AUDITIONS began in Sydney yesterday for the role of Harry “The Breaker” Morant and Daisy Bates for a series that will be partly filmed in Tenterfield.
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Shooting of The Re-Trial of the Breaker is due to begin in Charters Towers next month.
The series is partly based on the work of military lawyer James Unkles who has said he is following in the footsteps of Tenterfield’s J. F. Thomas who was the Breaker’s solicitor.
Producer and co-director Greg Miller said the series would screen on the History Channel in November this year.
“Although the controversial court martial and execution and the modern day campaign by military lawyer Jim Unkles to get justice for ‘The Breaker’ will be the key focus, this series goes beyond previous books and films and explores Morant’s tragic yet colourful background and the 17 years he spent in Australia,” Mr Miller said.
“The series will contain dramatised sequences which will help to bring key parts of Morant’s life and times, where there is little or no archive, to life.
“We have a few prospects so we’ll put a script in their hands and slouched hat on their heads and see how they measure up.”
The successful “Morant” will accompany the film crew to various locations in Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Mr Miller said the series would be shot in the original locations where key events took place.
Mr Unkles has already said part of the series is likely to be filmed in Tenterfield.
Author of Shoot Straight You Bastards and co-director/ writer of the series Nick Bleszynski said the Morant story was “dramatic and emotive”.
“Harry Morant was a unique and complex character,” he said.
“He was a famed horseman, buck-jumper and bush poet, a gentleman and a roustabout, a real mix of the two backgrounds from which he came - the poor house and the manor.”
