Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel (‘The Snowtown Murders,’ ‘Macbeth’) has signed on to take the director’s chair for ‘True History of the Kelly Gang,’ an historical epic based on the novel by Peter Carey.
Published in 2002, Carey’s novel is an imagined autobiography seen through the eyes of Australia’s legendary folk-hero Ned Kelly, as he scribbles his narrative on errant scraps of paper in semiliterate but magically descriptive prose whilst on the run from the police. To his pursuers, Kelly is nothing but a monstrous criminal, a thief and a murderer. To his own people, the lowly class of ordinary Australians, the bushranger is a hero, defying the authority of the English to direct their lives.
IF.com has Shaun Grant, who scripted Kurzel’s harrowing debut ‘The Snowtown Murders,’ providing the screenplay. Liz Watts of Porchlight Films is on board to co-produce the project with UK based banner Daybreak Pictures.