News

Offspring actor Matthew Le Nevez is set to star in the new Endemol Shine production for Network Ten - Brock.

Le Nevez will bring to life the story of one of Australia.s greatest and most complex sporting heroes, Peter Brock.

The cast will also include Ella Scott Lynch as Bev Brock, Steve Bisley as Harry Firth and Natalie Bassingthwaite as Julie Bamford.

Le Nevez, best known for his role as Dr Patrick Reid in the multi-award winning drama Offspring, is no stranger to portraying real-life individuals.

He has already played Matthew Wales in the critically acclaimed The Society Murders, Australian cricket legend Dennis Lillee in Howzat! Kerry Packer.s War and Damien Parer in Parer.s War.

Le Nevez said it was a privilege to be involved in the Brock project..

"Growing up as a kid, I watched Peter conquer the mountain many times and now to be playing him,...

Nikolai Nikolaeff.

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Nikolai Nikolaeff plays a supporting role in Daredevil, the Netflix-commissioned series based on the Marvel character created by Drew Goddard.

Charlie Cox (The Theory of Everything, Boardwalk Empire) is the lead, blind lawyer Matt Murdock by day and the crime-fighting superhero Daredevil by night in the Hell.s Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City.

Nikolaeff plays Vladimir, a Russian emigrant who with his brother Anatoly (Gideon Emery) is trying to forge a name for himself in the Us. He filmed his role in New York last year but the full cast has only just been revealed.

"Playing a character on a Marvel project and being in New York was an amazing experience for me," he told If today. "I can't tell quite articulate the feeling I had of getting off the subway in Red Hook (Brooklyn) that first day and walking down the street to set and seeing...

More than 80 actors, 15 writers and 50 crew members have agreed to participate in Project One Shot, an innovative short film that will be filmed in one single take on the Gold Coast on September 3.

As well as contributing their time and services, most have agreed to each donate $100 to fund the project, the brainchild of experienced assistant director Darwin Brooks.

Brooks will direct and produce the short as a single 15-minute Steadicam shot which will follow actors Ian Stenlake and John Batchelor, both Sea Patrol alumni, as they thread their way through 30 interconnecting mini scenes, linked to one overall, comedic story, at Sanctuary Cove. There will be no pick-ups.

Among the other on-camera talent involved will be Brisbane Channel 7 presenter Liz Cantor, Joss Mcwilliam (Water Rats, Flying Doctors) and last year.s Big Brother housemate Ben Zabel,

Cast and crew will be required to rehearse many times with and without the...

Elizabeth Debicki will play a doctor who is linked to the cases of two girls who mysteriously disappear in the wilds of Tasmania 15 years apart and fights to clear her name in The Kettering Incident.

Matt Le Nevez has been cast as a detective who becomes a manipulative and dangerous antagonist to her character. in the eight hour series which starts shooting in Tasmania next month.

Foxtel commissioned the drama, the first collaboration between writer/producer Vicki Madden.s Sweet Potato Films and Porchlight Films.

The directors are Rowan Woods and Tony Krawitz, with scripts by Madden, Andrew Knight, Cate Shortland and Louise Fox. Andy Walker is the series producer.

Screen Australia and Screen Tasmania are investors in the $15 million production and BBC Worldwide has international sales rights.

Madden.s writing credits include Lynda La Plante's Trial and Retribution, The Bill, Blood Brothers, Sea Patrol, Water Rats, McLeod.s Daughters and The Flying Doctors.

In case the three clips and photos we showed you earlier today weren't enough, another sneak peek has arrived from "Salem" Episode 1.04, entitled "Survivors," which reminds us heathens that a blessing can often be a curse in disguise!

"Salem," recently renewed by Wgn America for a second season, explores what really fueled the town's infamous witch trials and dares to uncover the dark, supernatural truth behind them.

Related Story: Visit our "Salem" Archive

The series stars Janet Montgomery as the ruthless but vulnerable Mary Sibley, Salem’s most powerful enchantress; Shane West as handsome, hardened war veteran John Alden – and Mary’s onetime love interest; Seth Gabel as local aristocrat Cotton Mather, who fans the flames of Salem’s witch hunt; Ashley Madekwe as Mary’s mysterious, carnal accomplice, Tituba; Xander Berkeley as chief politician Magistrate Hale; Tamzin Merchant as the forthright Anne Hale, an artist with a perilous attraction...

For the best part of 20 years Chris Blackburn tried his hand at writing film scripts, a sideline to his day jobs as a newspaper and TV reporter, reality show producer and, currently, as a co-executive producer on Big Brother.

Eighteen months ago he had an idea for a crime drama about a young man whose sister has been brutally murdered, set primarily in a row of vacant houses near his home on the north coast of Nsw.

