BBC Two, UKTV Aus­tralia and New Zealand, and Sun­dance Chan­nel announce Top of the Lake, a Jane Cam­pion series from See-Saw Films.

Syd­ney, Novem­ber 4, 2011 – The upcom­ing drama, Top of the Lake, directed by Oscar® win­ner Jane Cam­pion (The Piano, Por­trait of a Lady) and ris­ing Aus­tralian direc­tor Garth Davis, will fea­ture an esteemed ensem­ble of award-winning tal­ent – SAG® win­ner and three time Emmy® nom­i­nated actress Elis­a­beth Moss (Mad Men, On the Road), Holly Hunter, Best Actress Oscar® win­ner for her per­for­mance in Campion’s The Piano, BAFTA® nom­i­nee Peter Mul­lan (War Horse, Trainspot­ting) and AFI Award win­ning actor David Wen­ham (The Lord of the Rings, Aus­tralia).

The six-part minis­eries (6x60, 7x50) for trans­mis­sion in early 2013 will be co-produced by BBC Two, UKTV in Aus­tralia and New Zealand and Sun­dance Chan­nel in the United States. Screen Aus­tralia, Screen NSW and Ful­crum Media Finance are pro­vid­ing invest­ment and finance. BBC World­wide will dis­trib­ute the tele­vi­sion series inter­na­tion­ally and also wholly owns UKTV in Aus­tralia and New Zealand.

Pro­duced by Acad­emy Award® win­ners Emile Sher­man and Iain Can­ning (The King’s Speech, Shame) of See-Saw Films, and Philippa Camp­bell (Black Sheep) of Escapade Pic­tures, Top of the Lake is a pow­er­ful and haunt­ing mys­tery about the search for hap­pi­ness in a par­adise where hon­est work is hard to find.

Set in the remote moun­tains of New Zealand, the story fol­lows the dis­ap­pear­ance of a five months preg­nant 12-year-old named Tui who was last seen stand­ing chest deep in a frozen lake. In this clas­sic mythic strug­gle, inves­ti­gat­ing detec­tive, Robin Grif­fin (Moss), must lose her­self in order to find the miss­ing girl. Dur­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion, she col­lides with Matt Mitcham (Mul­lan), Tui’s father, a local drug lord, and G.J (Hunter), a guru at a local women’s camp. Robin will find this the case that tests her lim­its and sends her on a jour­ney of self-discovery.

Writer and direc­tor Jane Cam­pion said: “I am in love with the intense beauty of south­ern most New Zealand and am excited to be set­ting a story in this end of the world par­adise. To be able to tell the story over six hours gives myself and my bril­liant team a chance to make some­thing truly absorb­ing and mem­o­rable.”
 
Emile Sher­man and Iain Can­ning com­mented, “We are so thrilled to be work­ing with Jane Cam­pion and the incred­i­bly tal­ented col­lab­o­ra­tors who have come on board this unique series. To have Jane turn her cre­ative energy to longer form drama is fur­ther proof of how excit­ing tele­vi­sion has become, a key medium for sophis­ti­cated and orig­i­nal sto­ry­telling.”
 
They added, “We are also thrilled to be work­ing for the first time with the BBC Two, who com­mis­sioned devel­op­ment of the series, as well as with UKTV, Sun­dance Chan­nel and BBC World­wide, all of whom have unequiv­o­cally embraced Jane’s vision.“
 
Ben Stephen­son, Con­troller, BBC Drama Com­mis­sion­ing, says: “Jane Cam­pion is a sto­ry­teller like no other. We are delighted to bring to screen an unfor­get­table land­scape and char­ac­ters who are unique, orig­i­nal and yet utterly rec­og­niz­able – this is a story which will touch us all.”
 
Says Deirdre Bren­nan, Direc­tor of TV for BBC World­wide Aus­tralia: “Top of the Lake is a unique cre­ative col­lab­o­ra­tion, a truly inter­na­tional project that show­cases a remark­able pro­duc­tion team, cast and loca­tion. It is an hon­our to play a part in bring­ing this land­mark drama series exclu­sively to UKTV audi­ences in Aus­tralia and New Zealand.”

The series, writ­ten by Jane Cam­pion and Ger­ard Lee, will com­mence film­ing in Feb­ru­ary 2012 in Queen­stown, New Zealand, mark­ing the first pro­duc­tion Jane Cam­pion will film in her home­land since 1990’s An Angel At My Table. Com­mis­sioned for BBC Two by Ben Stephen­son, Con­troller, BBC Drama Com­mis­sion­ing and Jan­ice Had­low, Con­troller, BBC Two.