An Australian veteran is trying to bring one of the country\u2019s greatest military leaders to the big screen, with hopes of attracting a Hollywood director to an ambitious feature film about General Sir John Monash.<\/p>\n
The project, titled The General, follows Monash\u2019s rise through the World War I from citizen-soldier and engineer to commander of the Australian Corps, then the largest corps on the Western Front.<\/p>\n
It is being driven by retired army officer and industry executive Wayne Higgins, director of operations at the Monash Movie Production Company, alongside screenwriter Marc Furmie and other members of the project team.<\/p>\n
The aim is bold: turn Monash\u2019s life into a major international war epic, rather than a local period drama.<\/p>\n
Furmie, an Australian writer, director and producer based in Los Angeles, said the script was now in a strong enough position to be taken to major directors and financiers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to get a director on board, and a producer in the States with enough capital to fund it,\u201d he told news.com.au.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s dream target is Steven Spielberg, while Peter Jackson and Sam Mendes have also been discussed as examples of the calibre of filmmaker they believe the story deserves.<\/p>\n
There is no suggestion any of those directors are attached to the project yet.<\/p>\n
The team has also long imagined Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn as Monash, although no casting has been announced.<\/p>\n
Furmie said the attraction of Monash\u2019s story was not simply that he was a successful commander, but that he was an outsider who changed the way war was fought.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an underdog, and I feel very much like an underdog myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was continually underestimated by his superiors, especially in the British military. But all it takes is a couple of advocates to believe in you and push you through. That\u2019s what really got to my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who was Sir John Monash?<\/p>\n
Born in Melbourne in 1865, Monash was a civil engineer before becoming one of Australia\u2019s most celebrated military commanders.<\/p>\n
The Australian War Memorial describes him as one of the outstanding commanders of World War I. <\/p>\n
After Gallipoli and the Western Front, he took command of the Australian Corps in 1918 and led Australian forces through major victories including Hamel.<\/p>\n
Australian War Memorial historian Dr Thomas Rogers said Monash\u2019s place in Australian history was tied to his appointment on June 1, 1918 as commander of the Australian Corps.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason that\u2019s significant is because previously corps commanders had all been British,\u201d Dr Rogers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Monash is the first Australian to become a corps commander at that level. That\u2019s probably the headline reason why he\u2019s a significant Australian military figure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Battle of Hamel, fought on July 4, 1918, became famous for Monash\u2019s detailed planning and use of infantry, artillery, tanks and aircraft in co-ordinated action.<\/p>\n
Dr Rogers said Hamel was remembered as one of World War I\u2019s great examples of a successful \u201ccombined arms\u201d battle.<\/p>\n
He said Hamel brought infantry, tanks, artillery and air power together in a way that showed the future of modern warfare. <\/p>\n
\u201cMonash was the guy to actually put the plan together, to make sure that all worked together,\u201d Dr Rogers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was successful and, famously, he predicted that it would take 90 minutes to do, and it took 93. So you can see the quality of his planning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We go big\u2019<\/p>\n
For Furmie, that history is the centre of the film.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe heart of it is a man who valued human life in and amidst the chaos and horror of the First World War,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Furmie said the screenplay presents Monash as brilliant, rebellious and deeply human, rather than as a marble statue from Australian military history.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved that he was a rebel,\u201d Furmie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a guy going against the grain, swimming against the tide, facing not just the institutionalised way warfare was conducted at the time, but also being ethnically considered an outsider because he was Jewish.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of drama in Monash\u2019s story. You don\u2019t need to contrive anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Furmie said he worked closely with military advisers including retired Brigadier Michael Moon and Lieutenant Colonel Higgins to keep the detail as authentic as possible.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Furmie described the film as a serious war epic in the tradition of Lawrence of Arabia and Patton, but with Australian humour and cynicism running through it.<\/p>\n
The project has been in development since 2018, though it was paused for several years because of business restructuring and the disruption caused by the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Furmie said period war films were difficult to finance because of their scale, but he believed Monash\u2019s story should be pitched globally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see this as an Australian film in the sense of, \u2018we have to pitch it to Screen Australia and a bunch of Australian production companies\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to pitch it as a global story that just happens to be about an Australian. So we go big. We go for the major studios.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s Hollywood takeover<\/p>\n
The push to take Monash to the big screen comes at a time when Australian stars and stories are dominating the zeitgeist.<\/p>\n
Margot Robbie was the highest-paid actress on the planet in 2023 thanks to the phenomenon that was Barbie, and she followed it up this year with one of the most talked about films of 2026, Wuthering Heights, appearing alongside fellow Aussie Jacob Elordi.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Elordi also helped take Australia\u2019s war history to the wider world thanks to the 2025 smash hit TheNarrow Road to the Deep North, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. <\/p>\n
Associate Professor Karen Pearlman, who researches and teaches screen practice and production at Macquarie University, said Australian historical dramas had a long tradition on screen.<\/p>\n
She said whether Australian stories travelled internationally was often less about nationality alone and more about distribution, marketing, genre and star power.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor film, travelling internationally is mostly a function of distribution deals, marketing budgets and recognition of genre or stars,\u201d Associate Professor Pearlman said, adding that Monash had the makings of an international screen figure if the story was framed beyond Australia alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cMonash is an absolutely fascinating figure and there is no doubt his story has the dramatic and cultural weight to be significant to an international audience if the story is contextualised within struggles beyond Australia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Dr Rogers said Monash was a familiar name to many Australians, even if they did not necessarily understand why.<\/p>\n
He noted Monash\u2019s face appears on the $100 note, his name is carried by one of Australia\u2019s major universities, and statues of him stand in Canberra and Melbourne. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s a relatively well known name,\u201d he said, adding there was also an audience for World War I films, citing recent productions such as 1917, Before Dawn and All Quiet on the Western Front.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely an audience for a movie about Sir John Monash,\u201d Dr Rogers said.<\/p>\n
Furmie said what made The General different from previous depictions of Monash was its focus on the emotional cost of command.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one has dealt with the emotional cost of being an Australian general in war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is what will make this unique.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Monash Movie Production Company now hopes the screenplay can move from passion project to production.<\/p>\n
The budget, Furmie said, could be anywhere from $50 million to more than $100 million depending on the director and scale.<\/p>\n
More than a century after Monash helped lead Australian troops through the final year of World War I, those behind The General believe the time is right to tell his story.<\/p>\n
As Furmie put it: \u201cWe could have very easily lost the First World War if it weren\u2019t for men like Monash persevering and insisting on doing things a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Australian veteran is trying to bring one of the country\u2019s greatest military leaders to the big 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