Blackburn wrote the script and asked his son Tim, a TV editor who has directed several short films to direct. Entitled Burns Point, the film is now in day seven of a 21-day shoot in and around the town of Ballina.

Asked how he.s financed the film, Chris tells If, .It.s mostly me. I.ve saved up for this and put money aside." Cast and crew are working on deferred. fees in some cases.

The procession of Australian actors trying their luck in Hollywood continues with Nikolai Nikolaeff and Damien Bodie the latest to secure Us management.

Nikolaeff has signed with The Schiff Company, which represents A-list talent including Keira Knightley, Eminem, Helena Bonham Carter, Jeff Bridges, Dougray Scott and Dylan McDermott. Bodie signed with Genesis Entertainment Partners.

Both are represented in Australia by Aran Michael Management. Michael, who takes talent to the Us several times a year, introduced both actors to the management companies.

Unlike some Aussies who try to break into Hollywood early in their careers, Nikolaeff and Bodie have extensive resumes. This year Nikolaeff co-starred with Rachel Griffiths and Rodger Corser in Camp, the NBC summer series that was shot in northern Nsw, produced by Matchbox Pictures, Universal Studios and Berman-Braun.

Nikolaeff played the love interest of Griffiths' character, who vied with Corser for her affections. The series will air here on Seven during the summer.

Ditch Davey has joined the cast of the Us network series The Black Box, which stars Sherlock Holmes' Kelly Reilly as Elizabeth Black, a neuroscientist who struggles to hide her mental illness from her fiancé and family.

Vanessa Redgrave will play Dr. Hartramph, Elizabeth's psychiatrist. Davey is cast as Dr. Marc Bickman, a brilliant neurosurgeon.

Davey played Nemetes in Spartacus: War of the Damned, the New Zealand-produced 'sword and sandal' show which recently wrapped its third and final season.

He was a regular in Sea Patrol, All Saints and Blue Heelers and appeared in Justin Dix.s thriller Crawlspace. His other credits include Underbelly. Files, Satisfaction and Wilfred.

The Us network ABC commissioned The Black Box. Shooting of the 13 episodes starts in New York later this month, produced by Bold Films.

The show was created by Amy Holden Jones, whose screenwriting credits include Mystic Pizza, The Relic and Indecent Proposal.

Rebecca Gibney is set to star in and co-produce The Killing Field, a telemovie for the Seven network.

She.ll play the leader of a task force that.s sent to a country town to investigate a shocking crime.

The concept and screenplay came from Sarah Smith and Michaeley O'Brien. Samantha Lang (The Monkey.s Mask, episodes of My Place and Packed to the Rafters ) will direct.

Bill Hughes and Smith are producing for Seven, with Gibney as co-producer. Seven.s head of drama Julie McGauran is executive producer.

Smith co-created and produced with McGuaran Wild Boys and Rescue Special Ops for Southern Star Entertainment.

O.Brien.s screenwriting credits include episodes of Serangoon Road, Underbelly, Rescue Special Ops, City Homicide, McLeod.s Daughters, Sea Patrol and Blue Heelers.

Lang most recently directed Carlotta, the ABC telemovie which stars Jessica Marais as an Australian transgender pioneer who was a colourful figure in Kings Cross.

When Camp premieres in the Us on NBC next Wednesday at 10pm, few if any viewers will know the series set in a Us summer camp was shot in Australia with an Aussie cast.

Just how many Americans tune in, and how they respond, will be fascinating to see.

Executives from the Australian networks who saw the pilot episode at the La Screenings say the show has a flawed premise and has little or no hope of drawing an audience, at least in Australia.

Created by Liz Heldens (Friday Night Lights) and Peter Elkoff (Gossip Girl), it stars Rachel Griffiths as Mack Granger, the newly-divorced camp director/owner who is looking for a fresh start.

Rodger Corser plays Aussie Roger Shepard (all the other characters are American) who owns an upscale camp across the lake. He offers to buy her out and a love-hate relationship ensues. In the pilot there...

The weaker Australian dollar won.t help attract offshore productions to Australia unless the location rebate is lifted from 16.5% to 30%, according to Ausfilm, studios and post production executives.

Deluxe Australia M.D. Alaric McAusland welcomes the government.s $21.6 million grant to Disney.s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea remake and the one-off $20 million incentive for offshore production.

But he describes these measures as a .band aid. on the longer-term need to raise the offset to make Australia a globally-competitive location. McAusland characterises the post industry.s plight as the worst he.s experienced in more than 25 years.

