Hollywood could be calling for Glenford’s screenplay

Glenford Noble has proven time and again that his artistic prowess knows no bounds – now the TV producer, writer, and actor has his sights set on Hollywood.

The Southbanker has spent the past three years writing a screen play called Florence, which is based on the true story of Florence Price, America’s first black female classical composer in the 1930s, which he said was “showing a lot of potential” of being turned into a major film.

With a creative team now behind him and a film music contest under way to help find talent for the film’s musical score, Mr Noble remained optimistic of making it to the big screen.

“We’re getting some interest from some of the big Hollywood studios,” he told Southbank News, but added any momentum for the film had been temporarily paused while the current Writer’s Guild of America strike reached more than 100 days.

Asked how he felt about Hollywood potentially knocking on the door, Mr Noble, 66, said while it was an exciting prospect, he wouldn’t be disappointed either way – but conceded he’d continue to persevere.

As a result of his screenplay, Mr Noble has landed a role at the Sundance Film Institute in the US as community forum leader.

It’s been fun. I feel if it ever happens, it would be wonderful but if it doesn’t then at least I’ve enjoyed myself. I think it’s about the journey not the destination.

It’s not the first time he has attracted the interest of Hollywood. In the 1980s, he flew to America where he met with Sidney Poitier, the first black man to win an Oscar, to discuss his screenplay called Scarlett.

While the script didn’t make it to the big time, Mr Noble cherishes his memory of having “rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous” of Hollywood, including stars Steve Martin and Henry Winkler, at a gala function.

Originally from London, Mr Noble’s love of the entertainment industry began after starting his career as a journalist in 1977 at the South London Press, a bi-weekly local newspaper which had a circulation of around 100,000.

But when Channel 4 launched, he took an opportunity to be researcher on a “revolutionary chat show” called After Dark, which featured a Free Nelson Mandela segment.

Keen to explore new avenues, Mr Noble moved to Melbourne in 2000 with his partner and landed a job as a script editor on the soap opera Neighbours, before going on to be a script editor on a children’s ABC drama series called Eugenie Sandler PI, which took out the best children’s series award.

He then developed his own shows at Channel 31’s community television station including One Night Stand, which discovered the “next generation of writers, directors, and actors”.

“I also produced and presented Sacred Spaces, a series which celebrates the best of Melbourne architecture. I’ve made 130 shows for C31.”

In recent years he worked as a background extra actor on Neighbours, ABC’s Mad as Hell, and on a Netflix series called Click Bait.

In the meantime, Mr Noble keeps himself busy as a part-time actor, as well as hosting a monthly podcast called The Spirit Within at Southern FM, while also volunteering at a soup kitchen and the Sacred Heart Mission op shop in South Melbourne.

Speaking of his passion as a Southbanker for the past three years, he said it’s a “really friendly, warm community”, in which he and his neighbours regularly gathered for a barbecue including his beloved cavoodle puppy Rollo. •

Caption: Glenford Noble with his cavoodle puppy Rollo.