The Nostradamus Kid is a 1992 Australian feature film written and directed by Bob Ellis.The film is a coming of age story about a sex-obsessed boy Ken Elkin (Noah Taylor), raised in a cultish religious movement. It is 1962 and it suddenly seems that thanks to the Cuban Missile crisis, the end of the world is nigh. In a race against time, young Ken's only goal before nuclear Armageddon is to achieve his life's ambition - to bed the local pastor's daughter.
'The Nostradamus Kid' was nominated for two AFI Awards: Best Screenplay, Original & Best Achievement in Costume Design. The story was a long time in consideration before it was made, with Bob Ellis directing. Ellis was a playwright, memoirist, song lyricist (the songs in this film are his), columnist with his own byline in the Fairfax press, and curmudgeonly media commentator. He was a speech writer for various leaders of the Australian Labour Party. When, as Labour candidate for a federal parliamentary seat, he slashed the primary vote of Liberal Party leadership aspirant Bronwyn Bishop, with what some thought was Ellis's joke candidacy, Bishop lost all momentum to replace then federal Liberal leader John Hewson and was never taken seriously again as a future Prime Minister.
About the casting of Noah Taylor as the lead, Bob Ellis remembered, "He was much less the sort of soft wimp that I'd assumed, and it was one of the happiest experiences I've ever had, working with him."
The Nostradamus Kid grossed $242,800 at the box office in Australia. Bob Ellis said of the film's reception, "It ended up opening in October when all the kids who might have otherwise gone to see it were studying for exams and. So it didn't quite break out. It was dogged at every turn by The Piano."
