Hollywood heavyweight Russell Crowe has been a show business staple for decades, but his latest flick, “Poker Face,” isn’t proving much of a fan favorite. The thriller, which hit theaters last November and marks the actor’s second turn at directing following 2014’s “The Water Diviner,” presently boasts a measly 9% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it “half-baked,” “a creative mess” and “a pair of sevens.” Yikes!
Currently available to rent on both Amazon and iTunes, “Poker Face” (which is not to be confused with the upcoming Rian Johnson-helmed Peacock series of the same name) sees the actor stepping into the well-heeled shoes of tech billionaire Jake Foley as he hosts an exclusive poker night for his childhood best friends as a sort of final hurrah following a terminal cancer diagnosis.
Initially set in Miami, Fla., once Crowe came on board, the backdrop was shifted to his native Australia, where he proved thoroughly adept at selecting gorgeous scenery to outfit his onscreen world. The locations are so aspirational, in fact, the movie almost feels like a throwback to the old Robin Leach series “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” with Foley’s prime real estate portfolio playing front and center. The character’s two lavish Down Under properties include a massive two-story penthouse, which in real life can be found on the top floor of the Crown Residences of One Barangaroo. For those with pockets as deep as Jake’s, the striking six-bedroom, six-bath, 8,600-square-foot space, pristinely sited overlooking the famed Sydney Harbor, is currently available for a staggering AUD 100 million (USD 70 million).
The real show-stealer, though, is Foley’s weekend house, an epic modern abode perched upon a rocky oceanside bluff on a 94-acre working cattle farm at 219 Princes Hwy in Kiama, about two hours south of Sydney. (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.)
A singular estate through and through, the pad, known as both Pebble Cove Farm and Horizon House, even had the seasoned Crowe impressed! While filming on the premises, the actor tweeted a photo of the grounds with the caption, ”Shooting in Kiama. What a beautiful place.”
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Goldeneye Media Philip Thalis of the award-winning Hill Thalis architecture firm originally drew up plans for the residence in 2001, but the structure had a lengthy journey from draft to completion, with permitting red tape delaying the construction start date an incredible seven years! Shortly after building finally commenced in 2008, the then-owners bailed on the project, choosing instead to “diversify their assets,” according to Perth Now. The property then proceeded to sit vacant and half-finished, a “landscape ruin” as described by Habitus Living, until finally hitting the market in 2015. Repped by Neil Campbell of Ray White Gerringong and Ken Jacobs of Christie’s International Real Estate, the place was listed for AUD 7.5 million (USD 5.3 million), with marketing materials noting, “It stands as one of Australia’s greatest unfinished visions, that requires just one final thing. A visionary new owner.”
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Goldeneye Media Because Horizon House was just a shell at the time, with no real interior to speak of – “no fixtures or fittings, not even a kitchen sink,” as noted by Perth Now – Goldeneye Media was employed to create a promotional film to showcase its unparalleled potential. As detailed on the real estate marketing company’s website, “Had it been completed, ‘Pebble Cove Farm’ would have been one of Australia’s greatest residential achievements. But when we arrived on site in 2015, it was a derelict building site – raw, neglected and incredibly challenging for buyers to understand. What we did was give it a heartbeat again. By creating a film that gently brought this vision back to life, we threw a challenge to the marketplace to find ‘the one’ who would see this spectacular vision through. It worked.”
Indeed, the dwelling changed hands in September 2015 for slightly under asking at AUD 7.3 million (USD 5.1 million), thereby setting a record for the most expensive home sale ever in the area!
