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Dear Child is a mystery crime drama series written and directed by Isabel Kleefeld. The Netflix series is based on an international bestselling novel Liebes Kind by Romy Hausmann. Dear Child revolves around a 13-year-old missing persons case which is reopened after an unknown woman is struck by a car in a German forest and the girl who accompanies her is being interviewed by the police. The Netflix series is a claustrophobic and dark experience with plenty of twists and turns. So, if you loved the thrilling mystery, intensely dark story, and compelling characters in Dear Child here are some similar movies you should check out next.

The Sinner (Netflix & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – USA Network

The Sinner is a police procedural mystery crime thriller drama anthology series created by Derek Simonds. Based on the 1999 novel of...

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Disclaimer* is a psychological thriller drama series created by Alfonso Cuarón. Based on the 2015 novel of the same name by author Renée Knight, the Apple TV+ series follows Catherine Ravenscroft, a famed documentary journalist with a picture-perfect family who discovers that she is a main character in a novel that threatens to reveal her darkest secret that she has tried to keep hidden all her life. Disclaimer* stars Cate Blanchett, Leila George, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, Adam El Hagar, Lesley Manville, Louis Partridge, Indira Varma, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. So, if you loved the thrilling mystery, intense narrative, and compelling characters in Disclaimer* here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Sharp Objects (Max & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – HBO

Sharp Objects is a psychological mystery thriller drama miniseries created by Marti Noxon. Based on the...

The first official trailer for The Union has dropped online, offering a first look at an upcoming spy action comedy-thriller starring 2x Academy Award-nominee Mark Wahlberg and Academy Award-winner Halle Berry (X-Men: Days of Future Past; John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum; Monster's Ball) in the lead roles as a pair of high school sweethearts that reconnect decades later when the world is at threat.

As per the synopsis, "Mike (Wahlberg) is happy living a simple life as a construction worker in his native New Jersey – until his long-lost high school sweetheart, Roxanne (Berry), shows up with more on her mind than romance. Knowing he’s the right man for the job, she recruits Mike on a dangerous intelligence mission in Europe that thrusts them back together into a world of spies and high-speed car chases, with sparks flying along the way."

In addition to Wahlberg and Berry, the supporting cast features Mike Colter,...

The first official trailer for The Union has dropped online, offering a first look at an upcoming spy action comedy-thriller starring 2x Academy Award-nominee Mark Wahlberg and Academy Award-winner Halle Berry (X-Men: Days of Future Past; John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum; Monster's Ball) in the lead roles as a pair of high school sweethearts that reconnect decades later when the world is at threat.

As per the synopsis, "Mike (Wahlberg) is happy living a simple life as a construction worker in his native New Jersey – until his long-lost high school sweetheart, Roxanne (Berry), shows up with more on her mind than romance. Knowing he’s the right man for the job, she recruits Mike on a dangerous intelligence mission in Europe that thrusts them back together into a world of spies and high-speed car chases, with sparks flying along the way."

In addition to Wahlberg and Berry, the supporting cast features Mike Colter,...

Back at the start of May, the Netflix streaming service unveiled their 2024 Summer Movie slate, and in the process they revealed that an action comedy called The Union, which stars Mark Wahlberg (The Family Plan) and Halle Berry (The Call), has a release date of August 16th. With that date just seven weeks away, a trailer for the film has arrived online, and you can check it out in the embed above.

Directed by prolific television director Julian Farino, who was also at the helm of the 2011 dramedy The Oranges, The Union has the following synopsis: Mike (Mark Wahlberg) is happy living a simple life as a construction worker in his native New Jersey – until his long-lost high school sweetheart, Roxanne (Halle Berry), shows up with more on her mind than romance. Knowing he’s the right man for the job, she recruits Mike on a dangerous intelligence mission in...

Rhiannon Fish and Mitchell Bourke in A Prince in Paradise 2: A Royal Proposal [Image Great American Family]

Rhiannon Fish and Mitchell Bourke star in the Great American Family sequel to A Prince in Paradise. Meanwhile, A Prince in Paradise 2: A Royal Proposal continues where the first movie left off with the two lead actors heading to a proposal.

While it’s still summer right now, this Christmas movie is one of several that Great American Family is working on. This movie was filmed in Australia.

A Prince in Paradise 2: A Royal Proposal on Great American Family Mitchell Bourke and Andrea Moor [Image The Steve Jaggi Company/YouTube]

According to the official synopsis, Olivia (Rhiannon Fish) and Prince Alexander (Mitchell Bourke) travel together to his family’s majestic palace in Torovia to spend Christmas with their two families.

