Funding for Seachange, Mystery Road.

Screen Australia has announced production funding totalling $4 million which includes the Seachange revival and a second season of Mystery Road.

Both had been previously announced by Nine and ABC, respectively, but these provide more insight into their synopses.

Head of Content at Screen Australia,Sally Caplan said: “Fiona Eagger and Deb Cox from Every Cloud productions are the top of their game and we’re delighted to be supporting them in bringing the beloved Pearl Bay into the 21st century rebooting popular series Seachange with a new generation of characters and community issues.”

Head of Indigenous at Screen Australia, Penny Smallacombe said, “It’s fantastic to be supporting the return of popular television series Mystery Road. Mystery Road was Bunya Productions first television drama production and became the highest ranking non-children’s show in ABC iview history. The team are poised to build on the success of the first series and we can’t wait to see where they take it next.”

Seachange: Paradise Reclaimed  (working title)
Every Cloud Productions & ITV Studios Australia
Genre Drama, Comedy
Producer Lois Randall
Executive Producers Fiona Eagger, Deb Cox, David Mott, Sigrid Thornton
Director Wayne Blair (set up director)
Writers Deb Cox, Elizabeth Coleman, Jo Martino, Michael Millar, Jaime Marc Browne, Ian Meadows, Joshua Mapleston
Broadcaster Nine Network
International Sales ITV Global Entertainment Ltd
Synopsis: Twenty years on – when Laura Gibson returns to the beachside paradise of Pearl Bay to attend the birth of her estranged daughter’s baby – rising seas levels, community cover-ups and some very stormy weather conspire to convince her this town now needs her as much as she needs it.

Mystery Road S2
Bunya Productions Pty Ltd
Genre Drama
Producers David Jowsey, Greer Simpkin
Executive Producer Ivan Sen
Directors TBC
Writers Blake Ayshford, Steven McGregor, Tim Lee, Kodie Bedford, Danielle MacLean
Broadcaster ABC
International Sales all3Media International
Synopsis: A mangrove swamp. An endless sky. A headless body. Detective Jay Swan takes on a grisly case in order to be closer to his family, but has he left it too late? Set in a small coastal community where the desert meets the ocean, secrets past and present run deep and dark.

There are also three online projects:

Australia’s Best Street Racer
An 8 x 5 minute mockumentary series that follows eager 18 year old Taylor James as he attempts to infiltrate Launceston’s late night street racing scene in his mum’s 1994 Holden Barina. The series has been co-created by Michael O’Neill and Dylan Hesp and was developed out of the Screen Australia and Screen Tasmania 2016 initiative Comedy Concentrate. Georgie Lewin (Plonk) will produce the series, with Nathan Earle (Plonk) on board as Executive Producer. This project was financed with support from Screen Tasmania.

Roborovski
A 12 minute animated short and virtual reality project that follows Roborovski, an adorable thimble sized hamster that spends his days in Marvin’s Pet Shop, hoping to find a family. When he is constantly overlooked by the people and animals around him his seething resentment and intense jealousy soon takes hold and a murderous side of little Roborovski is released. Dev Patel (Hotel Mumbai), John Collee (Happy Feet) and Tilda Cobham-Hervey (I Am Woman) have co-written the project and Patel and Cobham-Hervey are also co-directing. It will be produced by Jomon Thomas (Hotel Mumbai), Dev Patel, and Tilda Cobham-Hervey and co-produced by Mark Grentell (The Merger), and Elaine Beckett. Spectre Studios makers of Wyrmwood VR are using cutting edge technology to create this VR and animation project. This project was financed with support from Create NSW.

The Listies Work for Peanuts
A 6 x 8 minute comedy series from kids comedy duo Matthew Kelly and Richard Higgins known as The Listies. This family series will follow the pair as they cycle through a variety of bizarre jobs in order to pay their 10-year-old landlord Abernathy Peanuts. Judi McCrossin (Time Of Our Lives) and Kate Keegan will produce the series alongside Kelly and Higgins. The series will be directed by Darren Ashton whose credits include Offspring and Here Come the Habibs.