Expectations are building as the highly-anticipated new adaptation of Picnic At Hanging Rock reveals sneak peeks from the shoot in regional Victoria. A re-imagining of the timeless Australian novel and the movie of the same title, the six-part drama series will plunge the audience into the enigmatic disappearance of three schoolgirls and one teacher on a picnic field trip. 

Picnic At Hanging Rock brings together a stellar cast of international and Australian talent, including Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games), Yael Stone (Orange Is The New Black, Deep Water), Lola Bessis (Cassandra, Swim Little Fish Swim), Anna McGahan (The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Anzac Girls) and Sibylla Budd (Tomorrow When The War Began, Winners & Losers).

Supported through Film Victoria’s Production Incentive Attraction Fund and produced by FremantleMedia for Foxtel, Picnic At Hanging Rock boasts a strong contingent of talented Victorian crew and creatives, including directors Michael Rymer and Amanda Brotchie, while unique Victorian locations provide an unparalleled backdrop.

Film Victoria spoke to the Executive Producer Jo Porter about adapting the iconic story into a series, the strong female cast and crew and how the Victorian landscape provided evocative filming locations.

“It would be hard to improve on Peter Weir’s film and we have not set out to try,” said Porter. “We’ve very much focused on the book as our source content and excavating all the additional material that sits in there in a delicious and contemporary way.”

“Our point of difference also sits around a more female gaze on the story in the way it has been told by our two extraordinary writers Bea Christian and Alice Addison and our brilliant establishing director Larysa Kondracki,” she adds.

“In going back to the novel we have consciously chosen to make this a story told through a female lens and that includes our writers, establishing director and in many cases our heads of departments. It is very much a female story at its heart.”

“The Victorian landscape that Joan Lindsay brought to life so vividly, we wanted to capture that in our rendering of the novel,” Porter explains.

“We have filmed in regional Victoria including Clunes, Macedon and Woodend and locations throughout Melbourne such as Werribee Mansion, Labassa in Caulfield, Ripponlea in Elsternwick and Como House in Toorak.”

“The support of Film Victoria has been second to none, as has Parks Victoria and the National Trust…we are so delighted that we have been able to realise the entire production in Victoria.”

Picnic at Hanging Rock will premiere on Foxtel Showcase later this year.

For more information on Victoria’s locations and Film Victoria’s incentives contact:
Joe Brinkmann
Manager – Incentives and Investments
[email protected] 
www.film.vic.gov.au