Screen Australia to fund development of: supernatural drama Secret Threads, crime dramedy Partners in Crime, adaptation of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, musical comedy High Rotation, and prostitution comedy drama Rough
Canadian TV
Jann Arden and Sean Beak to guest, Laura Vandervoot, Colin Ferguson and Lucas Bryant to return to Global’s Private Eyes
Long-time readers of TMINE will know I’m a sucker for a killer virus show. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was exposure at an early age to The Andromeda Strain and The Satan Bug, or maybe the titles of Survivorsscared me silly.
Whatever it was, I’ve always eagerly awaited the arrival of whatever new killer virus show has come our way, whether it be that Andromeda Strainremake, Helix, Outbreak or The Burning Zone.
The Hot Zone
The Burning Zone is of note because it was a clear reference to the definitive non-fiction killer virus book of the 90s: Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone, one of the 100 ‘books that shaped a century of science’, which naturally I devoured when it came out. It was a three-pronged medical history, looking at the emergence of the Ebola virus and Marburg in Zaire, other related ‘filoviruses‘, and the arrival in the US of a strain of Ebola in 1989 and how the US army responded.
The Burning Zone was nonsense. And initially terrible. Nevertheless, it was both clearly inspired by The Hot Zone and clearly different enough that it wouldn’t infringe Preston’s copyright. Outbreak, too, was very obviously an adaptation of The Hot Zone but a sufficiently loose one that no lawsuit could have touched it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTnDIHXMD20
Now, just a couple of decades later, one TV show dares to obtain the copyright clearances that others failed to acquire. It’s The Hot Zone and it’s a little bit silly, but nevertheless still very frightening.
Other than the events at the BFI, The Southbank Centre isn’t one of the venues TMINE regularly monitors for TV-related fare.
However, I’ve just noticed that tomorrow, to coincide with the release of Good Omens on Amazon on Friday, the man-god Neil Gaiman is discussing said show, which is based on the novel he wrote with Terry Pratchett.
There are still tickets left, so get booking if you’re interested.
Neil Gaiman: Good Omens
Date: Wednesday May 29 Timings: 7.30pm-9pm Venue: Royal Festive Hall
The master storyteller reflects on reinventing the modern classic Good Omens for the screen, joined by stars of the series David Tennant and Michael Sheen.
Before he died in 2015, Sir Terry Pratchett asked Neil Gaiman to make a television series of the internationally beloved novel they wrote together thirty years ago.
Ahead of the series launching on Amazon Prime Video and the BBC, hear from Gaiman himself about adapting the novel as well as being the showrunner for the series, which stars David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Jon Hamm and Miranda Richardson, to name but a few.
For one night only, Gaiman speaks about bringing his original collaboration with Pratchett to life, the differences between page and screen, how the characters continue to surprise him and why this wicked comedy about Armageddon remains relevant today.
Chairing the conversation is journalist, broadcaster and writer Kirsty Wark.
Based on Joe Hill’s best-selling novel of the same name, NOS4A2 follows Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings), a gifted young woman with the supernatural ability to find lost things. This puts her on a collision course with Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto), an immortal villain who feeds off the souls of children then deposits what remains of them into Christmasland – a twisted place of his imagination where every day is Christmas Day and unhappiness is against the law.
Also stars: Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Virginia Kull, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jahkara Smith.
