Conspiracy 365

Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 9.30pm, SBS ONE
Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamoured with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.

Conspiracy 365 – January (Premiere) 7pm, FMC
Adapted from the best-selling novels. This film follows a year in the life of teenager Cal Ormond, who is forced to go on the run and become a fugitive as he searches for the truth behind a deadly family secret.

Desperately Seeking Susan, 8.30pm, Arena
A New Jersey housewife desperately seeking adventure in her boring suburban life becomes obsessed with the ‘Susan’ she reads about in the personal ads, and finds herself taking over the identity of this flamboyant temptress.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, 6.30pm, TEN
When Sid’s attempt to adopt three dinosaur eggs gets him abducted by their real mother to an underground lost world, his friends attempt to rescue him.

Beautiful Kate, 9.30pm, Nine
Ned Kendall returns to his family home to say goodbye to his dying father, only to have long-buried secrets from the family’s past awakened by memories of his beautiful sister.

Countdown, around 12.30am on ABC1 as part of Rage Goes Retro.
Three episodes from 1980 and 1981, featuring Molly Meldrum. Read more here.

Sunday, January 8th

LAST CHANCE SURGERY – BIO – Season One
5pm
Hosted by former Australian Medical Association president, Dr Kerryn Phelps, the series provides an insight into the cases of patients whose only chance of survival is major and potentially fatal surgery.

THE LITTLE COUPLE – BIO – Season 2
5.30pm
Picking up where season 1 left off, this series follows newlyweds Bill Klein, a successful businessman, and Jen Arnold, a neonatologist, as they embark on their life together. Both under 4 feet tall, they face not only the struggles of two little people.

BEDLAM: THE HISTORY OF THE BETHLEM HOSPITAL – HISTORY
7.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
This is the story of Bethlem Hospital, and how its patients have been viewed throughout history. Satirised over centuries as both a ‘human zoo’ and a ‘university of madness’ and, for 100 years, one of London’s leading tourist attractions.

Monday, January 9th

WIFE SWAP AUSTRALIA - LIFESTYLE YOU – Season One
LOCAL PRODUCTION
8.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
In this first episode of Wife Swap Australia we meet The Montfords. Self-made millionaires Simon and Stephanie push themselves and their three children to be the best they can be. Nicole and Trent Barry meanwhile live for the moment, putting no rules or expectations on their kids. The wives are swapping homes for seven days to see what it’s like living the other wife’s life and to learn a bit about their own.
Read review here.

BECOMING CHAZ – LIFESTYLE YOU
9.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
In Becoming Chaz we learn about the highly-emotional nature of the transgender process, through the eyes of Chaz Bono. Featuring an exclusive with Chaz’s mother, Cher, this documentary charts Chaz’s emotional and physical transition from woman to man. Read review here.

CROSSING THE LINE – CRIME & INVESTIGATION NETWORK – Season One
7:30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
Who would write a book describing how he murdered his romantic rival, or put sedatives in her husband’s strawberry milkshake only to bludgeon him to death? These shocking crimes reach beyond geographic borders, as well as the limits of reason. Two of these strange but true international crime stories remain unsolved, but all represent mysterious nightmarish situations with odd twists that evoke bewilderment.

OTTOMANS VS. CHRISTIANS: BATTLE FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN - HISTORY – Three-part Series
7.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
The Mediterranean Sea may be a beautiful tourist destination today but in the 16th century it was the central arena for an almighty power struggle between Christian Europe and the formidable Muslim Ottoman Empire. It was a conflict not just for power and wealth but for cultural and religious supremacy that lasted nearly three centuries and its outcome resonates to this day.

Tuesday, January 10th

INJUSTICE – W – Season One
7:30pm – Australian Premiere
Injustice is a complex, nail-biting drama… an examination of morality on many levels. James Purefoy stars as William Travers, a criminal barrister who is recovering from a traumatic series of events when he is drawn into a case that involves his old friend Martin Newall, who faces conspiracy and murder charges while at the same time being investigated by a vicious and vengeful detective DS Mark Wenborn. This five-part series takes the audience on a journey full of surprises until it reaches a devastating conclusion.

CHICAGO HOPE - 111 HITS – Seasons 1, 2 and 3
Weeknights at 11.30pm
This hit medical drama stars Mandy Patinkin, Hector Elizondo, Roxanne Hart and Peter MacNicol as top physicians, nurses and technical support staff working together in a high-tech, high-pressure Chicago medical center; where balancing personal and professional lives is part of the daily struggle.

Wednesday, January 11th

I SURVIVED…STORIES OF AUSTRALIANS – BIO – Season One
LOCAL PRODUCTION
8.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
This 8-part local series will profile the extraordinary stories of every day Australians who have overcome unbelievable and traumatic circumstances – with each person offering their own insight into the event that has now changed their life forever. I Survived…Stories of Australians will feature survivors of events including the Boxing Day tsunami, the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, the recent Queensland floods, the London and Bali bombings, the Port Arthur Massacre and the fateful Sydney to Hobart Yacht race in 1998.

RAISING BIPOLAR – BIO
9.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
In this intriguing documentary, our cameras follow a small community of mothers of bipolar kids as they juggle their multitude of medications, mood shifts, and far flung scheduling routines. Once isolated and completely helpless, these mothers of bipolar children are now finding solace for the first time in each other.