.The easing of the dollar from parity provides the hope of some relief. However, the modelling done for us by Pwc shows that the increase in the offset to 30% would only begin to fully compensate for the state of the $A when it gets to 86 cents and below against the $Us," Ausfilm CEO Debra Richards told If.

There's a fun new show coming to NBC this summer -- "Camp," starring Rachel Griffiths as Mackenzie Granger, the owner and director of Little Otter Family Camp, "where Mother Nature and human nature collide."

The show description from the network has us seriously excited about this summer romp:

Still reeling from her recent divorce, Mackenzie is ready for a fresh start. She is running things on her own for the first time and scrambling to keep the cash-strapped Little Otter from going under. She considers a buyout offer from Roger Shepard (Rodger Corser, "Underbelly"), the arrogant but sexy owner of the upscale camp across the lake. Despite her better judgment, their love-hate relationship quickly escalates. Meanwhile, she begins to realize that her charming but much younger handyman, Cole (Nikolai Nikolaeff, "Sea Patrol"), might be interested in more than just a professional relationship.

In the midst of all this, Mackenzie is...

UK’s Sky Arts ‘Talks Music’ With The Stars Britain’s Sky Arts is launching a new music interview series, …Talks Music. The 10-part show will look at the careers of some of the world’s most iconic music legends. Confirmed guests so far include Nile Rodgers, Boy George, Jeff Beck and Blondie’s Deborah Harry and Chris Stein. Whizz Kid Entertainment is producing, with Malcolm Gerrie conducting the sit-downs in front of a live studio audience. Gerrie and guests will also take questions from the floor. Jeff Wurtz, of Inside The Actors Studio, is directing and Gerrie is exec producing. A fall debut is planned. Modern Times Group Buys Into UK Market For $23.6M Modern Times Group, an international broadcasting outfit that operates free and pay-tv in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Russia and Africa, has added a UK-based international distributor to its portfolio with the acquisition of 92.4% of Digital Rights Group...

At least two actors formerly represented by International Casting Services (Ics), the talent agency that is closing down after 52 years, have signed with other agents.

It.s expected that a number of other actors on Ics.s books will cross to Lisa Mann Creative Management (Lmcm), a process which will play out over the next week.

nm2942148 autoMelina McKenna[/link], a senior agent at Ics, is joining Lmcm on June 4. The decision to close Ics was sparked by the retirement of veteran agent Pauline Lee, If believes.

Lisa Mann told If that the question of which Ics actors would transfer to her agency is still in discussion. She said, .When Melina was offered senior agent position here at Lmcm we had no way of knowing that Ics.s doors were about to close, so the shock was as great to us as it was to her, the industry at large and...

James Naughton has been cast in Hostages, CBS‘ drama pilot from writer-director Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Jerry Bruckheimer TV and Warner Bros TV. Based on an Israeli format, the project centers on Ellen (Toni Collette), a successful surgeon who is selected to operate on the President of the United States (Naughton) and thrust into the middle of a political conspiracy when her family is taken hostage. Naughton, repped by Paradigm and Brookside Artist Management, is a theater veteran who has won Tonys for Chicago and City of Angels. He recently recurred on the CW’s Gossip Girl. Aussie Nikolai Nikolaeff (Sea Patrol) has been added to an all-Australian cast of NBC’s 10-episode summer series Camp, which will be filmed Down Under. The series follows the antics of teens at a lakeside summer camp run by director Mackenzie Greenfield (Rachel Griffiths). Nikolaeff, repped Aran Michael Management, plays the camp’s maintenance guy who loves food,...

The ABC has begun production of a new legal series which will showcase the talent of Australia’s acting talent pool.

The announcement:

Marta Dusseldorp (A Place to Call Home, Jack Irish, Crownies) returns as Senior Crown Prosecutor Janet King in the title role of the powerful new eight hour mini-series for ABC1, which begins production today.

Joining the cast are Vince Colosimo (Underbelly, The Great Gatsby) as Chief Superintendent Jack Rizzoli, and Damian Walshe-Howling (Underbelly, Brothers In Arms, The Time of Our Lives) as Owen Mitchell, a rising star prosecutor – each crucial in Janet’s campaign to expose the truth behind a shocking murder that strikes at the very heart of the justice system.

Also appearing in the compelling high stakes legal thriller are John Howard (Fury Road, Packed to the Rafters, All Saints), Sonia Todd (Rake, Home and Away, McLeod’s Daughters), Jessica Napier (Sea Patrol, McLeod’s Daughters), Deborah Kennedy (Rake,...

ABC Crownies spin-off, Janet King, has started production.

The eight-hour legal mini-series marks the return of Marta Dusseldorp (A Place to Call Home, Jack Irish) as Crownies senior crown prosecutor Janet King.

