The Code, a six-hour political thriller produced by Playmaker for ABC TV, will premiere on September 21 at 8.30 pm.
Filmed in Sydney, Canberra and Broken Hill, The Code tells the story of two very different brothers who unearth information that those at the highest levels of political power will kill to keep secret.
In the middle of the outback a stolen 4WD collides with a transport truck. Two local kids in the vehicle are hurt. Badly. Someone should have called for help. But they didn’t, because that ‘someone’ works for a major stakeholder in an international research project no-one talks about.
The kids’ accident would have remained a mystery if it weren’t for Ned (Dan Spielman) and Jesse Banks (Ashley Zukerman) – a young internet journalist desperate for a break, and his troubled hacker brother on a strict good-behaviour bond.
Ned and Jesse Banks are gifted a poisoned chalice when a phone video of the outback accident arrives in their inbox. And posting it online will cost them more than they ever imagined. Together, they suddenly become the unlikeliest crusaders for democracy.
The decision to dig deeper drags the brothers into the darkest heart of politics and the web of black marketeers and the international agencies who monitor and manipulate them.
The question is just how far those in authority will go to keep their explosive secret safe. And just how far the two brothers will go to reveal the truth.
The outstanding ensemble cast includes Dan Spielman (An Accidental Soldier, Offspring), Ashley Zukerman (The Slap, Rush), Adele Perovic (SLiDE), Adam Garcia (Coyote Ugly, Bootmen), Chelsie Preston Crayford (Mystery of a Hansom Cab, Underbelly: Razor), Paul Tassone (Underbelly, All Saints), Dan Wyllie (Rake, Puberty Blues), Lucy Lawless (Parks and Recreation, Xena: Warrior Princess), Aden Young (I Frankenstein, Rectify), David Wenham (Answered by Fire, Killing Time), and Aaron Pedersen (Jack Irish, Mystery Road).
The Code was created by Shelley Birse and written by Birse, Blake Ayshford and Justin Monjo; directed by Shawn Seet (The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, Love Child, SLiDE) and produced by Playmaker’s David Maher, David Taylor and Shelley Birse. It is executive produced by ABC TV’s David Ogilvy, Greer Simpkin and Carole Sklan.
A Playmaker production for ABC TV, the series was developed through the Scribe Initiative and is produced with the assistance of Screen Australia, Screen NSW, the ACT Government and Screen ACT.