EXCLUSIVE: Australian producer Magpie Pictures has optioned screen rights to Emma Grey’s novel Pictures of You, and appointed Quan Phung and Fiona Eagger as advisors.
The pickup of Grey’s novel comes as part of a plan to develop a slate of scripted series through funding from Screen Australia Enterprise.
The book follows forensic linguist Evie Hudson who loses memory of her husband and the past 13 years after a car crash that kills him. “As she pieces together fragments of her life Evie has to confront what she’s lost and find what she still has to fight for,” said Magpie founder and producer Lois Randall. “With its unique hook and point of view we’re adapting Pictures of You as a mystery thriller that, while traversing urgent themes, has a second chance love story at its heart.”
She will produce the series with Matt Kelly as executive producer. “Pictures of You rocketed straight into the USA Today best seller list after it was published in November and is already out-pacing Grey’s debut novel The Last Love Note which was a global breakout best seller,” said Randall.
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“From the outset, Magpie Pictures has shared my vision to capture the light and shade in this story, and my desire to translate the novel’s powerful contemporary messages for a fresh audience,” said Grey. “I’m thrilled to be working with Lois and the team.”
Magpie – known for the likes of the Fifth Season-sold Swift Street and coming-of-age series Grace Beside Me – is working up a slate that also includes Blue Mountains-set original mystery thriller series The Dark Horse and the Hummingbird, which is from Lâle Teoman, and twisty dramedy Provenance, which is written by Giula Sandler and based on the Melbourne art-world mysteries by Katherine Kovacic.
“We have curated a slate focussed on impactful stories from Australian female creators that will engage and entertain Australian and international audiences,” said Randall, who founded Magpie in 2014.
The projects are being supercharged by the Screen Australia Enterprise strategy, which Randall said is moving into its “second stage” with the appointment of former Topic Studios scripted TV chief Phung and veteran Australian producer Eagger.
They are advising on creative and business development, and join the recently-hired business exec Matthew Kelly and development producers Claire Lindsay and Ree Evans, who job share.
L.A.-based Phung has over 25 years of experience, most recently as a consultant at his own Miquan Productions banner. He is known for his time as SVP of Original Series at Topic Studios, where he built out a scripted team. Further back, he was Slingshot Global Media’s President of Scripted Television and President of Whitney producer Bluegrass Television.
He also worked as SVP, Creative Affairs-Comedy for 20th Century Fox TV, VP of Drama and VP of Comedy Series at the Fox network, and began his career at NBC Entertainment in 1995. Among his development credits are How I Met Your Mother and House, MD.
“I’m thrilled to serve as an advisor for Magpie and a producing partner with Lois on select projects,” he said. “Magpie’s already shown a keen eye in identifying fresh voices with series like Swift Street. As global audiences and buyers embrace uniquely Australian series, it’s a great time for Magpie to focus on authentic female voices that will create the next big Australian global hit. I’m excited to join the Magpie team at Screen Forever to help connect them to global partners.”
Eagger, who co-founded Every Cloud Productions with Deb Cox to develop and produce scripted series, is considered one of Australia’s most well-respected TV makers. Among her credits is Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which has sold into more than 170 territories, and its spin-off, Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries. Randall produced Every Cloud’s 2014 Series Mania official selection series The Gods of Wheat Street, which was on Netflix and the ABC.
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