Joining the cast are Vince Colosimo (Underbelly) as chief superintendent Jack Rizzoli and Damian Walshe-Howling (Underbelly) as rising star prosecutor Owen Mitchell..Other new cast members include John Howard (Packed to the Rafters), Sonia Todd (Rake), Jessica Napier (Sea Patrol), Deborah Kennedy (Rake) and Tiriel Mora (Rake).

Former Crownies cast members who are returning include Hamish Michael, Ella Scott Lynch, Andrea Demetriades, Peter Kowitz, Christopher Morris, Indiana Evans, Jeanette Cronin, Aimee Pedersen and Lewis Fitz-Gerald.

The series is being produced by Screentime for the ABC.

Screentime.s executive chairman, Des Monaghan said: .Screentime is delighted that the strength of this production has attracted such an outstanding calibre of cast, to realise characters both new and returning. They will...

Relativity Media and Reel FX announced today that they have dated the upcoming animated comedy Turkeys, helmed by Jimmy Hayward, director of box office hit Horton Hears A Who! and animator on such films as Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. The film is jointly produced and financed by Relativity and Reel FX and is now set for theatrical release on November 14, 2014. Relativity has also announced that it has set the release date of Safe Haven, based on the best-selling novel from internationally-known author Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, Dear John) and directed by Oscar® and DGA-nominee Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules), by a few days next year to coincide with Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2013.

Turkeys stars the voice talent of Owen Wilson, who previously voiced Lightning McQueen in Disney Pixar’s Cars, Woody Harrelson from The Hunger Games and Dan Fogler, who previously voiced Zeng in Dreamworks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda.

The King of Soho

Tom Hiddleston (Loki in "The Avengers") will play adult magazine mogul Paul Raymond in a biopic called "The King of Soho" which Paul's son Howard Raymond will write.

The film is not to be confused with Michael Winterbottom's rival project of the same name starring Steve Coogan. [Source: Bleeding Cool]

Noah

Jennifer Connelly has finally entered negotiations to join Russell Crowe in Darren Aronofsky's "Noah" at Paramount and New Regency.

Noah is a man who loves Earth and all of its animal inhabitants, but has become disillusioned with the way humans have treated their planet. Connelly will play Noah's wife. [Source: Variety]

The Wolf Of Wall Street

Broadway thesp Cristin Milioti and Australian actress Margot Robbie ("Pan Am") are in talks to join Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf Of Wall Street". Shooting begins in August in New York.

Robbie would play Nadine, the wife of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio...

For some, actor David Lyons is best known as Dr. Simon Brenner from the last two seasons of ER. Others know him as The Cape from NBC’s short-lived 2011 superhero series.

In his native Australia, he’s famous for the navy drama Sea Patrol, but to most people he will forever be remembered as the skinny-dipping “you’re-so-naked” guy whose antics made Julia Roberts guffaw like a seagull choking on a bottle cap in Eat Pray Love.

EW has learned he is now joining the cast of the Nicholas Sparks romance Safe Haven, adding a far more menacing character to his repertoire: the angry ex-husband.

What good is a fairy-tale princess story without a Prince Charming? Even Kristen Stewart.s action-charged Snow White needs a Huntsman to lure in the young male demographic. So Disney has wisely added a prince to its pending Maleficent, a fantasy thriller that already has Angelina Jolie in the title role. Deadline says that the coveted prince part has gone to Brenton Thwaites, a relative newcomer from Australia who has a few television series to his credit including Sea Patrol, Home and Away and the recent TV movie version of Blue Lagoon that aired on the Lifetime Network. Needless to say, this is a major break for Thwaites, who.ll star alongside Jolie in a story centered around the evil queen from the classic Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Earlier, we confirmed that Disney had landed Elle Fanning (Super 8, We Bought a Zoo) to the production as Princess Aurora, meaning...

Terry O'Quinn as Gavin Doran in "666 Park Avenue" (ABC/Andrew Eccles)

ABC‘s slate of new shows for fall has a strange flavor to it, and it’s going to be a bumpy ride. The network has about as many new shows as returning ones (if you count all the midseasons), and a good percentage of the returning offerings are a year old or less, making this look a bit like a rebuilding year.

Not only is it a rebuilding year, but it’s the year of bringing back every actor and actress who ever had a decent run on a show before. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a network’s new season slate that was so crammed with people returning from something else. If you can’t make it good, I suppose, make sure viewers recognize the faces.

It’s tricky to get a solid feel...

Top of the Lake

Lucy Lawless ("Spartacus," "Xena"), Robyn Malcolm ("Rake," "Outrageous Fortune") and Jay Ryan ("Sea Patrol," "Neighbours") have all joined the cast of Jane Campion's six-part mini-series "Top Of The Lake".

