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NZ’s South Pacific Pictures teams with Joejack, Sinner in the UK for true crime drama

South Pacific Pictures in New Zealand is developing a limited drama series centred around a high-profile eight-week murder trial with UK-based Joejack Entertainment and Sinner Films.

Kelly Martin

An as-yet-unnamed New Zealand TV network is supporting the development of The Mysterious Death of Pauline Hanna, while talks are underway with a “major” Kiwi writer to come on board, according to the producers.

The series, which is yet to be cast, follows events following the death of Pauline Hanna in 2021, when her husband Philip Polkinghorne was accused of her murder.

Polkinghorne was ultimately found not guilty of killing his wife in a case that attracted huge interest amid claims of drug use and infidelity. The producers said they aim to present “the facts of the case in a responsible, forensic and non-judgmental way.”

The series showrunners will be David Murdoch and Caleb Ranson, with John Deery confirmed as series director. The producers are Kelly Martin, Murdoch and Deery.

Deery said: “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.”

Martin, CEO of South Pacific Pictures, said: “Pauline Hanna’s life has been laid bare for the world to judge. 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.”

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