Escalating competition in the documentary market and the resurgence of the environment as an issue are possibly behind the fatal attack of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.
Trained stingray platoons yesterday sent one of their short-tail own to silence Irwin as he was filming another one of his documentaries. The unidentified fish stabbed the owner and operator of Australia Zoo with its poisonous barb causing his heart to seize and ruin the loose story board of the documentary.
An ardent advocate and campaigner for animals and the environment, Irwin's fate to the freak accident left many office workers looking for words to express better the short range of quips following the news. Few were successful beyond "Crikey! What was that?" and "At least he died doing what he loved, getting stung by weird animals."
Fortunately, most of the encounter was captured on film and hopes are on the rise with chances for a teary snuff film to at least come out of the rough and final cut edition. One that will surely rival the box office of his MGM effort.
Rabid distributors - of late seeing much turnover in the fare of cinema goers lapping documentaries in theatres that don't smell of trench coats - might chance to seal a deal continuing the strong hand against the more art house fare.
Written on Tuesday, 5 September 2006