Steve Myers is the protagonist in the feisty, frighteningly relevant romantic comedy THE MAN WHO SUED GOD. The Man Who Sued God is a 2001 Australian comedy film starring Billy Connolly and Judy Davis, and directed by Mark Joffe. The film was a financial success, debuting at number one at the Australian box office in the week of its launch. When TV host Cressida arrives just after the 30 minute mark, Joffe confesses he took the name from a friend of his, Cressida Campbell (Billy swearing in the TV station corridor was an ad lib). According to Watson, Davis was very keen on the speech she delivers about the baleful media while walking down the TV station corridor with Connolly, and contributed to the content. The producers licensed the right to remake the film in Hindi for release in India. OMG – Oh My God!, based on the original premise of The Man Who Sued God, with an Indian story and a quite different plotline and altered climax, was released in 2012. OMG was a box office hit in India, and was critically acclaimed. [9]

Director Joffe says he asked Bridie to write the aria specifically for the film, but many mistook it for something they’d lifted from a classical composer.Unfortunately it is slightly too long and there are a few bits that could have been quite easily cut without harming the story. Neither Watson nor Bridie contribute much, and Joffe tries to keep them in the listener’s mind by praising either the writing or the music, but this gets tedious after a time. It might have been better for Joffe to do the commentary alone, as he drives most of the discussions and provides most of the observations, and prompts the other two to chip in every so often. on, a scene with Davis and Connolly seated on a headland: according to Jaffe, this was another difficult scene to do because of the weather. They were exposed to the elements, and being an important bonding scene, it took all day to shoot. The sound people suggested post-synching, but Joffe hates post-synch, in the belief that you never get the on the day performance again. Joffe thinks the grading helped even out the changing light, while most of the freshness of the performances were retained, with only a few lines post synched.

According to Joffe, the opening sequence was filmed at Bermagui, where coincidentally he used to go for holidays for many years. After looking up and down Australia’s east coast, he felt it was a perfect setting for the film. Australia Box Office". Box Office Mojo. 25–31 October 2001. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011 . Retrieved 29 November 2010.

The Man Who Sued God has examples of:

Together with Lantana, The Man Who Sued God was one of three big domestic box office winners in 2001. And there’s an interview with Mark Joffe, Billy Connolly and Ben Gannon on the SBS Movie Show here until the end of 2030, though they don’t say anything that can’t be heard in the DVD ‘making of.’ When around the 78 minute mark, Connolly’s character gets upset at his treatment by the media, he does so in a location which was near the Rivendell courtroom set.

According to Joffe, the sinking of the Titanic being treated as an act of God, mentioned by Connolly’s character in his questioning of John Howard’s insurance company man, was true. For those who missed the many shots of a “7” in the coverage, Joffe notes that the TV sequence was shot inside and out of the channel 7 studios in Sydney. (Seven newsreaders are also featured in the film). The best theology in The Man Who Sued God hinges around seeing God as the author of love. “How can I sue the God who led me to this woman? I can’t sue love.” If this is secular Australia’s take on God, it will do me! As Connolly emerges from Governor Phillip Tower, after his confrontation with John Howard’s insurance character, Joffe says they didn’t set out to explore Sydney as a city, but rather made it look like any other big city in the world. While it’s obviously Australia, they foregrounded a metropolitan look. Stand-up comic-turned-actor Billy Connolly has played Her Majesty's servant in " Mrs Brown", and a messenger from God in " Gabriel & Me". Now he's suing the man upstairs for zapping his fishing boat with a bolt of lightning in Aussie comedy "The Man Who Sued God".As I say there is at lease one totally shoddy scene and some unnecessary wandering that could have been fixed by a decent editor but still, if not a classic, still a genuinely funny film and well worth seeing. Among a number of plot points which creaked somewhat, I question Colin Friels' brother - ready to betray his brother for a promotion bribe one minute, and then taking up management of a class action against the briber/s the next. Frustrated that his claim is repeatedly declined, Steve files a claim against God, naming church officials as representatives of God and thereby the respondents. The church leaders, their respective lawyers and their insurance company get together to find a way to settle this dilemma, which catches the fancy of the media. Judy Davisas crusading journalist and eccentric Anna Redmond: Judy Davis’s wiki listing here is also detailed.