FremantleMedia Australia’s Picnic at Hanging Rock will premiere later this year on Deutsche Telekom’s EntertainTV in Germany after being showcased at the Berlin International Film Festival.
The first two episodes of the re-imagining of Joan Lindsay’s novel will open the Berlinale Series on February 19 at the festival.
FremantleMedia International (FMI) has already sold the show co-funded by Screen Australia and Film Victoria to Amazon Prime Video in the US, the BBC, France’s Canal+ and Kiwi satcaster Sky’s premium entertainment channel SoHo.
Scripted by Beatrix Christian and Alice Addison and produced by Brett Popplewell, the 6-part drama, which will premiere on Foxtel’s showcase and on Foxtel on Demand at 8.30 pm on Sunday May 6, has won glowing reviews from Oz critics.
Natalie Dormer plays English headmistress Mrs Hester Appleyard in the drama which revolves around the mysterious disappearances of three schoolgirls and one teacher on Valentine’s Day 1900. The cast includes Lola Bessis, Yael Stone, Anna McGahan and rising stars Lily Sullivan, Samara Weaving, Madeleine Madden and Ruby Rees.
“We are pleased to add Picnic at Hanging Rock, another high-class TV series, to the EntertainTV series portfolio,” said Wolfgang Elsäßer, Telekom’s head of business unit TV and entertainment.
“This year our customers can expect to see the miniseries that is receiving a lot of praise from the critics. The international premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival is a very promising start. We are convinced that the series will be successful in Germany.”
Maximilian Bolenius, FMI’s senior VP of German-speaking Europe and Israel said: “We are very impressed by the content strategy, exposure and marketing opportunities that Deutsche Telekom provide with EntertainTV and believe it is the ideal launch platform for this creatively extraordinary series in Germany.”
The directors are Larysa Kondracki, Michael Rymer and Amanda Brotchie. The executive producers are FMA’s Jo Porter and Anthony Ellis and Foxtel’s Penny Win.