Series four of Channel Ten’s police drama Rush promises to be bigger than ever and is being touted as “Rush on steroids”.
The Southern Star John Edwards production, currently shooting in Melbourne, is going back to its roots and will be a 13-episode series – although this time it will be more of a miniseries, says producer Mimi Butler.
“You’ll still be able to watch each episode as a self-contained story but for people watching every week it will be a very rewarding story that will cross into each other and open up and get bigger and bigger,” says Butler, who undertakes producing duties alongside Edwards.
It’s a season Melbourne-based Butler and her team of creatives are excited about.
Co-creator Chris Lee has returned (writing episode 1 and 13) after a two-season hiatus due to other projects including ABC’s big hit Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo, which he wrote.
Directors Andrew Prowse, Grant Brown and Daina Reid are some of the crew returning behind the camera. And for the viewing public, importantly the cast is returning.
“We start off with an exciting incident which kicks off the whole series…and our quest is to uncover what has happened, what’s behind it and prevent a much bigger disaster happening in Melbourne,” Butler says.
“It’s taking a bigger bite – opening up the world and looking at the changing face of crime in Melbourne and the effects that is going to have on the city and how it’s to be policed.”
She says the key to delivering a solid fourth series – like on any show – is to take it up a notch from previous episodes.
“You get to the point where you know what you are – you know what the show is – and you have the opportunity to take it to the next level and see if you can build on what you’ve established and not just do what you’ve done before,” Butler says.
“It’s going to be kind of ‘Rush on steroids’ really – it’s going to be a step up.
“There’s going to be stuff that you didn’t expect…
“For Rush fans, there’s going to be more and for new viewers joining Rush it’s going to be a really gripping miniseries.”
The series will go back to 13 episodes, after the last two seasons had 22 episodes each. This was, in part, due to going over the 65 episode limit, which eliminates the government’s tax rebate.
Furthermore, Butler says producing 22 episodes is “a hard slog”, so therefore they will be able to focus solely on creating the best 13 episodes.
She says the show – which is about preventative police measures (trying to stop a crime before it occurs) – works because it has the right ingredients: the characters are engaging, the stories are compelling and it doesn’t just have action but also some romance.
The Melbourne-based show usually attracts just under one million viewers per episode.
Season four, which had funding assistance from Film Victoria and was shot on the Sony HD 900R-K, went into production in early May and will conclude at the end of August.
For more on the show, click here.