"Hard hitting, funny and poignant, Bootmen is a dance movie with a difference"

Bootmen tells the story of two young brothers, Sean (Adam) and Mitchell, who are Newcastle steel workers. Although vastly different, they have two things in common - they've both been tap dancing since they were kids and they're both in love with the same girl, Linda. Mitchell is a true blue Newcastle boy with dreams of starting his own local business, but Sean is determined to move on and become a professional tapper.

The movie will also star:

• Sam Worthington
• Sophie Lee

The film was written and directed by Dein Perry and produced by Hilary Linstead.

For more information now you can check out our many links.

BOOTMEN NEWS
3/4/2001
Bootmen will get it's first and maybe only, UK cinema outing as part of The 7th London Australian Film Festival. It will be shown at 8.45pm on Thursday 12 April at the Barbican Centre, Silk St London EC2. Tickets are £6 and can be obtained in advance by calling 020 7638 8891 (between 9am and 8pm daily)
Thanks to Joanne for tipping us off on this one.

8/12/2000 Fox UK confirm that Bootmen is going straight to video and will not have a UK cinema release. Provisional timing for video rental is August 2001.

17/10/2000 AFI Award Nominations
Bootmen has received 8 nominations in the prestigeous Australian Film Institute 2000 Awards including a nomination for Best Film and a Best Actor Nomination for Sam Worthington. The other categories where Bootmen may pick up awards at the ceremony at Fox Studios on 18 Novemeber are:

• Editing
• Production Design
• Costume Design
• Sound
• Cinematography
• Original Musical Score.

8/10/2000 Sun Herald
The world may still be reeling about what all those checked shirts, torn jeans and Blunnies were about at the Olympics Opening Ceremony. Well, the world is about to find out for sure. The movie Bootmen opened in Melbourne this week, with stars Sam Worthington, Sophie Lee and Adam Garcia on hand for the gala. And are not the years being kind to Sophie? She has never looked better.

Bootmen is the all-tapping, all-industrial, full metallic story of the original Tap Dogs, brainchild of the movie's director Dein Perry, who developed the idea from hanging around the steelworks in his native Newcastle.

Apart from anything else, the American release of the flick is bound to make a new Aussie star of young Adam, already a heart-throb on the Melbourne club circuit.

10/2000 Entertainment Online
The buzz is already building stateside about Garcia, whose most recent flick was 'Coyote Ugly.' Like fellow Aussies HUGH JACKMAN ('X-Men') and HEATH LEDGER ('The Patriot'), Adam is a Down Under native who's making a major name for himself on screen. With 'Bootmen,' he gets a chance to showcase his tremendous dancing talents, as well as his charisma-packed star power.

'Bootmen' is loosely based on the life of first-time director DEIN PERRY, whose "Tap Dogs" stage show has won international acclaim. The blue-collar dance sequences bring to mind the high-pitched energy of "Stomp," and provide an exhilarating experience for viewers. Get your kicks from 'Bootmen,' marching into theaters beginning October 6.

Looking for a great dancer? Try a steel mill. At least, that's how it works in the movie world. The star of 'Flashdance' was a welder. 'The Full Monty' strip teasers were laid-off steel guys. And in the new release, 'Bootmen' (opening October 6), the lead hoofer not only toils in an iron works factory, he stages a dance benefit to keep it from closing down forever.

Fresh from his triumphant stage run in the London production of "Saturday Night Fever," and his slam-bang work in the opening ceremony at the Summer Olympics, ADAM GARCIA steams the screen as Sean Okden. He's a real "hottie" who toils in an Australian steel company alongside his brother Mitchell (SAM WORTHINGTON). But Sean's got bigger dreams for himself -- he wants to kick the dust of his small town off his tap shoes and score fame as a professional dancer.

Mitchell also yearns to escape the mill and start his own trucking business. Unfortunately, in pursuit of his goal, Mitch gets in with the wrong crowd. He also slips between the sheets with Sean's best girl Linda (SOPHIE LEE, KATE WINSLET's 'Holy Smoke' co-star), causing a painful rift between the bros that only gets worse when Linda turns up pregnant. Just when things couldn't look any bleaker, word comes down that the steel plant will be shutting its doors. In the small town of Newcastle, that's a major blow to the economy. Determined to fulfill his passion for performing and help his co-workers, Sean masterminds a dance concert that he'll hold within the steelworks' walls, utilizing the rugged machines and sounds of the factory as part of the show.

The movie's rip-roaring finale -- combining Garcia's sexy moves and the gritty backdrop of the steel company -- left Australian audiences cheering, and is sure to have the same effect on U.S. filmgoers

19/9/2000 Newcastle Herald
DANCER Adam Garcia hopes his Tap Dogs-inspired work-boot shuffle during Friday night's Olympic Games Opening Ceremony will be a boost for Bootmen when the movie opens next month in the US. `It's hard to conceive dancing in front of three billion people and even an audience of 100,000 is amazing,' Garcia said before Bootmen's Newcastle premiere on Sunday night. But the sparks from the grinders were a bit of a worry. `It stung because I was only wearing a singlet,' he laughed. Bankrolled by Rupert Murdoch's arthouse movie studio Fox Searchlight, Bootmen will also be boosted in the US by Garcia's rising status as an Aussie hunk to rival Heath Ledger and Hugh Jackman. He's already landed a role in a new Drew Barrymore comedy. Bootmen producer Hilary Linstead said Fox was hoping for another hit of Full Monty proportions. `If they make half what they made (from The Full Monty) they'll be delighted.'(Colette)

18/9/2000 Newcastle Herald
DEIN Perry reckons it would be a shame to erase the steelworks from the Newcastle skyline. The grit and grime of heavy industry provides a striking backdrop for the Tap Dogs creator's new movie, Bootmen, which had its home-town premiere last night. `It's a hard one but it would be nice to see it stay, or some of it,' Perry, who grew up in Charlestown, said yesterday. And not just because the former fitter and turner feels an attachment to his old workplace. `It's a whole movie set in there,' the first-time film director enthused.

Adam Garcia, one of the stars of Friday night's Olympic Games opening ceremony, leads the cast of Bootmen as a young tap-dancing steelworker who stages a concert to raise money for his retrenched workmates. Blending the heart and grit of The Full Monty with the fleet-footed exuberance of Strictly Ballroom, the $6million film opens with a spectacular aerial shot of the Sygna on Stockton Beach.

Garcia and co-stars Sophie Lee and Sam Worthington accompanied Perry to the premiere at Showcase City Cinemas. Lee, who grew up in Dudley, where her parents still live, said she expected Novocastrians to embrace the M-rated film. `I'm incredibly proud of the way Newcastle's come up in the film, it's beautiful,' she said.

Bootmen opens on 150 Australian screens on October 5, followed by a US release.