Aussie Filmmaker Navigates Chaos of B-Movie Studio's "Mockbuster" Production

In the lead-up to the upcoming release of the documentary "Mockbuster," the film has been acquired by Giant Pictures for worldwide distribution. The documentary, set to have its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival on October 24th, 2025, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the "eccentric, fast-and-loose filmmaking world" of The Asylum, the B-movie studio best known for the "Sharknado" franchise and numerous low-budget Hollywood copycat films.

The film marks the directorial debut of Australian filmmaker Anthony Frith, who, with a once-promising film career now reduced to corporate video work, decided to pitch himself to The Asylum to direct a lost-world dinosaur epic. Against all odds, the studio famous for its "guilty-pleasure exploitation films" said yes, and what followed was a "madcap production of 'The Land That Time Forgot' in suburban Adelaide, shot in just six days on a budget that could generously be described as 'aspirational.'"

Throughout the chaotic shoot, Frith navigates the "gloriously chaotic orbit" of Asylum producers, as he attempts to keep the prehistoric adventure afloat amid rubber dinosaurs, last-minute rewrites, and caffeinated panic. The documentary, according to the synopsis, is an "unexpectedly tender portrait of chasing the dream through the absurd hustle of genre filmmaking -- and finding a different kind of success behind the scenes."