The Daily Telegraph
By MICHAEL BODEY
March 21, 2006

Australian avenger

THE man with the Midas touch – Hugo Weaving's magic continues, with another lead role jumping to the top of the US box office.

The subversive thriller V For Vendetta, in which Weaving stars as V, a masked avenger terrorising an authoritarian British government, earned $US26.1 million in its first weekend.

It is not only Weaving's seventh US box office No. 1, tying with Nicole Kidman's achievement, it is the debut film for popular Sydney director James McTeigue.

"I've been an assistant director for a long time and I guess everyone who comes out of film school hopes they'll be a director," said McTeigue, who studied film at Charles Sturt's Riverina campus.

McTeigue worked as an assistant director on local films such as Paradise Road, The Well and Looking For Alibrandi before working, and striking up friendships, with Weaving and the Wachowski brothers, Larry and Andy, on The Matrix trilogy.

"He's a decent guy and he's about making your film better and not about what it will do for Hugo Weaving," McTeigue said.

V For Vendetta opens in Australia on March 30.