By Travis Johnson
Foxtel is turning Joan Lindsay’s classic Australian mystery novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock, into a multi-part prestige drama. Fremantle Media will handle production duties, with a script from Beatrix Christian and Alice Addison. Part financing comes from Screen Australia.
Of course, this isn’t the novel’s first adaptation. Famously, it was filmed by Peter Weir in 1975, and his version is widely regarded as one of the greatest Australian films ever made. It has also been translated to the stage, by Laura Annawyn Shamas – the most recent production toured in early 2016.
This is not the first classic Australian property to receive such treatment, with Fred Schepisi’s Devil’s Playground receiving a much-belated sequel, and the hit drama Wentworth being mined from the grave of the cult, camp classic, Prisoner. Whether audiences respond with the same enthusiasm to this latest redux remains to be seen.
“Punishingly slow”…? Hilarious assessment.