Robbery Under Arms (1985 film)

Robbery Under Arms is a 1985 Australian Western action adventure film starring Sam Neill as bushranger Captain Starlight. Joined by bush larrikin, Ben Marston (Ed Devereaux), and Ben's two adventure-hungry sons (Steven Vidler and Christopher Cummins), Starlight leads his gang of wild colonial boys in search of riches, romance – and other men's cattle.
There were two versions shot simultaneously – a feature film and a TV mini series. They were based on the 1888 novel of the same name by Rolf Boldrewood.
Production.
Jock Blair first had the idea to remake the story in 1981 when he was working at the South Australian Film Corporation. It was originally envisioned that it would be a mini series but it was budgeted at a million dollars an hour which was felt to be too expensive. So it was decided to make a film as well at the same time, based on separate scripts.
There were two writers and two directors. Writing the script took two years.
The film was shot partly on location in the Flinders Rangers and at the SAFC studios in Adelaide. The two directors collaborated well together, and Ken Hannam was relieved to work with the SAFC again after the difficulties on "Sunday Too Far Away".
Production took 20 weeks.
Box office.
"Robbery Under Arms" grossed $226,648 at the box office in Australia.