Meanwhile, despite their busy schedules that push Olivia and Prince Alexander in two different directions, they seem poised to...

Exclusive: Australian streamer Stan has today unveiled a 25-strong slate, adding scripted titles from Matchbox Pictures and the producers behind Colin From Accounts, acquisitions from the UK and U.S. and a new version of Drag Race to its ranks.

Content from the likes of All3Media, AMC, Banijay, the BBC, Fremantle, ITV, Lionsgate, Universal Internatational Studios, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros Discovery is on the slate, which was showcased at the iconic Sydney Opera House as Stan’s latest salvo in Australia’s competitive streaming market.

Among the key scripted originals is Critical Incident, a psychological crime thriller from Matchbox, the Australian production subsidiary of Universal Studio Group-owned Universal International Studios. Written by Sarah Bassiuoni (The Secrets She Keeps), it recently completed production in Western Sydney, with major production investment from Screen Australia.

The six-part show depicts life in the Western suburbs of Sydney and delves into the complex...

Exclusive: After setting the stage with its robust line-up of holiday programming, Great American Family is ready to get into the scripted series business.

The channel is launching County Rescue, an action-adventure medical drama starring Julia Reilly (Stranger Things) as an Emt in training who is vying for one of three openings on the team. It also stars Stacey Patino (Keeping Up With the Joneses), Percy Bell (Devotion), Tim Perez-Ross (The Vampire Diaries), Riley Hough (The Resident), Keller Fornes (The Secrets She Keeps), Angel Luis (Law & Order), Kristin Wollett (Random Tropical Paradise), and Brett Varvel (American Underdog).

The five-episode first season will premiere on Great American Pure Flix beginning February 16 and on Great American Family beginning February 17. Great American Pure Flix is the company’s streaming service that was rebranded in September 2023.

Great American Family is also planning a Q1 launch of mystery franchises — original movies centered on the...

Rising Aussie actor Cj Bloomfield has signed with Industry Entertainment for management.

Bloomfield recently wrapped filming the anticipated Mad Max: Fury Road sequel Furiosa alongside Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy. Directed, co-written and produced by George Miller, the standalone movie reveals the origins of Furiosa, played by Taylor-Joy in the title role. The movie tracks the genesis of Furiosa before she teamed up with Max Rockatansky in Fury Road. It’s set to hit theaters on May 24, 2024.

Bloomfield is currently filming the role of Baraka in Mortal Kombat 2, New Line‘s follow-up to its hit 2021 action adventure Mortal Kombat, based on the blockbuster video game franchise.

Bloomfield’s previous credits include a recurring role in Australian series The Secrets She Keeps. He also appeared in the 2021 feature Streamline and shorts Too Many Ethics and Halfway, which he also executive produced.

Bloomfield is managed by Dan Spilo at Industry Entertainment...

The BBC has debuted the trailer for the Catherine Tate-led comedy series ‘Queen of Oz.’

Princess Georgiana (Georgie) is the spare to the British throne but her party-girl lifestyle and constant public scandals threaten the monarchy’s future.

To get her as far away from London as possible, and at the same time, hoping to prevent Australia from leaving the Commonwealth, Georgie’s parents send her off to Australia to become their Queen, along with her new staff – Director of Communications Zoe, Private Secretary Bernard, Head of Security Officer Marc, Personal Assistant Matthew, Lady In Waiting Anabel, Master of the Household Weiwei.

A welcome reception is Georgie’s first public appearance in Australia – where an offensive faux pas from the jetlagged new Queen makes the night go from bad to worse.

Tate stars in the leading role as well as executive produce the series, alongside producer Michele Bennett (Mr...

Sundance Now and AMC+ have released the official trailer for Black Snow, a new six-part series premiering on February 23, 2023. Described as part whodunit and part coming-of-age drama, Black Snow stars Travis Fimmel as a cold-case detective investigating a murder.

In addition to unveiling the official trailer, AMC+ and Sundance Now released a batch of photos ahead of the show’s two-episode premiere.

In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Fimmel described why Black Snow caught his interest.

“What intrigued me about him is that he’s a very flawed character. He’s got a lot of issues, childhood issues that he’s still dealing with, parental figures, and I think that’s the reason he became a cold-case detective,” said Fimmel. “There’s some stuff that unravels in the story that he went through that is very similar to the stuff that’s going on in the main storyline.

Well, I’ve now got “You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two” stuck in my head, and you are about to as well.

Onetime Maze Runner Thomas Brodie-Sangster has landed the title role in The Artful Dodger, Disney+’s period drama set in 1850s Australia and serving up “a twist to the classic Charles Dickens character” (aka Jack Dawkins).

