HBO’s Outback interest
Mystery to become a TV series
A BOND University lecturer is in talks with a top American network to transform her award-winning podcast into a TV series.
Caroline Graham said HBO had signed a deal to visualise Lost in Larrimah.
The podcast follows the disappearance of Paddy Moriarty, one of 12 residents of the outback Northern Territory town of Larrimah.
Ms Graham and journalist Kylie Stevenson co-authored and co-produced the series. Together with editor Eric George, they won a Walkley for the best radio/audio feature. The podcast also claimed best TV/audio feature at the NT Media Awards and it has recently been nominated in the Australian Podcast Awards.
Ms Graham said there had been interest in creating a series since the podcast was first broadcast in May 2018 and had been optioned by American network HBO.
“We got really lucky – one of the people who got in touch was (HBO writer and executive producer) Sara Lee Hess … she’s worked on some really fantastic series including Orange Is The New Black,” she said. “She was really passionate about the story and we liked the vision she had.”
Should the series get the green light, Ms Graham said it could be a fictionalised TV series based on the events, which was preferable to protect the residents.
Ms Graham said she hoped the series would help to show the residents of Larrimah a global audience cared about the story.
“Through the podcast and other ways the story has been told I think there is a sense within the people who knew him and loved him that this is a story that is important,” she said.