Well here’s something you don’t see every day.
A bunch of big name Aussies have really gone out on a limb with the creation of The Greatest Surf Movie in the Universe. Now that’s the title, to be clear. We’ll be the judge of how great it is.
A Garage production, the team that also brought us Corners of the Earth: Kamchatka, it’s a stop motion animation project… think Team America: World Police. In fact it’s a very similar vibe to the 2004 puppet comedy, with no coarse language spared.
So what is this movie, why has this been made and what else should people know? Let’s try and answer some of that.
The Greatest Surf Movie in the Universe – here’s the trailer
OK, so as mentioned above, a language warning on this one.
But here it is, if you’re game.
When’s The Greatest Surf Movie in the Universe being released?
There are limited screenings happening in May…
-May 3 | Home of the Arts, Gold Coast, 7:00pm (local time) | Tickets here
-May 4 | Byron Theatre, Byron Bay, 9:00pm AEST | Tickets here
This is a second screening, with the earlier one sold out. It seems like surfing and puppet comedy lands in a couple of Byron’s cultural hitting zones…
-May 22 | The Hayden Orpheum, Sydney, 7:00pm AEST | Tickets here
We will safely assume Garage has mapped out a wider release plan and as soon as it’s made public, we’ll update this story.
The cast for The Greatest Surf Movie in the Universe
Now if the trailer didn’t, this might get your attention.
It’s a pretty eye-popping lineup; Mick Fanning and Luke Hemsworth headline the project. Then there’s shredders like Mason Ho, Griffin Colapinto, Jack Freestone, Matt Wilkinson and freesurfing fave Craig Anderson. Plus commentators Joe Turpel (the voice of WSL events) and Ronnie Blakey – both voices you’ll definitely recognise – give the movie even more familiarity.
What’s The Greatest Surf Movie in the Universe about?
Set in 2033, the basic premise is that a group of guys are tasked with saving surfing, after a rather apocalyptic event that leads to surfing being wiped from the memory of the entire human race.
A key part of the plot is around a nasty vaccine side effect. Is it too soon to be joking about that kinda thing? Probably. But hey, by now I think we all get the point that this thing is out to push a few boundaries.
Here is Garage’s official synopsis of the film:
10 years from now a virus more deadly and more contagious than anything we’ve ever seen decimates all the world’s living creatures. Facing a total extinction event, a brilliant geneticist named Dr Jonathan Figg discovers a miracle vaccine that is fast tracked into production, saving the final remnants of humanity. Unfortunately, there’s one terrible side effect-the vaccine completely erases all memory of surfing from the human mind.
It’s a strange and abstract time as the World’s Best Surfers stumble blindly into new lives and careers oblivious to the incredible talents they once possessed.
Sensing the total extinction of wave riding, the surf God, Huey, makes a last-ditch effort to save surfing. He scours the globe until, high on a mountain top in Tibet, he finds the one man capable of bringing surfing back from the dead.
With his memory reinstated by Huey, it’s now up to the three Time World Champion Surfer Mick Fanning to recruit a team of the world’s best surfers (including Mason Ho, Griffin Colapinto, Jack Freestone, Craig Anderson and Matt Wilkinson) and restore the glory of surfing back into public consciousness. There’s only one way to do it and that’s to make… THE GREATEST SURF MOVIE IN THE UNIVERSE
What’s the reaction been?
The Greatest Surf Movie in the Universe is certainly not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Give it a few weeks and we’ll know what people that attended the screenings are thinking.
Some of the comments on YouTube pretty nicely sum up what us here at Only Sports are thinking, though. Here are our favourites:
- ‘Looks kinda whack’
- ‘Team America meets surfing’
- ‘I couldn’t watch this dribble’
- ‘Looks ridiculous I love it’
- ’12-year-old boys everywhere are going to love this’
What is Mick Fanning up to these days?
Given his involvement with this pretty different and super intriguing film project The Greatest Surf Movie in the Universe, many are probably thinking ‘how much time does this guy have on his hands right now?’ Or at least, you might be wondering what other side hustles he’s got going on. Fair question.
The three-time Men’s World Tour Champion (2007, 2009 and 2013) has broken retirement multiple times in the years since stepping down from the WSL Tour full time, including competing as a wildcard at Bells in 2022.
It was previously revealed that the 41-year-old, who’s also won the Bells Rip Curl Pro four times (2001, 2012, 2014 and 2015), is not struggling for a buck. He has a number of irons in the fire, business stakes and an extensive real estate portfolio, plus of course had an ownership in craft brewer Balter. Carlton United Breweries bought that out for an eye-watering sum; ‘somewhere between $150 million and $200 million’ is the reported estimation.
And more recently, he’s also been filmed scooping up some of the waves of the year with Mikey Wright at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast. So he’s still definitely doing plenty of what he does best.