More from TVLineGood Trouble Stars, EP Explain Those Two Big Exits and What Their Final Scene Hints at for [Spoiler]'s FutureGood Trouble Stars on Davia's Decision, Callie and Jamie's Meaningful MomentTVLine Items: Man Who Fell to Earth Castings,...

M-Net Greenlights Season Two Of Fremantle Mystery Thriller ‘Reyka’

Iain Glen and Kim Engelbrecht will return for a second season of South Africa’s M-Net crime thriller series Reyka. Production on the Fremantle co-production, from writer Rohan Dickson, will begin early next year ahead of a late 2023 season launch. Season one of the show followed the titular Reyka (Engelbrecht) as a crime profiler hunting an elusive killer in KwaZulu-Natal’s sugarcane fields. Lemohang Tsipa and Samkelo Ndlovu are joining the cast for season two, which centers around couples who are attacked on the docks of Durban. Serena Cullen of Serena Cullen Productions in the UK (Lady Chatterley’s Lover) and Harriet Gavshon produce for Quizzical Pictures, with Serena Cullen, Gavshon Dickson, Nomsa Philiso, Jan du Plessis and Julie Hodge the executive producers.

David Thewlis, Thomas Brodie-Sangster Cast In Disney+’s ‘The Artful Dodger’

Filming is underway on Disney+ Australia’s drama...

Click here to read the full article.

Disney+ unveiled the starring cast of its upcoming Australian period drama The Artful Dodger Wednesday at its Asia-Pacific content showcase event in Singapore. Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Pistol, The Queen’s Gambit), David Thewlis (Landscapers, Fargo) and Australian actress Maia Mitchell (Good Trouble, The Fosters) will lead the cast, with Brodie-Sangster taking on the role of Jack Dawkins, aka “The Artful Dodger” himself, Thewlis playing Fagin and Mitchell as Lady Belle Fox.

The Artful Dodger, which was first announced in May, is described as an international character-driven drama set in 1850s Australia, which gives a twist to the classic Charles Dickens character, Dodger. The eight-episode series finds Dodger living a double life as a surgeon who still can’t shake his predilection for crime.

“From high-octane heists to life-and-death surgeries, glittering parties to colorful streets, this series is a rock’n’roll tale with an Aussie connection,...

Thomas Brodie-Sangster, David Thewlis and Australia’s Maia Mitchell head the cast of “The Artful Dodger,” an Australian series for Disney+ that is now beginning production. The series explores the adult double life of Charles Dickens’ famous prince of thieves, Dodger, who has become a surgeon, but retains criminal tendencies.

Disney unveiled the eight-part show at its Content Showcase in Singapore on Wednesday. It was pitched as “a premium character drama set in 1850s Australia and as “a rock’n’roll tale with an Aussie connection,” spanning “high-octane heists to life-and-death surgeries [and] glittering parties to colorful streets.”

Jeffrey Walker is the set-up director and co-executive producer, with directors Corrie Chen and Gracie Otto. The series is written by James McNamara, Andrew Knight, Vivienne Walshe and Dan Knight, with Miranda Tapsell.

It will be filmed in New South Wales, Australia, with financial support provided by the state government through Screen Nsw’s Made in Nsw fund.

ITV Studios is expanding its international scripted footprint by acquiring a majority stake in Australian production company Lingo Pictures.

Led by Helen Bowden and Jason Stephens, Lingo Pictures will be ITV Studios’ first-ever Australian scripted label.

Bowden and Stephens will continue to head up the business based in Sydney. Lingo will now be part of the wider ITV Studios Group, under the international production arm led by managing director Lisa Perrin.

Lingo’s recent productions include a second season of “The Secrets She Keeps” for Paramount+, BBC One and Sundance/AMC and the company has also just completed production on the second season of the Foxtel Australia and Sky Original series, “Upright,” starring Tim Minchin and Milly Alcock (“House of the Dragon”).

Upcoming projects include “Queen of Oz,” a comedy starring and co-written by Catherine Tate, commissioned by BBC One in the U.K.; “The Messenger,” based on the best-selling novel by Markus Zusak,...

To mark the release of The Secrets She Keeps Series 2 on 24th October, we’ve been given a copy of the Series 2 boxset to give away on DVD.

What if the life you wanted belonged to someone else? Based on the worldwide bestseller by Michael Robotham, The Secrets She Keeps introduced viewers to influencer Meghan Shaughnessy (Jessica De Gouw – The Crown, Pennyworth) and troubled Brit Agatha, two pregnant women whose lives collide in a Sydney grocery store. But Agatha is not who she claims to be, and following an unforgivable crime sparked by obsession, deceit, and longing – their two worlds begin to implode…

The second series picks up two years later with both Agatha and Meghan struggling to deal with the devastating fallout from the life-changing events. In a maximum-security prison, Agatha faces the consequences of abducting Ben Shaughnessy and awaits sentencing. In the meantime, Ben’s traumatised mum, Meghan...

