Lighting Up the TV Screen With a Wild Rush

The six-part television adaptation of New Zealand author Eleanor Catton’s award-winning 2013 novel, The Luminaries is “a romantic introduction to the Southern Hemisphere country’s 19th century gold rush”, according to The National’s correspondent, Farah Andrews.

“Starring familiar faces Eve Hewson, Eva Green and Himesh Patel, the series takes the viewer to New Zealand [in] 1866,” Andrews writes.

“When people think of the gold rush, they tend to think of California, but there was also one down in New Zealand, and because of its setting, The Luminaries brings fresh energy to the Wild West genre.

“‘It was such a treat to shoot in such wild places,’ Green told The National.

“‘I had never been there. So, it was actually part of the appeal to take on this project. The landscape is magnificent and dense,’ she added.”

The novel won the 2013 Man Booker Prize. Catton, 34, who lives in Auckland, wrote the screenplay for the 2020 comedy Emma., adapted from Jane Austen’s novel.

Original article by Farah Andrews, The National, June 3, 2020.