Off with his headline
The ''human headline'' broadcaster Derryn Hinch will leave his high-rating drive show on 3AW before the end of the year. Hinch's contract with the Fairfax Media-owned talk station, where he has worked for the past 10 years, has not been renewed. The move comes only days after Hinch and fellow broadcaster Neil Mitchell criticised the station for hiring shamed businessman Steve Vizard as a fill-in host for afternoon presenter Denis Walter. Station manager Shane Healy said the shake-up was part of 3AW's repositioning.
Aunty soldiers on
THE ABC has commissioned a telemovie about Australian soldiers during the French campaign in World War I from Kylie Du Fresne, a producer of the critically acclaimed film The Sapphires. An Accidental Soldier is based on the book Silent Parts by John Charalambous and will be directed by Rachel Ward. It will star French actor Marie Bunel, Offspring's Dan Spielman, Bryan Brown and RocKwiz host Julia Zemiro. Though Zemiro is best known as a TV host, she has worked as an actor, notably in Lowdown and Conspiracy 365. The book has been adapted by writer Blake Ayshford. It will be filmed in Western Australia, with production starting next month.
Breaker on trial
PAY TV channel History has commissioned a dramatic re-creation of the trial of Harry ''Breaker'' Morant. Morant was an Australian soldier court-martialled during the Second Boer War for his participation in the execution of prisoners and the killing of a missionary. The story was produced as a play in 1978 and adapted into an iconic film in 1980, starring Edward Woodward, Bryan Brown and Jack Thompson. Breaker Morant: The Retrial will be produced in two one-hour episodes and create ''a rare moment of living history through the cross-examination of historians and legal experts, and the presentation of new evidence that reveals the betrayal and subterfuge at the centre of the trial''. It will be produced by Georgia Wallace-Crabbe and Gregory Miller.
New neighbourhood
AUSTRALIAN Ben Lawson is joining US comedy Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. He is best known to Australians for Neighbours but has been based in the US for several years. He starred in a short-lived US drama, The Deep End, and a TV pilot, Wild Card, which was not picked up for a series. Lawson will play a love interest to Apartment 23's Chloe (Krysten Ritter). His brother Josh stars in the Showtime hit House of Lies.
Whitlam revisited
THE ABC has commissioned a documentary about Gough Whitlam - the man and the ''Whitlam era''. It will be written and directed by Paul Clarke, best known for Bombora: The Story of Australian Surfing, and produced by Penny Robins.
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