Picnic at Hanging Rock | |
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Genre | |
Based on | Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay |
Written by |
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Directed by | |
Starring | |
Composers | Cezary and Jan Skubiszewski [1] |
Country of origin | Australia |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 6 [1] |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producers | |
Editors | |
Running time | 60 minutes [1] |
Production company | Fremantle Australia |
Original release | |
Network | Showcase |
Release | 6 May 2018 |
Picnic at Hanging Rock is an Australian mystery romantic drama television series that premiered on Foxtel's Showcase on 6 May 2018. [2] The series was adapted from Joan Lindsay's 1967 novel of the same name about a group of schoolgirls who, while on an outing to Hanging Rock, mysteriously disappear. The score won the Screen Music Award for Best Music for a Television Series. [3]
Hester Appleyard purchases an isolated mansion out in the Australian bush to transform into a school for young ladies - a few months later, Appleyard College is a success. On Valentine's Day, 1900, when students and staff go for a picnic to Hanging Rock, three of the school's star students and their governess mysteriously vanish. Their disappearance leaves a devastating impact on students, staff, their enigmatic and formidable headmistress and the township at large. Theories abound, secrets are exposed and hysteria sets in, until eventually, the lives of the characters unravel.
Filming commenced in February 2017 at Labassa, Caulfield, Mandeville Hall, Toorak, Rippon Lea, Elsternwick, Werribee Park, as well as Lysterfield Park and on Fraser St in the Victorian goldfields town of Clunes. Larysa Kondracki served as showrunner and directed the first three episodes. [4]
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
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1 | "Episode One" | Larysa Kondracki | Beatrix Christian | 6 May 2018 [5] |
2 | "Episode Two" | Larysa Kondracki | Beatrix Christian | 6 May 2018 [5] |
3 | "Episode Three" | Larysa Kondracki | Beatrix Christian | 6 May 2018 [5] |
4 | "Episode Four" | Amanda Brotchie | Alice Addison | 6 May 2018 [5] |
5 | "Episode Five" | Michael Rymer | Alice Addison | 6 May 2018 [5] |
6 | "Episode Six" | Michael Rymer | Beatrix Christian | 6 May 2018 [5] |
The series premiered in Australia on Showcase in 2018. [6] The program was acquired by the BBC in the United Kingdom, Canal+ in France, RTÉ in Ireland and Amazon Prime Video in the United States. [7] The series was also broadcast in Greece by ERT.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 79% of 53 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10.The website's consensus reads: "Natalie Dormer charms in Picnic at Hanging Rock, a stylish retelling of an Australian classic -- though convoluted sub-plots at times distract from its otherwise tantalizing delights." [8]
Peter Lindsay Weir is an Australian retired film director. He is known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Gallipoli (1981), The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Witness (1985), Dead Poets Society (1989), Fearless (1993), The Truman Show (1998), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), and The Way Back (2010). He has received six Academy Award nominations. In 2022 he was awarded the Academy Honorary Award for his lifetime achievement career. In 2024, he received an honorary life-time achievement award at the Venice Film Festival.
Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1967 historical fiction novel by Australian author Joan Lindsay. Set in Victoria, Australia in 1900, is about a group of female boarding school students who vanish at Hanging Rock while on a Valentine's Day picnic, and the effects the disappearances have on the school and local community.
The Woods is a 2006 American supernatural horror film directed by Lucky McKee and starring Agnes Bruckner, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel Nichols, Lauren Birkell and Bruce Campbell. Set in 1965, its plot concerns a wayward teenage girl who is sent to a New England all-girls private high school which holds an ominous secret related to the staff, history and woods surrounding the school.
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Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian mystery film directed by Peter Weir and based on the 1967 novel Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay. Cliff Green adapted the novel into a screenplay. The film stars Rachel Roberts, Dominic Guard, Helen Morse, Vivean Gray and Jacki Weaver. The plot involves the disappearance of several schoolgirls and their teacher during a picnic at Hanging Rock, Victoria on Valentine's Day in 1900, and the subsequent effect on the local community.
Natalie Dormer is an English actress. Her accolades include winning an Empire Award, and receiving nominations for a Critics' Choice Award, two Gemini Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Ruby Rees, also known as Ruby Rees-Wemyss, is an Australian actress, director and writer. She is best known for playing “Edith” a main character in Picnic at Hanging Rock, in 2018, alongside Natalie Dormer and Samara Weaving.
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