Elisabeth Moss plays a detective who loses herself investigating the disappearance of the 12-year-old pregnant daughter of a local drug lord in remote, mountainous New Zealand. David Wenham, Peter Mullan and Holly Hunter also star. [Source: The Playlist]

Mad Men

The fifth season premiere of AMC period drama "Mad Men" averaged 3.5 million viewers (1.6 million adults 18-49), up 21% from Season 4′s debut and the series’ largest audience ever. An additional 900,000 watched the 11 Pm encore.

That number however is a far cry from the record-breaking season finale of "The Walking Dead" the other week which pulled in 9 million viewers. [Source: Deadline]

Glee

Both Whoopi Goldberg and Lindsay Lohan are set to guest star on "Glee" later this season. Lohan will play herself as a celebrity judge at Nationals,...

Local actor Jay Ryan . best known for Terra Nova and Offspring . may have cracked the tough North American market after being cast as .The Beast. in Us TV drama pilot Beauty and the Beast.

Ryan, who last year played Curran . a murderous security guard on the recently-cancelled dinosaur series Terra Nova, will play .beast. Vincent Koslow in a reboot of the 1980s CBS drama which starred Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman.

He will star opposite .beauty. Kristin Kreuk (Smallville), while other cast members include Austin Basis (Life Unexpected), Nicole Gale Anderson (Jonas) and Nina Lisandrello (Pre). The CW drama series is being described as a modern-day romantic love story with a procedural twist.

It reportedly centres on Catherine (Kreuk), a tough-minded NYPD homicide detective, haunted after witnessing her mother.s murder nine years ago and the killers. quick demise at the hands of a beast. After years of searching, Catherine finally finds the beast,...

Jay Ryan has joined The CW's Beauty and the Beast pilot. The project, loosely based on the '80s CBS drama of the same name, will star Smallville's Kristin Kreuk as NYPD detective Catherine. Terra Nova's Ryan has now been cast as 'beast' Vincent Koslow, the survivor of a botched military experiment, according to TVLine. The 30-year-old actor's other credits include Australian series Sea Patrol and New Zealand comedy-drama Go Girls. Life Unexpected's Austin Basis will also (more)...

The Powers That Be behind The CW's "Beauty and the Beast" pilot have finally found their beast. Thirty-one-year-old Jay Ryan, a New Zealand-based actor known in the U.S. for small roles on "Terra Nova" and "Legend of the Seeker," will play Vincent Koslow. Koslow, the victim of a military experiment gone horribly wrong, now looks like a monster.

His "beauty," Catherine, is set to be played by "Smallville" girl-next-door Kristin Kreuk. Catherine witnessed her mother's murder nine years ago, but remembers that the murderer was killed by a Beast quickly after.

And then they solve crimes! No, but seriously, they solve crimes.

Though Ryan isn't well-known to American audiences, he's a TV veteran overseas, having appeared in "Neighbours," "Go Girls," and "Sea Patrol," among other series. Also, he just looks like he belongs on The CW, doesn't he?...

H20: Just Add Water producer Jonathan M. Shiff is now dipping his toes into the family drama pond. Today, the renowned kids TV producer, also known for such series as Ocean Girl and The Elephant Princess, is starting production on new show Reef Doctors, starring four-time Gold Logie Award winner Lisa McCune (Blue Heelers, Sea Patrol). The 13x1-hour action adventure family drama follows Sam (McCune) . a Gp single mother with a freespirit and a determination who has an unusual hobby: venom. Running the remote Hope Island Clinic, Sam is an accomplished doctor, who, with her team, looks after the residents of all the neighbouring islands, as well as the holiday makers and thrillseekers who visit the area. The residents of the tiny island pull together through thick and thin, proving...

Jed Kurzel won the best feature film score of the year at the 2011 Screen Music Awards last night.

Kurzel won for his score of psychological thriller Snowtown.

Kurzel is the member of Sydney band The Mess Hall and also brother of Snowtown director Justin Kurzel.

The ceremony recognises excellence in screen music and is run by the Australian Guild of Screen Composers.

Held at the Sydney City Recital Hall, and hosted by Non Hazlehurst, guests included Claudia Karvan, Sigrid Thornton, Steve Bisley, Sarah Blasko, Paul Capsis and Nelson Woss.

Paul Capsis and Christa Hughes performed songs from Paper Giants: The birth of Cleo and Sarah Blasko Miles Nicholas’ Dream On, which won best original song composed for the screen.

Winners in all categories:

Feature Film Score of the Year

Snowtown

Composer: Jed Kurzel

Publishers: Ivy League Music administered by Mushroom Music Pty Ltd

Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie...

