Actor Phoebe Tonkin is set to star in and executive-produce a new Australian crime-drama series, The Dark Lake.
The Dark Lake follows Gemma (Tonkin) as she is forced to confront the secrets of her past when assigned to the murder of her high school nemesis in her small and tight-knit hometown. The series will focus on ‘the moral workings of a grief engulfed woman torn between the dedication to her work, the love for her son and the temptation of her indulgences’.
Based on the debut novel of the same name by Sarah Bailey, the series will be produced by the same team behind Netflix hit Boy Swallows Universe – that’s Brouhaha Entertainment.
Brouhaha and Tonkin said that Bailey’s The Dark Lake has ‘all the right ingredients to create a TV series and a character that audiences will embrace worldwide’.
Tonkin is best known for her performances in The Vampire Diaries, Babylon, Safe Harbour and Boy Swallows Universe.
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‘We have been waiting for years to find the actress that could play Gemma Woodstock,’ said Brouhaha’s Troy Lum of Phoebe Tonkin. ‘She is feisty, complex and brilliant and has a loyal fanbase of readers. Phoebe’s performance in Boy Swallows Universe blew us away and we knew we finally had an actress who could do Gemma justice.
‘I’m excited to team up again with Brouhaha‘s Troy Lum and Andrew Mason who brought Boy Swallows Universe to life, to adapt this beloved book series with the help of The Dark Lake‘s author Sarah Bailey,’ said Tonkin. I had such a wonderful collaborative experience on Boy Swallows Universe, and I’m excited to continue this creative relationship with The Dark Lake.’
The Dark Lake is the first book in Bailey’s The Gemma Woodstock Series. It won both the 2018 Davitt Award for Best Crime Debut and the 2018 Ned Kelly award for Best First Crime. Sarah has written two other books in the Gemma Woodstock series, Into the Night set in the dark alleyways of Melbourne city, and Where the Dead Go, based in a small coastal hinterland community. Sarah is currently working on a fourth book in the series.
No release date has been confirmed for The Dark Lake.
