Drift, from the appropriately named Morgan O’Neill and Ben Nott, treks back to the 1970s to explore some truly horrendous wigs and the wild west of surfing down under. This is where the sport evolved from hobby into an international industry. In the movie, Jimmy (Xavier Samuel) and Andy Kelly (Myles Pollard) struggle with family debt, the drug underground and societal backlash while opening up a surf shop out of their backyard.
Sam Worthington is the biggest name here with perhaps the worst wig of all, playing a wandering surf photographer that becomes friends with the brothers.
The trailer showcases a blend between a sports movie and an Aussie crime flick. Check it out for yourself:
Drift is set for an Australian release in 2013.
From the official synopsis:
Australia, 1970s. The Kelly brothers, Andy and Jimmy, have one great passion: riding big waves. As kids, their mother escaped from Sydney to Margaret River, a sleepy coastal town with some of the world’s most challenging and dangerous waves. For the next 12 years, the boys perfected their surfing skills, always searching for the perfect ride. Free-spirited Jimmy is a gifted surfer and innovator but he starts to slip toward a life of crime to help the family out of debt. Andy makes a big decision. Quitting a stable job, he bets on Jimmy’s surf inventions and his own business skills and launches a backyard surf gear business. They rethink board design, craft homemade wetsuits and sell their merchandise out of their van.
Encouraged by their new friends, traveling bohemian surf photographer and filmmaker JB (Sam Worthington) and his gorgeous Hawaiian surfer companion, Lani, who stirs the two brothers’ hearts, they start to seek ways to expand.
After they get mixed up with a local drug dealer, it looks like everything they built up, will be ruined…
Set in breathtaking locations and inspired by the true story of Australia’s legendary surfwear moguls, the film chronicles the rise of surf brands and the expansion of the laidback surf attitude as a global lifestyle. A story of passion and corruption, friendship and loyalty, deadly addictions and fractured relationships, DRIFT tells a tale of courage and the will to survive against all odds.