Emelia Burns is an Australian actress best known for her small screen roles homeland. Emelia was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1982; her mother is a native of the African nation of Ghana, and her father is from Scotland. Ms. Burns’ first theatrical appearance was in the 2007 movie The Condemned, where she played Yasantwa, a condemned prisoner destined to compete in the movie’s eponymous fictional human hunting web-based television show. Burns’ performance in The Condemned earned a great deal of critical acclaim and led to more opportunities in Australian film and television, notably her leading and recurring roles in H20: Just Add Water (a popular Australian teen show), Sea Patrol, and The Elephant Princess.

In the Us she will be recognized for her part as Mudawa in the witty and insightful series, The Starter Wife, starring Deborah Messing. She also appeared in the horror flick Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.

Reality and light entertainment TV shows are attracting a larger audience this year compared to Us sitcoms, according to a report by Deutsche Bank analysts. While shows such as Packed to the Rafters (Seven), Australia.s Got Talent (Seven) and MasterChef (Ten) continue to lead the TV ratings in 2011, most returning shows have lost viewers as the success of the new multichannels increases audience fragmentation. .Furthermore it appears viewing habits have changed between 2010 and 2011 with returning structured reality and light entertainment programs (eg. Australia.s Got Talent, The Block, Biggest Loser) growing viewership at the expense of Us sitcoms (eg Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, Mentalist) and locally produced dramas (Sea Patrol),. Deustche Bank analysts wrote...

Filming for the fourth season of Underbelly has begun. This series of the Australian crime drama, set in 1920s Sydney, tells the story of vice queen Kate Leigh, brothel owner Tilly Devine and gangster rivals Norman Bruhn and Joseph Taylor. According to The Daily Telegraph, Sea Patrol star Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, who has been cast as Bruhn, was seen filming at Sydney's Central Station yesterday. Also spotted was Justin Rosniak, who plays Taylor. New Zealand actress Chelsie Preston has been chosen to play Devine, while Rake (more)...

Steve Bisley has split from Amanda Imrie, it has been reported. The 59-year-old Australian actor, who is best known for his role in Sea Patrol, was last spotted with marketing executive Imrie at his birthday party in January but has allegedly since ended their relationship. Last year, Imrie stood by Bisley as he was sentenced to 300 hours' community service for assaulting ex-wife Sally Burleigh, saying that she "wouldn't still be in this relationship" if she believed he had committed the crime. Bisley told The Daily Telegraph yesterday that (more)...

An action-packed thriller which unfolds over the course of a single day and night, "Red Hill" debuts on Blu-ray™ and DVD January 25th from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.The film stars Ryan Kwanten (HBO’s “True Blood”), Steve Bisley (East of Everything, Sea Patrol, Mad Max), Tom E. Lewis (The Proposition) and Claire van der Boom (The Square) in a modern-day western played out against the...

Screen Australia’s Chief Operating Officer Fiona Cameron anticipated that Sbs would be “quite concerned” by the agency’s proposal not to fund more than two series of the same television project, as well as foreign formats.

“This provision would not allow for Screen Australia to support the third series of, for example, East West 101. We’ve got some money on some of their productions which are foreign formats, including The Family and Who Do You Think You Are, and under this proposal, those would no longer attract Sa funding. We don’t mean to pick on Sbs at all, but it’s going to be controversial for them,” Cameron told Encore.

According to Cameron, “there’s been at times a lack of diversity” in terms of Australian drama, with many crime-based series being made in the country, and the federal agency funding multiple series of the same shows.

One flick we're really looking forward to around these parts is Ryan Kwanten's Red Hill (review here), and thanks to Sony we'll be seeing it really soon!

From the Press Release

An action-packed thriller which unfolds over the course of a single day and night, Red Hill debuts on Blu-ray™ and DVD January 25th from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film stars Ryan Kwanten (HBO’s “True Blood”), Steve Bisley (East of Everything, Sea Patrol, Mad Max), Tom E. Lewis (The Proposition) and Claire van der Boom (The Square) in a modern-day western played out against the extraordinary landscapes of high-country Australia. The moral boundaries of a rookie officer (Kwanten) are pushed to the limit as he fights to stop a killing spree by a mysterious escaped convict (Lewis). Red Hill will be available on Blu-ray™ for $30.95 and DVD for $24.96 Srp.

Written and directed by Patrick Hughes, Red Hill...

The cool looking Aussie thriller Red Hill from writer/director Patrick Hughes has its U.S. release date and we have the low down on it in the press release below along with the poster art and teaser trailer.