Netflix’s “Our Man From Jersey,” starring Halle Berry, Mark Wahlberg and J.K. Simmons, is coming close to wrapping its shoot in Croatia and Slovenia, according to Film New Europe.

The film, based on a screenplay by David Guggenheim and Joe Barton, has been described as a “blue-collar James Bond.” Wahlberg plays a down-to-earth construction worker from Jersey, who is thrust into the world of super spies and secret agents when his high-school ex-girlfriend Roxanne (Berry) recruits him on a high-stakes U.S. intelligence mission.

It is directed by Julian Farino, and produced by the U.S.’s Closest to the Hole Productions, owned by Wahlberg. The producers are Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Jeff Waxman.

The producers have applied for Croatia’s 25 cash rebate under the working title “The Union,” so the Croatian Audiovisual Center could only confirm a project of such a name was filmed in the country during September.

Exclusive: J.K. Simmons (Being the Ricardos), Jackie Earle Haley (The First Lady), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Suicide Squad), Jessica De Gouw (The Secrets She Keeps) and Alice Lee (Brittany Runs a Marathon) have signed on to star alongside Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry in the Netflix thriller Our Man from Jersey, from director Julian Farino (Ballers).

The film centers on Mike (Wahlberg), a down-to-earth construction worker from Jersey, who is quickly thrust into the world of super spies and secret agents when his high school ex-girlfriend Roxanne (Berry) recruits him on a high-stakes U.S. intelligence mission. Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Jeff Waxman will produce the pic written by David Guggenheim and Joe Barton.

Simmons won his first Oscar back in 2015 for his portrayal of cut-throat jazz instructor Fletcher in Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, notching his second nom this year for his supporting turn in Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos. The...

SAG Award-winning and Oscar-nominated actor Richard E. Grant has joined the cast of its new live-action drama series ‘Nautilus.’

Coming from Moonriver TV and Seven Stories, the series tells Jules Verne’s epic story from Captain Nemo’s point of view: an Indian Prince robbed of his birthright and family, a prisoner of the East India Mercantile Company and a man bent on revenge against the forces that have taken everything from him. But once Nemo sets sail with his ragtag crew on board the awe-inspiring Nautilus, he not only battles with his enemy, but discovers a wondrous underwater world, learns to take his place as leader of the crew, and goes on an unforgettable adventure beneath the sea.

Grant guest stars in the series, playing the charismatic leader of the port town of Karajaan, who Captain Nemo and the crew encounter on their adventures.

Also announced as joining the...

Continuing its strong relationship with top-notch Australian drama series, London-based Dcd Rights has acquired for international distribution the anticipated high-end series “Love Me,” starring Hugo Weaving.

The first drama series to enter production for Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia, “Love Me” also marks its first project for Australian SVOD service Binge, launched in May last year by the Foxtel Group.

News of the “Love Me” acquisition comes as Dcd Rights has pre-sold has season two of the “The Secrets She Keeps” to AMC Networks’ streaming service Sundance Now in the U.S. and Canada and BBC One and iPlayer in the U.K. The series is produced by Sydney-based Lingo Pictures Production for Paramount Plus.

Enjoying major production investment from Screen Australia and financed with support from Film Victoria, “Love Me” is now in production.

The six-hour romantic drama turns on how love can appear at the most inconvenient of times,...

U.S. TV distributor Dynamic Television has picked up worldwide distribution rights to Australian crime thriller series “Savage River.”

The show, about a female ex-con who is accused of a fresh murder, is directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and stars Katherine Langford.

The 6×57 minute series is co-created by writers Belinda Bradley, Franz Docherty and lead writer Giula Sandler. After being developed and commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the show is produced by Aquarius Films, whose principals Angie Fielder and Polly Staniford also take writing credits.

The production, filming in Melbourne and regional Victoria state, received major production investment from the federal government’s Screen Australia and additional financial support from Film Victoria and The Post Lounge.

The crew is top notch. It includes: Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Don McAlpine; production designer Jo Ford; costume designer Maria Pattison and composer David Hirschfelder.

The story involves a woman who returns to her hometown after eight years in prison.

Federal funding body Screen Australia confirmed its backing for a trio of Australian film projects that will now move forward into production. Director Robert Connolly (“The Dry”) is behind two of them as producer.

