Eleanor Catton's Luminaries mini-series stars Marton Csokas

Wednesday, 26 September 2018

BBC Two is screening a television adaptation of Eleanor Catton's novel The Luminaries starring Kiwi actor Marton Csokas.

The channel's controller, Patrick Holland, told The Guardian that BBC Two, which is undergoing a rebranding exercise, was working with Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker, to develop a range of new programmes.

Eleanor Catton has written The Luminaries screenplay and it is being produced by Working Title Television.

Holland said that Eva Green, Eve Hewson, and Csokas would star in the big-budget adaptation of the Booker prize-winning novel.

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Catton became a household name when she won the coveted Man Booker Prize in 2013 for her second novel.

Two years ago it emerged that The Luminaries was set to be adapted into a six-part TV mini series, with little detail revealed at the time.

The adaptation, to screen on BBC Two, stars French actress and model Eva Green, probably best known for her role in Casino Royale, and Eve Hewson, daughter of Bono and Ali Hewson.

Kiwi actor Marton Csokas also stars in the series. Earlier this year he appeared in the thriller Dark Crimes alongside Jim Carrey.

Csokas is best known in New Zealand for starring in Shortland Street as Dr Leonard Rossi-Dos, between 1993 and 1995, and for appearing opposite Frank Whitten in the iconic 1990s Speights beer commercial.

Catton's first novel The Rehearsal was made into a film starring James Rolleston.

In The Rehearsal, a novel Catton wrote for her creative writing Master's thesis at Victoria University aged 22, a group of teens are shocked to learn that their saxophone teacher has been having an affair with a student. Meanwhile, drama students use the event as creative fodder for their final show.

The film premiered at the New Zealand International Film Festival at Auckland's Civic Theatre, and received wide-spread critical acclaim.