Media Release: Monday, December 16, 2013
Foxtel today confirmed production of The Gallipoli Story will commence in South Australia mid-2014, with Sam Worthington as executive producer and in a starring role.
FullClip, the production company formed by Worthington, and Matchbox Pictures, producers of The Slap, The Straits and Underground, will produce the mini-series, to be broadcast on Foxtel in 2015 to coincide with 100th anniversary events surrounding World War I.
Foxtel also today announced award-winning US based Australian director Michael Rymer will direct The Gallipoli Story. Rymer’s recent credits include the US dramas American Horror Story, The Killing, Longmire, Hannibal and the critically-acclaimed Battlestar Gallactica TV series. His Australian credits include the feature film Angel Baby.
The Gallipoli Story focuses on the team of journalists who were embedded at Gallipoli during the First World War and the astonishing story of how they triggered the decision to end the Gallipoli campaign. The mini-series will explore the story of their relationships with the young soldiers sent to Gallipoli to fight, their growing realisation that British command was tragically unprepared for the campaign and their efforts to get their stories out, despite a brutal censorship regime.
Australia’s Charles Bean, Phillip Schuler, Keith Murdoch and Britain’s colourful Ellis Ashmead Bartlett, are all central figures in the drama. Joining Sam Worthington as executive producers are Penny Chapman, of Matchbox Pictures; John Schwarz of FullClip; and Penny Win, Foxtel’s Commissioning Editor of Drama.
The Gallipoli Story has been written by four of Australia's most exciting writers – Jacquelin Perske (Love My Way, Little Fish), Shaun Grant (Snowtown), Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean, Tomorrow When The War Began) and Cate Shortland (The Slap, Somersault and the forthcoming Devil’s Playground).
Penny Chapman said today “South Australia, with its beautiful limestone coasts, is the perfect place to film our series. This is one of the most compelling stories I've ever been involved with and I'm thrilled to be working with Michael and the guys from FullClip. This is a young man's vision of truth and war. It's an original angle on our national legend."
NBCUniversal International Television Production are equity stakeholders in Matchbox and introduced the company to FullClip in 2011.