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Speaker 1: Luke Arnold's joining us now. Scrublands is out on stand today.

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Speaker 2: Luke, Hello, Hello, very well, thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Can't wait for this to start today. I've read the book.

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Speaker 1: I loved the book. So it's a four part mini

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Speaker 1: series based on the novel by Chris Hammer. What can

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Speaker 1: you tell us about Scrublands?

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Speaker 2: Luke? Oh, yeah, so Scrubland. Yeah, like just like the book.

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Speaker 2: It begins with father Byron Swift coming out of his

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Speaker 2: church on a Sunday and opening fire on his constituent,

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Speaker 2: you know, a pretty wild opening. And then I play

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Speaker 2: journalist Martin Scarston, who arrhymes on the scene a year later,

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Speaker 2: kind of to do a little bit of a puff

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Speaker 2: piece see how the town's recovering. Yeah, but you know,

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Speaker 2: he starts pulling at threads and seeing that maybe the

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Speaker 2: story that originally came out might have more to tell.

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Speaker 1: Yes, super cool journalist Martin Scarston was exposed.

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Speaker 3: You told me about this book that ages ago, I do. Yes, Hey,

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Speaker 3: what was what drew you to this one? Look to

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Speaker 3: be honest, man, Of all the things that land on

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Speaker 3: the desk.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well, I mean one of the books are

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Speaker 2: so great.

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Speaker 1: Look, I.

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Speaker 2: Hadn't I've read them all now and absolutely loved them.

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Speaker 2: But at the time my dad was a big fan,

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Speaker 2: and so when I mentioned that he was, he got

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Speaker 2: very excited.

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Speaker 4: And so that that and.

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Speaker 2: Really it is, Look, I love a good mystery like

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Speaker 2: everyone else, and I've you know, I got to I

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Speaker 2: got to do a great role in show called True

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Speaker 2: Colors a couple of years ago, and that was a

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Speaker 2: beautifu little mystery, you know, in the you know, around Alice,

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Speaker 2: and I think it really got me excited to do

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Speaker 2: some more, and especially in Australia. And so when you've

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Speaker 2: got a book as great as Scrubland with the right

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Speaker 2: like Chris Hammer, and then you get a team together

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Speaker 2: with someone like Craig McLean directing you of Wolf Creek Fames,

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Speaker 2: then it at least has the chances to be something

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Speaker 2: pretty special.

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Speaker 1: It has that. I mean obviously the way it starts

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Speaker 1: with the priest opening fire on his congregations that is

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Speaker 1: quintessentially Australian. But the vibe of the story and its

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Speaker 1: location and it's setting and everything is so Australian.

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Speaker 2: Yeah it is, you know, and we do do a

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Speaker 2: great asinoir here and with it, you know, and we

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Speaker 2: do love it, and I think the rest of the

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Speaker 2: world is starting to love it too. You see how

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Speaker 2: a lot of our great Yeah, that's it. It's a

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Speaker 2: real it's our own take on it. It's kind of

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Speaker 2: a rich and all that, and yeah, and it does

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Speaker 2: you see just how great it looks like. I think

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Speaker 2: the show looks fantastic. And you know, yeah, that the

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Speaker 2: beauty and the terror all wrapped up in our landscape.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we've seen that a lot, likely with the dry

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Speaker 3: and a few others around the place. Look, honey, handler

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Speaker 3: it I was driving down Sterling Highway two days ago

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Speaker 3: and I saw a giant your head was huge on

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Speaker 3: a giant billboard. How do you go with spotting stuff,

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Speaker 3: especially when things are getting promoted as heavily as this,

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Speaker 3: Does it freak you out of it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Look, I do kind of forget about it, I

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Speaker 2: have to say, because I look, I do a bit

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Speaker 2: of writing myself. So often I'm like, if I'm not acting,

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Speaker 2: I'm usually with my head and the laptop writing my

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Speaker 2: own stuff. So, which is kind of where I've been

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Speaker 2: for the last few weeks. So I've always missed most

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Speaker 2: of it. And I took my head out today or

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Speaker 2: the Luckily friends do send me and go exactly like that,

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Speaker 2: go like you know, oh, you're looming over this freeway

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Speaker 2: or you know, interrupting their favorite show. It is strange,

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Speaker 2: but I think because it's all in servers of a

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Speaker 2: show that I really love, I think of it more

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Speaker 2: to do with that than anything to do with me.

