Australian comedy/mystery series The Strange Calls has been bought by Hulu, the giant US video-streaming service.
Produced by Hoodlum Entertainment, the six-parter will premiere on Hulu on October 19.
Owned by Disney, 21st Century Fox and NBCUniversal, the service streamed more than 1 billion videos in the first quarter of this year. Its paid subscription service, Hulu Plus, has more than 4 million subscribers.
The deal was concluded by DCD Rights, which had sold the show to a bunch of other territories including China and Russia. Based on a short film by Daley Pearson and Luke Tierney, it stars Toby Truslove as a local Gold Coast cop who investigates weird things that happen after dark, accompanied by Barry Crocker as a night security man.
A US remake of the series, which aired on ABC2, is being developed by 20th TV for the American ABC network. Set in Nantucket Island near Boston, the pilot is being written by Donick Cary (New Girl, The Simpsons, Bored to Death) and will be directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and produced by Aaron Kaplan.
Hoodlum’s Tracey Robertson told IF the budget for the pilot is being locked off and she hopes production will start soon. Delighted about the Hulu deal, she said, “We were looking for a home for the Australian version that was not going to compromise the remake.”
Hoodlum is in post-production on Secrets & Lies, a six-part drama for Network Ten that stars Martin Henderson, Diana Glen and Anthony Hayes. Henderson just scored the lead role in the Sundance Channel‘s second original scripted series The Red Road, playing a sheriff who struggles to keep his family together while dealing with two rival communities.
Hulu has been commissioning more original content, announcing that in addition to The Strange Calls it has acquired Fugget About It, a Canadian animated sitcom which follows a former New York mob boss and his family who enter a witness protection program; and UK drama Run, which looks at four seemingly unconnected people facing life-changing decisions.