Joejack and Sinner series to be based around Pauline Hanna murder trial
New Zealand’s South Pacific Pictures has tied with UK-based Joejack Entertainment and Sinner Films to develop a drama series about an infamous murder trial.
Being developed with the support of an as-yet-unknown New Zealand television network, the drama will focus on the trial following the 2021 death of Pauline Hanna. In the eight-week trial in Auckland this year, Philip Polkinghorne was found not guilty of murdering his wife.
The pair appeared to be perfectly happy and successful until the trial painted a picture of sex and methamphetamine addiction, affairs, money worries and depression.
In the end, the jury didn’t believe the Hanna took her own life, but the Crown couldn’t prove that Polkinghorne killed her. By presenting the facts of the case the series will aim to let the audience decide.
The showrunners will be Sinner Films’ David Murdoch and Caleb Ranson, with JoeJack’s John Deery as series director and Kelly Martin, Murdoch and Deery as producers.
The producers are in talks with a major New Zealand writer to come on board, and the series is yet to be cast.
Chief executive of All3Media label South Pacific Pictures Kelly Martin said: “In developing a drama series around these events, we want to understand why things ended the way they did for this intelligent, driven woman - and why Pauline’s seemingly glamourous life unravelled in a haze of escorts, drugs, and alcohol ultimately leading- in one way, or another- to her tragic death.
“This goes beyond the salacious headlines of meth and sex workers – it’s a story about the cost of addiction and the pressures facing Pauline Hanna – pressures which ended in a tragedy that became a national obsession.”
Deery said: “I am pleased to be working with such an experienced international creative team that we have assembled. This will be a landmark series for me to direct, based on this tragic true story… The drama will be told through the eyes of all the victims and, as the jury did, the audience will make up its own mind.”
South Pacific is behind cross genre shows including The Traitors NZ and dramas including Shortland Street and The Brokenwood Mysteries. Joejack is behind a range of feature films including Conspiracy of Silence, while Glasgow’s Sinner Films was established by Spare Parts writer Murdoch.
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