WWI Australian Mini-Series In The Works
Director Jeremy Sims and producer Bill Leimbach are looking to adapt Joy Chambers’ sweeping war saga.
Beneath Hill 60's director Jeremy Sims (pictured) and producer Bill Leimbach are attempting to secure funding for a 13 part mini-series to be adapted from Joy Chambers' best-selling World War One-set novel, Vale Valhalla, with the series to be rebranded Caroline's War.
Beginning in Colonial Queensland at the end of the 19th century and playing out its shocking and emotional conclusion on the battlefields of France during the Great War of 1914-18, Jeremy Sims says the epic drama, which will be told through the lives of three families, will tap into the fascination that audiences have for the Great War.
"I will look to a series like The World At War for historical detail as a guide as it's still one of the most popular and profitable documentary series ever made," Sims expanded. "The style will be big, strong and confident and as showrunner, I will find the right writers and directors to work with. The story offers a unique opportunity to dramatise both the conditions that laid the foundations that swept the world at the end of the Great War and the war itself. We intend to bring a great cast together, world-renowned actors, who will allow this story to be made on the scale and with the detail to deliver the emotional punch."
Speaking of the cast, while names have not been confirmed, the show's producers give an indication of the type of talent they aspire to attract with the series' ready-to pitch poster revealing the faces of Australian Chris Hemsworth (Thor), emerging Australian talent Bella Heathcote (Beneath Hill 60 and who is set to be seen in Tim Burton's upcoming Dark Shadows), and strapping British actor Tom Hardy (Warrior, Inception, Bronson, and who also appropriately starred in the period mini-series Wuthering Heights) - with the poster also suggesting some type of love triangle between the three.
With the series' backers comparing the historical drama to the likes of the huge UK hit, Downton Abbey, Leimbach says there is a fantastic opportunity for a TV Network to capitalise on this extraordinary story. "Joy Chambers is a master storyteller, her book is a page turner and the story is devastatingly dramatic with a structure built upon the proven dramatic foundation of a highly charged relationship challenge."
With regard to securing the necessary funding and support to make the series, Leimbach notes that, "We have interest from an Australian network at this stage and our team heads overseas shortly in search of international partners."
The project certainly has the blessing of Vale Valhalla's author Joy Chambers who is "confident that Jeremy Sims and Bill Leimbach are the perfect couple to make this mini-series." If the adaptation goes ahead, Chambers will be attached as Executive Producer.
For more information about the production, head here.
Picture caption: Jeremy Sims, courtesy of Getty Images/Lisa Maree Williams.