EVIL UP CLOSE – CRIME & INVESTIGATION NETWORK – Season One
7:30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
These are extraordinary crimes committed by ordinary people. Meet the neighbour who waves politely, the friend who is the life and soul of a party, the colleague who buys the coffee. All are ready to kill, rape, maim or harm. They live cheek by jowl with us; they look, sound and behave like us – but they are evil and their crimes have shocked the world. This series hears from the people who knew, loved or trusted those hunted for vicious crimes, of those who lived alongside, laughed with or felt the warmth of a monster – the wives and daughters, husbands and sons, the friends, neighbours, detectives and prosecutors who have eye-balled evil in the dock.

ROBERT BLECKER WANTS ME DEAD – CRIME & INVESTIGATION NETWORK
9:30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
An engrossing and often disturbing documentary that looks inside the puzzling and unlikely friendship between Robert Blecker, one of America’s most impassioned crusaders for capital punishment, and Daryl Holton, a mass murderer awaiting execution on Tennessee’s death row.

Friday, January 13th

THE L WORD - ARENA – Season 1
9:30pm
The first season of The L Word introduces us to Bette Porter and Tina Kennard, a committed couple who have decided to have a baby. Their neighbour’s girlfriend Jenny moves in and once she starts mixing with Bette and Tina’s friends, Jenny questions her sexuality. Bette’s sister Kim struggles with alcoholism while friend Dana struggles with combining her secret life as a lesbian with her professional life as a tennis player.

Saturday, January 14th

CONSPIRACY 365 – FMC
7pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
Adapted from the best-selling novels. This film (in a series) follows a year in the life of teenager Cal Ormond, who is forced to go on the run and become a fugitive as he searches for the truth behind a deadly family secret.

SOUTH KOREA: A NATION TO WATCH – HISTORY
3.30pm – Australian Exclusive Premiere
See how South Korea transformed into the economic miracle, its place in Asia today and why it is seen by many to be a nation at ‘the centre of the world’.

Principle photography commenced today on CONSPIRACY 365, with AFI-Award winning Australian actor Harrison Gilbertson playing the lead role of ‘Cal Ormond’, it was announced by the MOVIE NETWORK CHANNELS today.

With a production budget of $13mil, CONSPIRACY 365 is the single largest drama production ever commissioned for subscription television, fully-funded by MOVIE NETWORK CHANNELS and is produced by Melbourne based Circa Entertainment.

CONSPIRACY 365 is the story of a year in the life of teenager, ‘Cal Ormond’, who is forced to go on the run and become a fugitive as he searches for the truth behind a deadly family secret. Adapted from the best-selling novels by Australian author Gabrielle Lord, CONSPIRACY 365 will be broadcast on FMC the Family Movie Channel with a unique broadcasting strategy mirroring the 2010 release of the original novels of twelve monthly instalments, commencing in January 2012.

An extraordinary cast was revealed today. CONSPIRACY 365 lays claim to the next generation of Australian stars including the 2010 and 2006 AFI Best Young Actor Award winners, supported by an outstanding ensemble of leading Australian actors.

In the lead role of ‘Cal Ormond’ is Harrison Gilbertson, whose performance in Beneath Hill 60 saw him awarded the 2010 AFI Best Young Actor Award. Despite his young age, Harrison’s career has seen him work alongside Academy Award® winners Geena Davis and Jennifer Connolly.  He played Deborra-lee Furness’ son in Ana Kokkinos’ Blessed and

Harrison’s feature film breakthrough role was in Paul Goldman’s highly acclaimed Australian Rules. Paul Goldman (Suburban Mayhem, The Night We Called It A Day) brings his cinematic eye to the production as the Director of the first four episodes.

Marny Kennedy plays the mysterious ‘Winter’. Marny won the AFI Best Young Actor Award in 2006 for her role in Mortified and has starred in leading roles in the TV series The Saddle Club and A gURLs wURLd. An exhaustive nation-wide search saw Queensland teenager, talented newcomer Taylor Glockner, cast in the pivotal role of Cal’s best friend ‘Boges’.

Complementing this trio of young actors is an outstanding ensemble cast which includes David Whiteley (Artistic Director Red Stitch Theatre Company, The Hollowmen, Killer Elite), Julia Zemiro (RocKwiz, Talkin’ Bout Your Generation), Rob Carlton (Paper Giants, My Place, Chandon Pictures), Kate Kendall (Matching Jack, The Librarians, Stingers) and Ryan O’Kane (Rage, City Homicide).

CONSPIRACY 365 is produced by industry leaders Linda Klejus and Ann Darrouzet for Circa Entertainment who have assembled an A-list team of writers and production crew for the 26-week shoot, entirely on location in Victoria. CONSPIRACY 365’s stylish and glorious production design will stunningly showcase Melbourne and surrounding regional areas.

Lead Director is Paul Goldman and Director of Photography is Laszlo Baranyai. Production Design by Tel Stolfo.  Story Producers are industry veterans in their first collaboration, Michael Brindley and Mark Shirrefs, and Writers are Sam Carroll, Kristen Dunphy, Shanti Gudgeon, Julie Lacy, Michael Miller, Michelle Offen and Kris Wyld.

Emmy® award winning Digital Producers Hoodlum Entertainment have been appointed to develop the multi-platform strategy to extend the story across mobile, web-based video platforms and social networks.

Rounding out this all-star team is an astonishing soundtrack by Tamil Rogeon and Ryan Ritchie (The Raah Project).

MOVIE NETWORK CHANNELS’ unrivalled investment in CONSPIRACY 365 is a significant milestone for subscription television drama and continues to raise the bar for the industry. The production will deliver the premium channel provider with a 12-month programming and marketing event for its FMC channel throughout 2012.

For all the latest updates and announcements on CONSPIRACY 365 visit Facebook www.facebook.com/conspiracy365

(From a press release)