New local drama is on its way but the television network where it will be found is the country's foreign-owned TV3 rather than our state broadcaster.
After a dry spell of local programming, the Canadian-owned broadcaster has New Zealand on Air funding for the 26-part series Hopeless ($4 million) and a children's drama, Being Eve ($2.06 million).
TV3 has also hired producer Caterina De Nave to develop and to executive-produce a new adult drama to screen next year.
The network's director of programming, Kristin Marlow, said rather than pay a lot of money for overseas formats and asking producers to localise them, she was interested in fresh ideas.
"I'd rather have programming that was developed locally by Kiwis, for Kiwis and about Kiwis," said Marlow, a New Zealander who joined TV3 from Optus Television in Sydney last October.
She said Hopeless, a spin-off telly series from the movie about a group of mates, would not be rushed onto the screen but it could be ready late this year.
Marlow said she watched one of Australia's most successful dramas, Water Rats, as it was developed over three years before it hit the screen.
"I think we've all been guilty of [having] a great idea and wanting to see it on air three weeks later. The key to a long-running, sustaining drama is development."
She rubbished criticisms that it was risky to fund 26 episodes of the show by young writers with no television experience.
"If you do 13 and you launch it, about episode six people are starting to hear about it. Episode six to nine you've got an audience growing and finding it, and at 13 it's all over, just when you have built a peak audience."
The network has narrowed the ideas for its 2001 adult drama - the first since Cover Story - down to three. At this early stage, Marlow said the drama was likely to be urban and skewed towards females.
She added that there had been interest in Being Eve, which is in development, from overseas networks.
Marlow said it was time for TV3 to "get back the high ground" from TVNZ with local programming.
"TV3 in the past has been very successful at it ... [then] the competition picked up on [the style of shows]."
The Topp Twins returns later this year and the channel is also preparing to launch Big OE, a reality series which follows a group of young New Zealanders on a bus tour around Europe.
TV3 is also pinning big hopes on two new American shows, Malcolm In The Middle and Titus - both covering the subject of dysfunctional families.
Malcolm was an instant hit in the United States when it premiered earlier this year with take-no-prisoners mum Lois, laid-back dad Hal and their conspiring sons Francis, Reese, Malcolm and Dewey.
Titus is an autobiographical work by comedian Christopher Titus about his family life with his brother and alcoholic father.
At a recent television market in France, the network picked up the British series Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which is based on the hit movie of the same name.
It also bought a mini-series about the life of Audrey Hepburn, with Jennifer Love Hewitt playing the famous actress.
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