Jurassic World’s Jake Johnson and comedian Tim Minchin guest star in a 6-part improvised comedy that follows two detectives on a stakeout, produced by Jungleboys for Stan.
The streaming platform’s first original production, No Activity stars Patrick Brammall and Darren Gilshenan as the none-too-bright or industrious cops.
At a media lunch today Stan CEO Mike Sneesby revealed the service has more than 300,000 subscribers and has had more than 800,000 users since its Australia Day launch. That is ahead of Citi Research's estimates of 322,000 sign-ups and 153,000 paying customers.
"We have signed up well over 300,000 subscribers since launch," Sneesby tells IF. "All of those subscribers enter credit cards at sign up. We have seen around 70 per cent conversion from free to pay."
Sneesby said Stan will soon extend its reach via adding game consoles, smart TVs and devices such as Roku, and it will have a dozen exclusives from now through the end of the year including US series iZombie (which premieres on Friday), Selfies, Flesh and Bone and A to Z and the BBC's Sherlock.
In No Activity Johnson plays an FBI agent who gets involved in the case and Minchin is a security guard at the docks who is asked by the cops to tip them off if he spots anything unusual.
Due to premiere in November, No Activity is directed and written by Jungleboys’ Trent O’Donnell, who developed the concept with Brammall, Gilshenan and David Field, and produced by Chloe Rickard.
O’Donnell directed the last season of New Girl, the Fox network comedy which stars Johnson, Zooey Deschanel, Max Greenfield and Lamorne Morris. The director showed the pilot episode of No Activity to Johnson, who readily agreed to shoot an episode in Los Angeles. O'Donnell is now directing episodes of Fox's action-comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Jungleboys executive producer Jason Burrows tells IF, “It’s quite an experimental show, largely improvised. We’re very happy with the way it’s turned out. We have some fun ideas for a second series. The concept has a big scope and could go in different directions.”
The ensemble cast includes Field, Dan Wyllie, Harriet Dyer, Genevieve Morris, Kat Stewart and comedian Sam Simmons.
International distribution will be shared between Stan and Jungleboys. Burrows says they will probably look to sell the show in the US and appoint a distributor for the rest of the world.
Stan's director of content Nick Forward tells IF a second series is highly likely. He said casting is underway for the Wolf Creek series from Screentime and Greg Mclean's Emu Creek Pictures and for Essential Media and Entertainment's miniseries Enemies of the State, which will chronicle the life of former Attorney-General Lionel Murphy.
Neither project has been formally greenlit yet. Geoffrey Rush is reported to be in line to play Murphy.