According to the NZ Herald, Shudder, AMC’s streaming service for thriller, suspense and horror, will reimagine the Māori 2015 action film The Dead Lands as an eight-part series that will debut in 2019.
The series will focus on Waka Nuku Rau, a warrior who must find honour in a land ravaged by the supernatural. He is helped by a young woman named Mehe who is determined to help him with his cause.
Te Kohe Tuhaka (6 Days, Shortland Street), who played Wirepa in the original film, will star in the series alongside Kiwis Kirk Torrance (Outrageous Fortune), Miriama Smith (Filthy Rich), and Grace Palmer (Shortland Street).
The film’s screenwriter, Glen Standring, will also return. New Zealand directors Peter Meteherangi Taiko Burger and Michael Hurst are on hand to helm the series, with production already underway on location around Auckland, including the beaches of Auckland’s West Coat.
In the film version of The Dead Lands, Hongi (James Rolleston) – a Maori chieftain’s teenage son – must avenge his father’s murder in order to bring peace and honour to the souls of his loved ones after his tribe is slaughtered through an act of treachery. Vastly outnumbered by a band of villains, led by Wirepa (Te Kohe Tuhaka), Hongi’s only hope is to pass through the feared and forbidden Dead Lands and forge an uneasy alliance with the mysterious Warrior (Lawrence Makoare), a ruthless fighter who has ruled the area for years.
Xavier Horan, George Henare, Raukura Turei and Rena Owen also star in the The Dead Lands, directed by Toa Fraser. The film was produced by Matthew Metcalfe and Glenn Standring, who also wrote the script.
