Magpie Pictures revealed its next phase of growth after receiving Screen Australia Enterprise funding, optioning Emma Grey’s 2024 novel Pictures of You as part of a trio of new scripted series in development, and bringing on producers Quan Phung and Fiona Eagger as advisors.
Published in November last year, Grey’s second novel after 2023’sThe Last Love Note follows forensic linguist Evie Hudson, who, after a car crash that killed her husband, can’t remember him or any of the past 13 years. As she pieces together fragments of her life, Evie has to confront what she’s lost and find what she still has to fight for.
The book made it onto the USA Today best-seller list, while also appearing in the New York Times book review, and being crowned People magazine’s Best book of November 2024.
Magpie Pictures founder and producer Lois Randall will produce the series adaptation with Matt Kelly.
Grey said she was pleased to collaborate with the company on the project.
“From the outset, Magpie Pictures has shared my vision to capture the light and shade in this story, and my desire to translate the novel’s powerful contemporary messages for a fresh audience,” she said.
The development slate also includesThe Dark Horse and the Hummingbird from Lâle Teoman.
Adapted shortlisted script for the Australian Writers’ Guild’s 2023 Monte Miller Award, the mystery thriller follows Shirin Mardin, a 35-year-old haunted by a 20-year-old crime that separated her from everyone she loved. As an anonymous stalker closes in, she is forced to return home to the Blue Mountains to face the truth.
Magpie Pictures delves further into mystery with Provenance, an 8 x 1 hour series written by Giula Sandler, based on the Melbourne art-world mysteries by Katherine Kovacic.
Set in the inner city’s cut-throat commercial art world, the story follows Alex Clayton, star curator at the top gallery in the country who, finding herself the main suspect in the robbery of a priceless masterpiece and a possible murder, attempts to clear her name – while also dealing with a suspicion that her father is the thief.
Randall said Provenance, along with The Dark Horse and the Hummingbird and Pictures of You, were part of a focus on “impactful stories from Australian female creators that will engage and entertain Australian and international audiences”.
“Giula Sandler has created a series based on the iconic character of Alex Clayton and the world of Katherine Kovacic’s addictive novels, that fuses the comedic and the heartfelt with the mysterious and thrilling, in the glamorous and sexy Melbourne art scene,” she said.
Of the new advisor appointments, Phung is an LA-based independent producer and consultant who is developing a slate of global projects through his Miquan Productions banner. His industry experience includes stints as senior vice president of Original Series at Topic Studios and senior vice president of creative affairs for 20th Century Fox TV.
Eagger is known for founding Every Cloud Productions with Deb Cox, co-creating and producing three seasons of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which has sold to more than 170 territories, and also being responsible for titles such as Deadlock, The Gods of Wheat Street, Christmas Ransom, Newton’s Law, A Sunburnt Christmas, Eden, and the reboot of SeaChange.
The advisor appointments come after the company welcomed Matthew Kelly as a consulting business executive and EP, and Claire Lindsay and Ree Evans in a shared development producer role in August last year.
Randall said she was “honoured” to work with Phung and Eagger, who brought “an extraordinary depth of experience and market insight to the company”.
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