The funding decisions ensure that a steady stream of local films move into production, alongside the large volume of international films and TV series that are currently in Australia, taking advantage of generous incentives and good coronavirus control conditions.

Set in 1970’s Western Australia, “Kid Snow” is a drama about a washed-up Irish boxer who is offered a rematch against a man he fought 10 years ago, on a night that changed his life forever. He is faced with a chance to redeem himself when he meets a single mother and is forced to contemplate a future beyond boxing.

The film is directed by Paul Goldman (“Suburban Mayhem”) and written by John Brumpton (“Life”), Phillip Gwynne (“Australian Rules...

Screen Australia has announced $5.6 million of production funding for three feature films and returning seasons of Stan’s Bump and 10’s The Secret She Keeps.

The films include two Arenamedia projects: an new animation from the Oscar-winning Adam Elliot and a second feature from writer/director Alena Lodkina (Strange Colours), titled Petrol. The other film is Paul Goldman’s Western Australian feature film Kid Snow, produced by Unicorn Films.

Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason said: “We have been blown away by the volume of applications for production funding and are heartened at the breadth of distinct Australian stories that continue to come through.

“Adam Elliot is set to delight audiences around the world with a remarkable new drama in his signature claymation style; and we’re thrilled to support writer/director Alena Lodkina whose 2017 feature Strange Colours premiered at the Venice Film Festival, as she expands on her unique voice with striking follow up Petrol.

Exclusive: Lifetime has revealed its 2021 summer slate, consisting of a lineup of six original titles and four acquired inspired by true stories. Following the Summer of Secrets theme, the original Lifetime films will take on true stories of secrecy and deception, and premiere every Saturday and Sunday night from May 31 to June 27.

Lifetime will kick off Summer of Secrets on Memorial Day with double feature of acquired films A Party Gone Wrong and The Secrets She Keeps. A Party Gone Wrong stars Shellie Sterling as a woman who finds herself in the middle of a dark money-making scheme. Emily Miceli and Zoe Cramford stars in The Secrets She Keeps as a mother-daughter duo.

The additional acquired titles are Reel One Entertainment’s Cradle Did Fall and Picture Perfect Lies.

Gone Mom, starring Annabeth Gish and Warren Christie, will be the first Lifetime original film of the Summer of Secrets slate.

Elle Fanning, star and executive producer of Civic Center Media/MRC Television’s Hulu series The Great, is expanding her relationship with the indie studio partnership. She and her sister Dakota Fanning have teamed to launch Lewellen Pictures production company and have entered a first-look television deal with the studio, a joint venture between UTA and MRC. The Fanning sisters plan to develop feature film and television projects, as well as other forms of media, including podcasts.

Their first project under the pact is an adaptation of Megan Miranda’s bestselling novel The Last House Guest, which is being developed as a crime thriller series. Sarah Walker will write and executive produce the series. It centers on an intimate friendship between two girls who fall violently in love with each other’s differences, which, in the end, create doubt, betrayal and tragedy. The Fannings will...

BBC America has set a U.S. premiere date for the salvaged “Doctor Who” serial “Fury From the Deep,” AMC Networks announced Wednesday.

The six animated episodes were produced by BBC Studios last year using audio tracks from the original installments starring Patrick Troughton as The Doctor. (The original 1968 versions are among the classic “Doctor Who” episodes that are famously missing from the BBC archives.) The updated animated versions, which aired in the U.K. back in September, will get their U.S. debut on BBC America on Sunday, March 21.

The announcement came along with a slew of other new premiere dates for AMC’s various networks and streaming platforms, including BBC America, IFC, the flagship AMC linear network, Shudder and Acorn TV.

See the full list of dates below.

AMC

“Ride with Norman Reedus” Season 5

Premieres Sunday, March 7 at Midnight Et/11c on AMC and AMC+

Early access begins Sunday,...

Antonio Gambale led the winners at Tuesday’s Screen Music Awards, picking up two prizes for his work on Netflix’s Unorthodox.

This year’s ceremony, jointly staged by Apra Amcos and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers, was virtual, hosted by Justine Clarke, Meyne Wyatt and Claudia Karvan.

Clarke used the opportunity to urge government to support the industry, in particular screen composers, in the wake of Covid-19.

“I implore all of you listening, and in particular the Federal Government, not to leave the Australian composers behind as you undertake industry reform.

“There remains a huge opportunity for the Australian Government to further invest in the creation and commissioning of Australian content, and in particular, our composers, to fully celebrate their skills and talent. There is now greater risk that our creatives, our composers, and our small businesses will be left behind in the fast-changing global landscape that is ahead of us.

