Children's TV series takes NT to world
MATT CUNNINGHAM
09Oct07
Source: Northern territory news
Alice-born actor Aaron Pedersen will star in the new series
A TERRITORY television series starring local stars Aaron Pedersen and Tom E. Lewis is set to be pitched to a world market.
Arnhem Land actor Lewis (The Proposition) and Alice Springs born-and-bred Pedersen (City Homicide) feature in Double Trouble _ the 13-part children's series set to make its Australian TV debut next year.
Executives from the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) and the Australian Children's Television Foundation will launch the program at the MIPCOM entertainment conference in Cannes, France this week.
The children's drama, produced by CAAMA at Alice Springs, tells the story of two Aboriginal twins who were separated at birth.
One grows up in Central Australia and the other in Sydney.
When they meet as 16-year-olds in Alice Springs they decide to secretly trade places, exposing each girl to a new culture.
The cast features the acting debuts of Aboriginal twins Chrissie and Cassie Glenn and also includes Myles Pollard (McLeod's Daughters) and Lillian Crombie (Australia, The Secret Life of Us).
Writer Danielle MacLean has already won an Australian Writers' Guild award for her script for episode seven of the series.
Double Trouble is set to screen on the Nine Network and the Disney Channel early next year.
Producers hope it will also attract interest from the global market.
CAAMA executive producer Rachel Clements and actress Trisha Morton-Thomas are pushing the series to TV executives from around the globe at the MIPCOM conference.
"Everyone's pretty excited about it,'' CAAMA production manager Liz Warning said.
CAAMA will also float other pilots it has in pre-production including Time Glitch, the story of two Aboriginal boys born 100 years apart who swap places.
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