‘Miss Fisher’ makes a move to the big screen
Actress Essie Davis is a bit coy when asked if her movie, “Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears,” will be the goodbye kiss to the hit streaming series “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries,” which ran for three seasons from 2012 to 2015. Set in snazzy Jazz Age Melbourne, Australia, “MFMM” — based on Kerry Greenwood’s set of novels — followed the sleuthing adventures and romantic dalliances of “lady detective” Phryne Fisher, played by Davis, for whom there hasn’t been a murder case invented that she couldn’t solve nor a man she couldn’t seduce.
Fans have been craving a fourth season, but with Davis’ increasingly busy schedule — she played Lady Crane in “Game of Thrones,” Queen Elizabeth in the Starz miniseries “The White Princess” and the mom in the cult horror film “The Babadook” — it didn’t look like it was going to happen. Then the streaming service AcornTV, which made the Australian series available in the U.S. though some PBS stations aired it as well, announced a ’60s-set sequel series with a different cast, “Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries,” which began airing last spring, and a bigscreen “Miss Fisher” movie with Davis, screening March 21 theatrically before starting to stream March 23 on AcornTV.
It’s not the desired fourth season, but it does offer fans a chance to dive
back into this world of Roaring ’20s crimes and Deco duplicity — not to mention catching up with the relationship between the fashion-forward Fisher and straitlaced police detective Jack Robinson, played with stoic panache by Nathan Page. And perhaps it would be a chance to wrap up loose ends. Or maybe not.
“Oh, I never say goodbye,” says Davis by phone from London. “Look, I feel like it’s a beautiful film, that it’s complete in itself and it’s a great story because it’s satisfying for fan of the series, but if you haven’t seen the series, it’s a complete story in itself. And you know, there’s no closure at the end; anything could happen. I think it really depends how the film is received by fans and first-time (viewers) and whether, you know, if enough people go and see it, then maybe the story will be a new story. Never say never.”
Going global
The big difference in “Crypt of Tears” is its globetrotting, “Indiana Jones”-inspired adventurism as Fisher sets off for London and the Middle East in a tale involving ancient curses, precious jewels and a young girl’s determination to find out what happened to her tribe. It expands Fisher’s world well beyond Melbourne’s quaint, older neighborhoods. Though those who liked the show’s geographic and cultural peculiarity might be disappointed, Davis says it was necessary to move beyond those boundaries. That’s one reason she supported making a movie over another season.
“I always want the characters I’ve created to grow and move and have an arc, and I always felt like a longer story format would be really suitable to take an audience into the world with Phryne because she’s such a woman of the world,” she says. “Although people from outside of Australia get to step into the world of Australia, it’s quite a different thing for an Australian audience, as well, to step out into the world.
“She’s traveled the world and met a lot of people. And with her skills and her knowledge and her ability with language and her understanding of poor and rich and establishment and what rules are worth following and what ones need to be broken, she’s got a whole world out there,” Davis continues. “So to be able to take an audience out into the world, into that big landscape and go on a plane to London and to Jerusalem and to Palestine and to have that experience, I think, is really what Phryne’s audience needs.”
Hollywood calling?
Davis’ career is mirroring that of Fisher’s in that she, too, is making a move into the wider world. She has several upcoming projects including: the historical crime drama “True History of the Kelly Gang,” directed by Davis’ husband, Justin Kurzel, co-starring George MacKay (“1917”) and Nicholas Hault; and the comedy-drama “Babyteeth” with Ben Mendelsohn (“The Outsider,” “Captain Marvel”).
These are Australian projects though. Unlike with so many other Aussie actors — from Margot Robbie to Joel Edgerton, Rebel Wilson to the Hemsworth brothers — Davis has yet to make a big splash in Hollywood movies. “I have definitely thought about them, and I am open.
Open to the right amazing characters and jobs, absolutely,” she says.
But, for now, Davis is all about the resolutely Australian Fisher, how the character resonates and what lessons she’s taken from the experience.
“She’s like a female James Bond who smiles more, has more fun doing what she does. She’s like an Indiana Jones in this beautiful historical world of real social justice but also this kind of world of mystery and intrigue, but she’s lived a hard life herself,” Davis says. “The first World War has just devastated the world, and everyone is in trauma and loss and grief and she’s lost her own sister, but she is full of joy and full of laughter and going, ‘Well, here we are now. We’re here, we survived. We might as well live so we might as well live with joy.’
“And I think that that kind of upbeat kind of attitude to life is really attractive,” she continues. “And she’s a woman that’s highly skilled and witty and naughty, and she fights for the underdog and for women’s rights, and women are inspired to be like her and men are inspired to like her as well — because what’s not to like?”