News

Galvanized by pre-sales to France, Germany and Spain on awaited Icelandic crime series “Reykjavik Fusion,” Erik Barmack’s ahead of the game L.A-based Wild Sheep Content has boarded “Good Bones,” a New Zealand murder mystery series.

Wild Sheep by Barmack, a former Netflix head of international originals with oversight over “The Witcher,” “Casa de Papel,” “Kingdom” and “Sacred Games,” will co-produce “Good Bones,” with Luminous Beast.

One of New Zealand most in-demand new production companies Luminous Beast burst on the scene with Sky Originals series “INSiDE,” a 2021 International Emmy winner, and then “After the Party,” picked up by the U.K.’s Channel 4, and whose lead performance by Robyn Malcom was hailed by The Guardian as “among the best television portrayals in years, from anywhere in the world.”

Backed by The Mediapro Studio, Wild Sheep will also handle international distribution.

“Good Bones” is now funded by Sky New Zealand and Wild Sheep Content.

Nz On Air and the New Zealand Film Commission are funding the development of 10 drama series ideas with international and domestic appeal.

The initiative, Raupapa Whakaari Drama to the World, will support each writer/producer team to develop high-end scripted series with an initial grant of Nz$10,000.

Each team will attend a series drama lab held in conjunction with Script to Screen, where international advisers will give feedback on story and market to assist the teams to further develop their concepts and strengthen appeal to the international marketplace.

Following the lab and submission of the re-worked projects, four teams will be selected to receive additional development funding of up to Nz$80,000.

Nzfc CEO Annabelle Sheehan said: “There really has never been a better time to tell stories than now, thanks to the global expansion of mega platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and now Disney with Disney+ and its takeover of Hulu this week.

This is the DVD/Blu-ray review for Tracker, directed by Ian Sharp and starring Ray Winstone, Temuera Morrison, Gareth Reeves, Mark Mitchinson, Daniel Musgrove and Andy Anderson. Following the Boer war, former South African farmer Arjan van Diemen (Ray Winstone) lands in New Zealand looking to start a new life. He’s had enough of war and is still grieving the loss of his wife and daughters. Almost immediately he’s drawn into a new drama. A Maori man, Kereama (Temuera Morrison) is falsely accused of killing a British soldier, fleeing into the New Zealand wilderness. Given van Diemen’s superior tracking skills, local army man Major Carlysle (Gareth Reeves) recruits him to track the fugitive. Van Diemen successfully locates the Kereama and forces him to return to face justice. However, the Maori continues to plead his innocence – claims which eventually begin to work their way under the God-fearing van Diemen’s skin.