SBS commissions Top End crime drama Dusty
22 June 2009
SBS has commissioned new production company TMG Media to develop a 13 part crime drama series based on the character Detective Dusty Buchanon, star of AFI-winner Phillip (Australian Rules) Gwynne’s novel The Build Up.
Dusty will be set in Australia’s Top End, in and around Darwin, the self-styled Capital of the Second Chance.
SBS’s Director of Content – Television and Online, Matt Campbell said:
“What a joy it is to find an audacious new approach to drama. In these tough economic times SBS is proud to be able to support writers and producers who want to make something truly innovative.
“Dusty will not just be your average crime-a-week Aussie series, but something that makes audiences realise just how compelling television can be. The series is the perfect example of what talented people working closely with a forward thinking and engaged network like SBS can achieve. I am tremendously excited by it.”
Phillip Gwynne, working from the Blue Mountains where he is putting the finishing touches to his new novel Swerve, said:
“This is a wonderful chance to make something that is both epic and intimate, to showcase the extraordinary landscape, history and people of the Top End.”
Gwynne, who has lived and worked in Darwin, has been contracted by Pan MacMillan to write another two novels in the Dusty series.
TMG Media is a new company headed up by Michael (Bra Boys) Lawrence and Glenys (Feeling Sexy) Rowe who said:
“Thus far we have Academy nominated Chris Noonan to direct, with Phillip Gwynne heading up a writing team that will include a major journalist as well as name screenwriters from both the UK and US. We intend to make a series that will change the way audiences think about television. It’s a cracking yarn.”
Lawrence, a director of VAS Australia, the action sports DVD distributor who will handle the subsequent distribution of Dusty is best known for the business oriented marketing he brought to Bra Boys. Lawrence said today:
“We are a very returns and brand driven company, and Dusty is our first major television production. We will create a desire for this product and deliver on it.”