The new buyers were on board to execute Thalis’ original vision, bringing the architect back to complete the job, along with his colleague Laura Harding. The finished product – described by Hill Thalis as “a 17-year odyssey” – is an architectural masterpiece from the stark cement floors to the hand-crafted zinc roofline. Fashioned additionally of basalt stone and inch-thick glass walls, the V-shaped residence, which flanks a large courtyard, boasts six bathrooms and four bedrooms, including a primary suite comprising an entire wing.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Goldeneye Media Sleek and modern while still warm and inviting, the pad’s living spaces include an open kitchen, dining and living area and a lower level dedicated entirely to recreation with a secondary kitchen and dining room, a rumpus room and a home theater. Marble accents, wide plank flooring (fashioned out of oak, each panel measures an incredible 3 by 32 feet!) and panoramic vistas can be found throughout. The curvature of the earth is even apparently visible from the home’s east wing! As the 2015 listing describes, the views are “so scenic and uninterrupted that you can see 60 kilometers [37 miles] to the north, watch whales passing by and view the moon ascending over the horizon.” It doesn’t get much more cinematic than that!
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Goldeneye Media The vast grounds come complete with a heated pool, a garden, direct cove access, a dining portico with a barbeque, a four-car garage with a gym and an art storage room, and wide expanses of lawn that look like they were ripped right out of “The Sound of Music.”
A genuine trophy property, Pebble Cove Farm serves to perfectly embody Jake’s ample wealth onscreen in “Poker Face.”
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Image Credit: Screen Media According to Digital Cinema Report, the film’s overall look, production design and cinematography were inspired in part by the works of Clarice Beckett, an Australian artist known for her “misty, melancholic” landscapes, many depicting the sea. The footage of Horizon House framed against a backdrop of muted pink skies and moody blue waters certainly exudes a Beckett-like appeal. Utilizing Cooke lenses to create a “painterly quality,” cinematographer Aaron McLisky, ACS, explains, “I wanted an image that wouldn’t look too clean, but softer and atmospheric.” He delivered on that front because Foley’s world has an atmosphere all its own, thanks largely to Pebble Cove Farm.
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Image Credit: Screen Media The interior of Jake’s residence was a mix of the Horizon House’s actual living spaces as well as an elaborate set created by production designer Hugh Bateup at Fox Studios in Sydney (now known as Disney Studios Australia). Areas of the property seen onscreen include the main entry, the kitchen and the living room.
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Image Credit: Screen Media Jake’s ornate poker room and panic room, where most of the film’s action takes place, were part of the set, though, and are not authentic elements of the home. The former was fashioned with rich reds and blacks as a nod to the poker game that figures at the story’s center. McLisky details, “Russell wanted a deep red and black theme throughout the film referencing the playing cards.”
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Image Credit: Universal Pictures “Poker Face” is not Horizon House’s only claim to fame. The property was also used as the interior of the supposed Northern California estate belonging to wealthy scientist Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) in the 2020 thriller “The Invisible Man” (now streaming on Freevee). According to the film’s production notes, prior to the shoot director Leigh Whannell and his team searched for an “architecturally unique” residence with a Silicon Valley feel. Horizon House fit the bill perfectly. (Exterior scenes were filmed right next door at another highly cinematic residence on the grounds of Pebble Cove Farm known as Dovecote, which currently operates as a luxe holiday rental.)
Horizon House’s look in the film is a sharp deviation from its colorful “Poker Face” aesthetic. Made to appear as a “high-end prison of sorts” to reflect Adrian’s “obsessive-compulsive, domineering, soulless personality,” it was enveloped in dark tones. Production designer Alex Holmes notes, “Leigh wanted it to be very Adrian . . . with a coldness to it. Not a house that you open the door and think ‘this is a loving place to live.’ Quite the opposite to that . . . We wanted a colorless palette, almost entirely blacks, greys and whites.”
While the Horizon House’s tony custom finishes enhanced the film’s production design, they also proved quite headache-inducing for the higher-ups. Of filming on the premises, producer Kylie Du Fresne recounts, “It’s concrete, and the floors were made out of these astonishing wooden floorboards – created from beams rescued from a fire at Windsor Castle. Everything about it was bespoke. As a producer filming in a high-end house was a challenge. I spent most of my time making sure that people wouldn’t accidentally walk a C-stand into the beautifully polished Venetian plaster walls.” Thankfully, Horizon House made it through the shoot unscathed, paving the way for its “Poker Face” appearance two years later.