or streaming platforms might get it now.

“After all, it’s initially-operate Australian drama, soon after all,” Hicks says.

“And it’s very an attention-grabbing document especially taking into consideration what transpired to my occupation subsequently.

“It’s really the initially film I wrote and directed myself and it was very a saga.”

AUSTRALIAN Crime Stories, “THE Money OR THE BOMB”, WEDNESDAY, eight.40PM, 9.