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Speaker 1: Now, don't play yourself down in terms of the factor

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Speaker 1: and author yourself. A trilogy of fantasy adventure novels called

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Speaker 1: The Last Smile in Sunder City is all yours? Do

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Speaker 1: you when you're an author yourself? Do you feel that

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Speaker 1: even more of a connection to the story and where

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Speaker 1: it came from for a show like scrub Lands and

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Speaker 1: a sort of a I want to be true to

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Speaker 1: the author a bit.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's both. You want to absolutely be in service

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Speaker 2: of the original story, but know that it's a different medium,

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Speaker 2: and so there is a real art in turn in

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Speaker 2: lifting it up and putting it on the screen for

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Speaker 2: this visual medium. And I do love that process, and

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Speaker 2: I think Felicity pack hard. You know, our writer producers

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Speaker 2: did a really great job in that. As a fan

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Speaker 2: of the book, you'll know that there's there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of good stuff in there. That you can't really portray

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Speaker 2: it in the same way. So much demands internal world,

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Speaker 2: and so it is really enjoying that process of going,

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Speaker 2: how do we how do we make the best show

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Speaker 2: possible while serving with the book but also letting it

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Speaker 2: become something else, and so, you know, and then the

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Speaker 2: beauty is that if it works, both these things get

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Speaker 2: to live side by side and offer somewhat different experience.

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Speaker 1: That's perfect. That's the perfect marriage. I believe that filming

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Speaker 1: was a bit hampered by the floods.

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Speaker 3: It can be a problem.

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Speaker 4: Oh, I know, maybe it was.

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Speaker 2: I know, I think maybe we kind of want to

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Speaker 2: look around there. Definitely things were going on.

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Speaker 3: What are you talking about, affected yourself?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it.

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Speaker 2: Was long enough ago that I don't Okay, I'm not sure.

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Speaker 4: If it did affect us that much. So I think

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Speaker 4: it was.

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Speaker 2: It was such a fun It was a relatively fast shoot, so.

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Speaker 4: I have forgotten it in the mix. Yeah, but no,

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Speaker 4: it's so no, we were I guess the only you know,

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Speaker 4: it is always a risk when you know, so many

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Speaker 4: of these stories you're using that kind of drought ridden

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Speaker 4: desert landscape, and it can be a thing if sudden

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Speaker 4: you had some really good rain.

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Speaker 2: The week before. Yeah, so we did send some of

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Speaker 2: the camera crew off into the you know, some drier

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Speaker 2: places to Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, it's all that time frames and budgets and that. Hey, look,

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Speaker 3: you know you've had your head obviously, you know a

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Speaker 3: lot in a laptop writing and as a writer. Did

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Speaker 3: you mean playing Martin in this one? Did you ever

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Speaker 3: think along your trip that there was going to be

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Speaker 3: maybe some journalism involved, that it ever appeal to yours

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Speaker 3: as a career.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I think I feel much safer in the land

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Speaker 2: of make believe.

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Speaker 4: I yeah, I swear.

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Speaker 2: Journalists absolutely, which is you know, and which is really

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Speaker 2: interesting dealing with Like I love dealing with things and

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Speaker 2: like real life things. Yeah, absolutely, the idea about how

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Speaker 2: important is and the truth is and what can happen

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Speaker 2: and who can be hurt if that isn't upheld, Like

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Speaker 2: I love dealing with real things like that. But for me,

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Speaker 2: I filtering it through the world of fiction metaphor things

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Speaker 2: like that. I think is my playground a lot more

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Speaker 2: than you know than actual journalism. So I think I'm

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Speaker 2: much safe for playing a journalists and being one.

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Speaker 1: Such a well, Chris Hammer was is a proper reputable

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Speaker 1: journalist and that's why he writes Martin Scarston so well.

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Speaker 1: And the good news is it is a series of books,

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Speaker 1: so let's hope this isn't the only outing. Look, I

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Speaker 1: don't know four parts of Martin will be enough for me.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, look it does fly by like this. Scrublands

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Speaker 2: is great, but it moves, and so hopefully everyone's feeling

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Speaker 2: the same because I would love to get back in

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Speaker 2: in Martin's head before too long. So here we go.

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Speaker 1: Well, it all starts today on stan Luke Arnold. So

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Speaker 1: lovely to talk to you.

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Speaker 2: Need to talk to you too,