From the Press Release:

An action-packed thriller which unfolds over the course of a single day and night, Red Hill debuts on Blu-ray™ and DVD January 25th from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film stars Ryan Kwanten (HBO’s “True Blood”), Steve Bisley (East of Everything, Sea Patrol, Mad Max), Tom E. Lewis (The Proposition) and Claire van der Boom (The Square) in a modern-day western played out against the extraordinary landscapes of high-country Australia. The moral boundaries of a rookie officer (Kwanten) are pushed to the limit as he fights to stop a killing spree by a mysterious escaped convict (Lewis). Red Hill will be available on Blu-ray™ for $30.95 and DVD for $24.96 Srp.

The Nine Network has confirmed the cancellation of its navy drama Sea Patrol. Government financial aid for the series is said to be the main reason for its axe. According to Yahoo, a tax rebate was available to the series for 65 episodes. However, by the end of its final run, it will have made a total of 68. A spokesperson for Nine said: "Sea Patrol will go out on a high of consistently (more)...

Season five of Nine's maritime drama will be its last.

Following the news that Seven may not renew City Homicide for 2011 comes word that next year's series of Sea Patrol will be its last.

The decision to wrap up Sea Patrol is due to financial assistance ending for production under a government tax rebate.

The rebate was available to producers McElroy All Media for 65 episodes, but next year the series reaches 68 episodes.

With its mammoth locations and logistics, More >>...

There is so much television content generated around the world that if a program is to have a fighting chance in the marketplace, it needs a distributor who knows what they’re doing. Miguel Gonzalez spoke with a number of experts about what’s selling, and what they need to do to get the interest of broadcasters.

Each television program needs a good distributor in order to travel the world. Production companies and networks entrust their creations to these experts, and they discussed their current challenges

with .

Endemol Worldwide Distribution represents product such as Packed to the Rafters and Home and Away (Seven Network), Hi-5 (Nine Network), Bananas in Pyjamas (ABC) and Southern Star’s Rush and Rescue: Special Ops, in addition to all international Endemol brands. While the company has positioned Australian content in a number of countries, it has found resistance trying to place home grown drama in...

Nine today announced that production on the fifth season of Sea Patrol has commenced in North Queensland.

The fifth season will follow on from Sea Patrol's warmly received fourth season, which garnered respectable and consistently good ratings among the sought after 18- to 54-year-old demographic. Average audiences numbers were frequently in the 1.2 million region.

Regular cast members, Lisa McCune, Ian Stenlake, More >>...

Nicholas Bishop, Rose Byrne and Alex O'Loughlin are only several Australian actors making a dent on the small screen.

Here are eight actors who are going strong on TV:

  >> Nicholas Bishop, "Body of Proof"

A decade of consistent work in some quality Australian TV dramas, including "Water Rats" and "White Collar Blue" and indie features followed Bishop's 1996 graduation form the National Institute of Dramatic Art. But it was a recurring role as Detective Peter Baker in the long-running Aussie Soap "Home and Away" that brought him the profile and press which led to his casting in Warner/Fox's short-lived "Past Lives." This season he's starring opposite Dana Delany in NBC's "Body of Proof" as former cop-turned-medical examiner.

  >> Rose Byrne, "Damages"

Byrne must rate as the busiest Aussie working in Hollywood. She's currently filming "X-Men: First Class," recently completed the Judd Apatow-produced comedy "Bridesmaids" and stars opposite Patrick Wilson in "Insidious,...

Now that September is here the networks are in the final sprint for the new 2010-2011 season. If you watch TV you probably will have seen many of these shows advertised. The new season lineup includes inevitable staples (classic cop and legal dramas) and more peculiar blends (The Shield’s Michael Chiklis in a family series playing a dad with superpowers, for example); some legendary names (Jj Abrams, Shawn Ryan, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg) and many fresh faces. A few shows like The Event (NBC), Running Wilde (Fox), Broadwalk Empire (HBO) or The Walking Dead (AMC) have already created buzz. For now, however, all of them are pure potential, waiting for their chance to conquer primetime. But despite any hopes or expectations, the only thing certain is that, among all of these promising shows, very few will make it to the second season mark.

ABC

ABC has a clear, light and family-oriented style – young professionals,...

According to the Nine’s head of drama Jo Horsburgh, the network’s slate is one of its busiest ever, even in the face of increasing production costs.

“The question from both [CEO] David Gyngell and [director of programming] Michael Healy has been ‘Can we make more and more Australian drama?’ Certainly the sense within Nine is the more, the merrier, but the reality is how long it takes to get it on to the screen, to find the projects, to get the finance together,” Horsburgh told Encore.

