{"id":28521,"date":"2025-09-24T19:50:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T19:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/?p=28521"},"modified":"2025-09-24T19:50:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T19:50:26","slug":"anno-2020-writer-director-adds-historical-adventure-tv-drama-series-to-his-development-slate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2025\/09\/24\/anno-2020-writer-director-adds-historical-adventure-tv-drama-series-to-his-development-slate\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Anno 2020\u2019 writer-director adds historical adventure TV drama series to his development slate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Writer-director James Morcan, who celebrated his directorial debut this month with the streaming release of his mystery-drama movie \u2018Anno 2020\u2019, announced today he is putting his father\u2019s recently published historical adventure \u2018New Zealand: A Novel\u2019 into early development as a television drama series.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sydney-based James said he and Lance (Morcan Snr.) have already begun adapting the ‘New Zealand’ novel to a TV script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very cinematic and I could see a movie or ideally a televised drama running through it as soon as I read it,\u201d said James who usually writes in collaboration with his father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe story spans almost 500 years and covers the respective discoveries of New Zealand by the Islander ancestors of today\u2019s Maori people and the European explorers who followed them. From the outset the two stories are interposed. It starts in the 1300\u2019s with the departure of Islanders from Hawaiki in search of land far to the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe novel is attracting excellent reviews and our publisher, Sterling Gate Books, announced this week the audible version is the company\u2019s bestselling audiobook of the month.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prolific father-and-son writing team have already adapted several of their novels to feature film screenplays, including contemporary thrillers and other historical adventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Zealand-based Lance Morcan said \u2018New Zealand\u2019 (working title) would be one of their first TV drama scripts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo further novels in the \u2018New Zealand Series\u2019 have already been scoped so it\u2019s quite conceivable the planned drama series will suit several or even multiple seasons,\u201d said Lance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInitially, we will package it but will look to attach an experienced producer to head the production. It\u2019s our intention that James will direct one or more of the episodes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more about James Morcan visit his IMDb film industry pages at: https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm1909596\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To visit the \u2018New Zealand\u2019 blog site go to: https:\/\/morcanbooksandfilms.com\/category\/new-zealand-a-novel\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lance Morcan\u2019s \u2018New Zealand: A Novel\u2019 now being adapted for television.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writer-director James Morcan, who celebrated his directorial debut this month with the streaming release of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,2],"tags":[2081,235,687,3735,4741],"class_list":["post-28521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-news","category-news","tag-anno-2020","tag-books","tag-cinema","tag-james-morcan","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28523,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28521\/revisions\/28523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}