Aacta has unveiled the final set of nominees for its upcoming awards, including the craft categories in television and documentary, as well as those up for the VFX, casting and the Best Asian Film awards.

Leading the charge in television is Matchbox Pictures/Dirty Films’ Stateless, which notched another 11 nominations today, taking its overall tally to 18.

Fellow ABC series Mystery Road, produced by Bunya Productions, follows with a total of 14 nominations.

Stateless helmers Emma Freeman and Jocelyn Moorhouse are both nominated for Best Direction in A Television Drama or Comedy. They will vie against Mystery Road‘s Wayne Blair and Warwick Thornton, and Simon Francis, who shot Anne Edmond’s Amazon stand-up special.

Thornton is a double nominee, also garnering recognition for his cinematography on Mystery Road, up against Marden Dean for The Commons; Martin McGrath for Operation Buffalo, and Bonnie Elliott for Stateless.

Nominated in the TV screenplay category...

AMC Networks’ streaming service Sundance Now has snapped up the rights to Playmaker Media’s The Commons for the US and Canada, to premiere December 3.

It is the fourth Aussie drama the streamer has picked up this year, with the thriller to sit alongside other acquisitions Bad Mothers, The Secrets She Keeps, and Upright.

Distributed by Sony Pictures Television, the somewhat prophetic series, created and written by Shelley Birse and originally commissioned by Stan, is set in a Sydney of the near future, one that is at “the crossroads of climate change and the cutting edge of biotechnology”.

Joanne Froggatt leads the cast as Eadie, a neuropsychologist who longs to have a child her vector biologist husband, Lloyd (David Lyons). However, multiple unsuccessful IVF treatments have put her dreams of motherhood on hold. Meanwhile, the world around her is in chaos, as global warming and parasitic diseases have made the...

The casting directors behind Babyteeth, Measure for Measure, Paper Champions and The True History of the Kelly Gang will square off in the feature film category at the upcoming Casting Guild of Australia (Cga) Awards.

Bert and Amanda LABONTé will host the virtual ceremony on Facebook November 28, recognising casting across all mediums including film, TV, advertising, theatre and online.

In TV drama, the casting directors behind Mystery Road (season 2), The Heights (season 2), Neighbours and Wentworth (Season 8) have each been recognised with nods, while in the running for the TV Miniseries & Telemovie category are those who worked on Deadhouse Dark, Halifax: Retribution, Operation Buffalo and The Secrets She Keeps.

In contention in the TV comedy race are Black Comedy (season 4), How to Stay Married (season 2), The Other Guy (season 2) and Upright.

Leading the nominees overall are Nathan Lloyd and Natalie Jane Harvie with four nods each, while Kirsty McGregor, Stevie Ray,...

Antony Partos at last year’s Screen Music Awards.

Antony Partos leads the nominees for the upcoming Screen Music Awards, staged by Apra Amcos and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers (Agcs).

Partos, the Agcs president, is among 46 nominees across 12 categories, with 36 projects recognised across shorts, TV, advertising, features and soundtrack albums.

Given Covid, this year the awards will be held online, streaming via YouTube on December 1 from 7pm Aedt. Justine Clarke will preside over hosting duties.

Partos has earned two nods for his work on Operation Buffalo, including Best Television Theme and Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie. He’s also up for two more awards: Best Music for Documentary for Maralinga Tjarutja and Best Original Song Composed for the Screen for Total Control’s ‘Edge of Something’, with co-writers Missy Higgins and Matteo Zingales.

Melbourne screen composer and music producer Cornel Wilczek has scored three nominations, including...

‘The Masked Singer.’

Network 10 is sticking to tried-and-true formats next year, its schedule and investment in local content unaffected by the pandemic-induced advertising downturn.

While all the new and returning shows unveiled today were commissioned before the Federal Government’s media reforms scrapped the local content sub-quotas, executives say that had no bearing on its strategy for 2021.

New to the slate next year are Making It Australia, an adaptation of the NBCUniversal format, a local version of the UK’s The Dog House and The First Inventors, a co-commission with Nitv. (See separate story).

The network continues to commission children’s dramas, with the second series of Jonathan M. Shiff Productions’ The Bureau of Magical Things, the Stephen Jaggi Company’s teen mystery drama Dive Club (a co-commission with Netflix) and a third show yet to be announced. All will premiere on 10 Shake.

“We will deliver a 50-week schedule next year,...

‘The Masked Singer.’

Network 10 is sticking to tried-and-true formats next year, its schedule and investment in local content unaffected by the pandemic-induced advertising downturn.

While all the new and returning shows unveiled today were commissioned before the Federal Government’s media reforms scrapped the local content sub-quotas, executives say that had no bearing on its strategy for 2021.