“We’d love to be like Hollywood but we’re not quite there yet. Ideally, we’d like to make more because Australian audiences are interested in Australian drama, and that’s been demonstrated,” she said. “Generally speaking, there have been increases in salaries and equipment, and rightly so, in the cost of scripts, which was long overdue.”

Nine launches its new police drama Cops L.

Newcomer to the film scene Steven Kastrissios proves with his debut feature The Horseman that you don’t need much to make a good action film. Micah Chua writes.

What do you need to pull off an action genre film in Australia? Guns? Car chases? Special effects? A buff, well-profiled action hero? A multi-million dollar budget? Not necessarily: ‘With smart, efficient storytelling, we can do pretty impressive action too,” Kastrissios told Encore.

The Horseman travels in the vein of classic Aussie thrillers such as Wolf Creek and Wake in Fright. It tells the story of a father (played by Peter Marshall- Sea Patrol) and his violent pursuit of his daughter’s murderers.

The film’s high calibre action is due in no small part to proven stunt coordinator Chris Anderson, whose credits include Peter Jackson’s King Kong and George Miller’s Mad Max.

“I showed him my previous...

Big Brother's audience fell to 2.19m (10%) on Friday night, according to overnight figures. Channel 4 came third in the 9pm hour, with the reality show's audience over 2.5m down on its launch. Meanwhile, a further 434 (2.4%) watched on timeshift. World Cup interest was in evidence, as 6.29m (30.1%) turned up for a goalless draw between Uruguay and France on BBC One for three hours from 7pm, comfortably ahead of a repeat of Taggart, which had 2.68m (12.3%). Without EastEnders at 8pm, Channel 4's Glee catch-up notched up 590k (2.7%), an improvement of 210k week-on-week. Dickinson's Real Deal also benefited, with 3.61m (17.5%) watching on ITV1 at the same time. There were also week-on-week improvements for Five's Sea Patrol, The Mentalist and CSI: NY, which took 833k (3.8%), 1.71m (7.8%) and 1.14m (6.3%) respectively. (more)...

Lisa McCune was left embarrassed after wearing her dress back to front at a star-studded event. The 39-year-old Australian actress, who has won four Logie Awards for her roles as Maggie Doyle in Blue Heelers and Kate McGregor in Sea Patrol, made the fashion error at a Channel Nine lunch at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney yesterday. After going to the bathroom (more)...

In the fifth and final part of our special report on the future of Australian television in a converged, multi-platform, multi-channel environment, we spoke with the executive director of the Screen Producers Association of Australia, Geoff Brown.

According to Brown, Spaa rejects the commercial broadcasters’ ‘crying poor’ argument and will continue to ask Canberra to review the Australian Content Standard and truly protect local drama and documentary production.

Editor’s note: This interview took place in April, before Spaa submitted its response to the industry review. Encore reported on their submission yesterday, and the full document can be found here.

Encore: What is Spaa currently discussing with the government?

Geoff Brown: Spaa has met with the Pm’s senior advisers in Canberra to discuss with them complementary measures that can be put in place to reinforce Australian content in the face of the $250 million dollar rebate on the TV licenses.

When a star supports a good cause everybody wins.

For a minute there you could be forgiven for thinking Home and Away's Luke Jacobz had signed up to Sea Patrol.

But he isn't straying from Summer Bay just yet. Instead, the actor was aboard the Royal Australian Navy's Hmas Gascoyne for a good cause this week, to help launch a national campaign targeted at 13- to 30-year olds.

The Call to Greatness campaign is looking to raise money for Father Chris Riley's More >>...

Action, drama, romance and a reunion with a former cast mate is all in a day's work for Lisa McCune.

As Sea Patrol enters its fourth series for the Nine Network, Lisa McCune recalls that it was watching another Australian drama that actually helped her make the decision to step aboard the Hmas Hammersley.

"I watched an episode of Blackjack with Colin Friels and I heard people talking about it, and I thought something...  More >>...

Summer Glau is not interested in draining the human body of blood. At least, not literally. But I do think she is keenly interested in causing every single nerd in the world to have the blood drain down there, if you know what I'm saying.

(I'm saying she wants to cause massive nerdrections.)

I say this because Queen Nerdgasm is continuing her march towards conquering every genre possible. Whedon -- check ("Firefly") and check ("Dollhouse"). Sci-fi -- check ("Firefly"), check ("Dollhouse"), check ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"), check ("The 4400"). Adrenaline male fantasy - check ("The Unit"). And now she can add the "Super Hero" genre to her list, as Glau has signed on to NBC's "The Cape."

The pilot is about a cop who has to become a superhero to clear his name of a murder that he didn't actually commit. Which, agreed, sounds hinky. And the cop is played by David Lyons,...