The Luminaries: trailer

BBC has released a trailer for its period saga The Luminaries, filmed in New Zealand.

The cast includes many familiar names including Ewen Leslie, Erik Thomson, Callan Mulvey, Joel Tobeck, Michael Sheasby and more.

An Australian broadcaster is yet to be confirmed.

An epic adventure mystery based on the Man Booker prize-winning novel of the same name. Set on the wild West coast of New Zealand’s South Island at the height of the 1860s gold rush, The Luminaries tells an intricately woven, suspenseful tale of love, murder, magic, and revenge.

The story begins in 1865. Anna Wetherell (Eve Hewson) has travelled to New Zealand to forge a new life. On the last day of her voyage, a romantic first encounter with the radiant Emery Staines (Himesh Patel) fills her with great expectations for what lies ahead. But the scheming fortune-teller Lydia Wells (Eva Green) has other ideas for Anna, and lays a trap to ensure that the planned rendezvous between the young lovers never takes place.

Deceived, swindled, and betrayed, Anna’s fortunes begin to fall. She is drawn into an elaborate plot of blackmail, involving opium, gold, shipwreck, fraud, and false identity, which ultimately finds her framed for murder and fighting for her life.

But the bond between these star-crossed lovers is more than mere affinity. Anna and Emery are what is known as ‘astral twins’: they were born at the very same instant, and under the very same sky, which means that they share a single destiny.

When Emery vanishes without a trace, leaving Anna without an alibi for a murder she did not commit, the noose of the plot begins to tighten around her. Faced with the impossible, she must ask: do we make our fortunes, or does fortune make us?

Eva Green – Lydia Wells
Eve Hewson – Anna Wetherell
Himesh Patel – Emery Staines
Ewen Leslie – Crosbie Wells
Marton Csokas – Francis Carver
Benedict Hardie – Alistair Lauderback
Erik Thomson – Dick Mannering
Richard Te Are – Te Rau Tauwhare
Callan Mulvey – George Shepard
Kieran Charnock – Edgar Clinch
Paolo Rotondo – Aubert Gascoigne
Yoson An – Sook Yongsheng
Matt Whelan – Cowell Devlin
Joel Tobeck – Benjamin Lowenthal
Matt Sunderland – Joseph Prichard
Byron Coll – Charlie Frost
Erroll Shand – Harald Nilssen
Gary Young – Quee Long
Mark Mitchinson – Thomas Balfour
Michael Sheasby – Walter Moody

Eleanor Catton – Writer, Creator and Executive Producer for Working Title Television
Mona Qureshi – Executive Producer for the BBC
Tim Bevan – Executive Producer for Working Title Television
Andrew Woodhead – Executive Producer for Working Title Television
Eric Fellner – Executive Producer for Working Title Television
Christian Vesper – Executive Producer for Fremantle
Claudia Bluemhuber – Executive Producer for Silver Reel
Tim White Executive Producer for Southern Light Films
Lisa Chatfield – Producer
Judith Trye – Co-Producer
Luke Robinson – Associate Producer
Claire McCarthy – Director, Executive Producer