Australian feature Ruby’s Choice, which was to begin production in late March in Brisbane, will recommence shooting in Sydney late July, starring international actress Jane Seymour (Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, Live and Let Die). After shooting closed in March, Sydney-based Director Michael Budd never gave up. During lockdown, and with an industry reeling from shutdowns, he continued negotiations and was able to secure Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Jane Seymour in the titular role. With a professed love of Australia, she has now arrived and will resume the filming on 29 July. The production will now be produced in Sydney to comply with all the COVID-19 rules on set. The film, which tells the story of a loving grandmother who suffers from dementia, will star Ms Seymour. Also joining the cast is AACTA and Logie Award-winning Australian actress Jacqueline McKenzie.

The film follows 16-year-old Tash as she recounts the days that changed her perception of life forever. She’s forced to share her home with her grandmother and vulgar cousin, while she listens to her parents constantly argue over money. Through Tash’s eyes, we see the humanity of dementia, the reality that there’s a person still in there with memories, emotions, and value.

Seymour was attracted to the script of Ruby’s Choice as it was a subject close to her heart. In 2014 she served as Executive Producer on Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, an award-winning documentary, which told the touching story of musician Glen Campbell’s farewell tour while dealing with the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. Seymour’s remarkable career has spanned five decades. In this time, she has found success on the big screen in films such as Somewhere in Time and Live and Let Die, on Broadway, she originated the role of Constanze in the Tony award-winning Amadeus and on television we knew her as Dr Quinn in the much-loved series Dr Quinn Medicine Woman. Seymour’s other television credits include The Scarlet Pimpernel, War and Remembrance, and East of Eden, for which she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in A Limited Series or Film Made for Television. More recently, she has made her return to television in the award-winning, The Kominsky Method, where she starred alongside Oscar winners Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin.

The cast also features talented young actress Coco Jack Gillies as Tash, Ruby’s granddaughter. Gillies’ impressive credits include Oddball, Mad Max: Fury Road, the animated feature Maya the Bee, and the 2014 award-winning television adaption of The Devil’s Playground, where she starred alongside Toni Collette and Jack Thompson. Jacqueline McKenzie has also joined the cast as Susan, who is known for her roles in current TV roles and films such as Pine Gap, Bloom, Halifax Retribution, Miss Fisher, and Crypt & Tears, Palm Beach, Romper Stomper, Don’t Tell, and The 4400. Ruby’s Choice will mark the fourth feature for director and producer, Michael Budd. Budd, who lost his own grandmother to dementia, has described this film as his toughest directorial challenge. The screenplay is penned by up and coming Brisbane writer Paul Mahoney.

Ruby’s Choice has been financed by Sir Owen Glenn through the Glenn Family Foundation. Glenn has pledged that 50% of the profits of the film will be donated to Dementia research.
“Dementia is a growing problem which gets very little attention from the community at large. It is treated as an embarrassing ailment and sufferers are isolated from family and friends,” Sir Owen Glenn commented. Michael Budd, the Director, says this is a moving story that tells the story of three generations of inspiring women.