New to the slate next year are Making It Australia, an adaptation of the NBCUniversal format, a local version of the UK’s The Dog House and The First Inventors, a co-commission with Nitv. (See separate story).

The network continues to commission children’s dramas, with the second series of Jonathan M. Shiff Productions’ The Bureau of Magical Things, the Stephen Jaggi Company’s teen mystery drama Dive Club (a co-commission with Netflix) and a third show yet to be announced. All will premiere on 10 Shake.

“We will deliver a 50-week schedule next year,...

Production is underway in Adelaide, South Australia, on seasonal comedy film “A Sunburnt Christmas.” The film is set as an original production for local streaming platform Stan.

Directed by Christiaan Van Vuuren (“Bondi Hipsters,” “The Other Guy”), the film is the story of a single mother struggling to raise her children on their family farm. Their hardscrabble life is interrupted by the arrival of a runaway criminal who smashes his way into their property and their lives.

The cast is headed by Daniel Henshall (Snowtown, Bloom), Sullivan Stapleton (Animal Kingdom, Ride Like A Girl), and Ling Cooper Tang. Child actors include Lena Nankivell, Eaden McGuinness and Tatiana Goode.

“Sunburnt Christmas” is an Every Cloud Productions film, in association with Highview Productions, from an original concept by Gretel Vella, Eillot Vella and Tim Walker. Lisa Scott of Highview Productions is producer, with executive producers Fiona Eagger and Deb Cox for Every Cloud,...

Mansoor Noor in ‘The Furnace.’

When Mansoor Noor decided to study at the Actors Centre Australia in 2014 after playing the lead in the ABC sci-fi series Shifters and a supporting role in the ABC docudrama Singapore 1942: End of Empire, it was a big gamble.

“It was a huge investment and risk for me, given there were hardly any people that looked like me on the screen and stages, unless it was a stereotype,” Noor tells If.

“I’m so glad I did because of the changes we are starting to see now, although in the the majority of my on-set experiences, I have yet to see the same shift to diversity we are seeing on screen.”

Noor’s career is flourishing, reflecting his versatility. He played a bad cop in Cleverman, a doctor in Rake, a journalist in The Secrets She Keeps, an impressionable young scientist in Eddie Arya’s thriller Risen,...

Jessica de Gouw in ‘Operation Buffalo.’

After starring in Network 10’s The Secrets She Keeps and the ABC’s Operation Buffalo, Jessica de Gouw’s career continues to flourish while many in her profession are idle due to the pandemic.

The London-based actress heads to Austria next month to start filming the second season of Vienna Blood, the British/Austrian murder mystery which screened on BBC2, PBS in the US, Germany’s Zdf and Austria’s Orf.

Adapted from Frank Tallis’ novels and set in 1900s Vienna, the series starred Matthew Beard as Max Liebermann, a doctor and protégé of Sigmund Freud. When Liebermann comes into contact with Oskar Rheinhardt (Juergen Maurer), a detective struggling with a baffling murder case, he agrees to help solve the investigation.

In the show produced by Red Arrow Studios’ Endor Productions and Austria’s Mr Film, de Gouw she played Amelia Lydgate, a...

Australian thriller The Secrets She Keeps, currently airing on BBC One and iPlayer, takes the audience to a very dark place says Laura Carmichael. Her character Agatha, a supermarket worker who befriends a pregnant blogger, ‘does such unbelievable things, the most irresponsible things’ driven ‘by the impulse of motherhood’.

Building a crime thriller around that impulse makes the series relatable, says Carmichael. At its heart, the show is about ‘wanting to be a mum and wanting to be the perfect mum.’ As her character’s backstory unfolds, ‘you understand her’ says Carmichael, though ‘she absolutely puts people through hell.’ Whether Agatha could ever be forgiven, she says, is a question for the audience to mull.

There’s no talk of a second series as yet for The Secret She Keeps. ‘It was taken from the book, which stands alone,’ Carmichael explains, ‘but it would be great to revisit and see what would happen.

To mark the release of The Secrets She Keeps on 10th August, we’ve been given 2 copies to give away on DVD.

Successful mummy-blogger Meghan meets shelf-stacker Agatha in the supermarket of her affluent Sydney suburb. The pair are both pregnant, bonding over the similar due dates of their babies, but as they grow closer, Agatha becomes more and more obsessed with Meghan’s “perfect” life. However under the surface, problems with her high-flying TV exec husband Jack and tension with his best friend Simon mean Meghan is keeping plenty of secrets of her own…

Meanwhile, the father of Agatha’s child, Hayden is away on duty and might not be as excited about the baby as Agatha is, forcing her to confront the question: when the life you want isn’t yours, how far will you go to get it?

