The Empty Beach (1985) watch online HD

The movie failed at the box-office leading one person to comment that the picture should have been called "The Empty Cinema".

The film was made and released about two years after its source Cliff Hardy novel of the same name by Peter Corris had been first published in 1983.

Debut theatrical feature film directed by Chris Thomson.

Novelist Peter Corris wrote the first few drafts of the screenplay but was unsatisfied with the final script and the film though Corris did praise Bryan Brown's interpretation and characterization of his Cliff Hardy detective.

This is the only film adaptation of one of author Peter Corris' stories.

Debut produced screenplay of TV writer Keith Dewhurst.

Australian actor-comedian Paul Hogan has been touted to play Cliff Hardy.

During the early 1980s, Bryan Brown had previously been attached to play detective Cliff Hardy in Peter Corris's earlier 1981 Hardy novel, "White Meat", but the movie did not get made. Corris has said of this in 'The Newtown Review of Books': "The idea of a Hardy film came up quite early when only three of the books had been published. Director Stephen Wallace responded to my agent Rosemary Creswell's idea of filming the second book, 'White Meat'. Her office was in Glebe [in Sydney] and both Stephen and I lived nearby so we met there. I liked Stephen and had admired his feature films The Love Letters from Teralba Road (1977) and Stir (1980), both starring Bryan Brown. I wrote a script and we applied for development funding. I'm quoting from memory, but one of the assessors said something like, 'This is the nastiest script I've ever read'. The result: no funding. Stephen had, as directors must have, other irons in the fire and the plan lapsed".

"The Empty Beach" was Peter Corris' fourth Cliff Hardy novel. In total, there are around forty Cliff Hardy books.

Source novelist Peter Corris has said of this movie in 'The Newtown Review of Books': "Producers Tim Read and John Edwards bought an option with the same idea as Stephen Wallace - cast Bryan Brown as Cliff Hardy. It seemed a perfect fit. I was contracted to write a script with the producers having an opt-out clause if unsatisfied. I wrote a script which they deemed 'too soft'; I wrote another which they said was 'too hard'. 'Sandra Levy' was then brought in and we wrote a script together. John Edwards said, 'Peter, this is almost there!'. The next I heard, they'd exercised the clause and brought in a new scriptwriter. This was Keith Dewhurst who'd written scripts for the British TV series Task Force Police (1962). Good choice, I thought and went overseas, adopting the Hemingway philosophy - take the money and run. The film, in my view, was a mess, although critic David Stratton in his book 'The Avocado Plantation' differs. I believe the script missed the point of the book. Bryan Brown was good, perhaps too good. I heard later that some of the cast were so overawed by him they gave lame performances. The director, Chris Thomson, and Brown were said to have been at odds. The female lead, supposed to be whippet-thin and feisty, was so when cast but was pregnant by the time of shooting and wore enveloping garments".