A fascinating exploration of female friendship, urban class divide,...

In the closing minutes of The Secrets She Keeps’ penultimate episode, child-abductor Agatha made a run for it with stolen baby Benjamin. 12 days earlier, in a premeditated kidnapping, she’d taken Baby Ben from hospital hours after he was born and – after wearing a fake pregnancy prosthetic for months, pretended that she had given birth to him.

Ben had trouble feeding from a bottle and became ill with a fever and suspected meningitis. Agatha refused to seek medical attention for him, fearing that his true identity would be discovered if she took him to hospital. Eventually, her boyfriend Hayden and his mother forced her to take ‘Rory’ to the surgery, but when the doctor insisted on admitting him to hospital, Agatha ran away with him, throwing away her mobile phone so that she couldn’t be traced.

Agatha took Ben to the grave of her stillborn daughter Chloe, where two...

Warning: contains spoilers for The Secrets She Keeps

First: if you’re watching The Secrets She Keeps on BBC One on Monday and Tuesday nights and don’t want to see plot spoilers for how it unfolds, please walk away now. However, if you’ve already binged all six episodes on BBC iPlayer, step this way.

The Secrets She Keeps is a 2017 novel by Michael Robotham, a former investigative journalist turned ghost writer, now a leading Australian crime author. The book is fiction, but its central plot – the abduction of a new-born from a hospital hours after birth – is reported to be inspired by a real life kidnapping.

In July 1994, Abbie Humphries was abducted from the Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre in the UK city of Nottingham by a woman posing as a nurse. Dressed in a wig and nurse’s uniform, 22-year-old Julie Kelley took the five-hour-old baby from her...

Even people who come from vastly diverse backgrounds can have one major aspect in life that will forever hold them together. That’s certainly true for the two female characters who lead the new psychological thriller television series, ‘The Secrets She Keeps.’ The six-part show features the women as they realize their existences aren’t so different, […]

The post Jessica De Gouw is Happily Pregnant Despite Husband’s Concerns on The Secrets She Keeps appeared first on Shockya.com.

Michael Dorman and Jessica de Gouw in ‘The Secrets She Keeps.’

When Lingo Pictures’ The Secrets She Keeps premieres on BBC1 at 9pm on July 6, it will mark a milestone as the first Australian-produced TV drama to screen in primetime on the BBC’s flagship channel – at least in recent memory.

The BBC acquired the UK rights to the psychological thriller commissioned by Network 10, starring Laura Carmichael, Jessica de Gouw, Michael Dorman and Ryan Corr, in February but did not disclose the channel or timeslot.

According to Screen Australia’s records, the only other Australian drama to air on primetime on BBC1 was The Cry, a UK co-production.

Five Bedrooms and A Place to Call Home screened during the daytime on the channel. Picnic At Hanging Rock was on BBC2, Romper Stomper on BBC3 and Mystery Road, Safe Harbour and The Slap on BBC4.

Delighted with the prestige slot,...

Helen Bowden.

Lingo Pictures MD Helen Bowden today called on the Federal Government to adopt the model set out in the Screen Australia/Acma options paper which would require all commercial networks, pay channels and Svod services to invest a percentage of their revenues in new Australian content.

Option 3 would also mean more funding for children’s programming for the ABC and Sbs to offset the likely reduction in kids’ content on commercial networks, and harmonising the Producer, Location and Pdv offsets at a single rate across all platforms.

But Bowden added the caveat that networks should not be told to fund a specific number of hours, arguing: “They can choose to do what works for them; they know their businesses.”

In a web session with Screen Producers Australia CEO Matt Deaner, Bowden suggested that model could also apply to the broadcasters’ catch-up platforms as linear viewing continues to decline.

The Seven Network’s ‘Extreme Weddings.’

The Seven, Nine and 10 networks insist they are not stockpiling Australian dramas and other local programming despite the suspension of the local content quotas for the rest of this year.

Last week Screen Producers Australia CEO Matt Deaner slammed the government’s decision to suspend the quotas for drama, documentary and children’s programming as a very blunt tool which has the “potential of crippling an industry already on its knees.”

Deaner said: “With no incentive for the broadcasters to release hundreds of hours of already delivered but not yet broadcast children’s, drama and documentary content, it harms the Australian public’s ability to access the content which is sitting gathering dust on shelves.”

The Nine Network, which has seen shows including The Voice Australia, The Block and Endemol Shine Australia’s drama Rdfs suspend or delay production, rejects that notion.

“We are...