Never Tear Us Apart: The Untold Story of INXS tunes up in Melbourne next week with a cast that blends newcomers and seasoned pros.
The four-hour miniseries for the Seven Network is the first drama from Shine Australia. The screenplay by Justin Monjo and Dave Warner is billed as the uncensored story of the iconic band’s rise to the top of the international charts and the aftermath of dealing with frontman Michael Hutchence’s death in 1997.
The band’s manager CM Murphy is an executive producer and the filmmakers have been granted full access to their archive of music, photography and stories.
Luke Arnold, who stars as Long John Silver in the Michael Bay-produced pirate adventure series Black Sails for the US network Starz, will play Hutchence. A graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, his credits include McLeod's Daughters, Rush, Rescue: Special Ops, City Homicide and Steven Spielberg's The Pacific.
Newcomer Nicholas Masters will play Tim Farriss with Ido Drent (Offspring, Shortland Street) as Jon Farriss, Andy Ryan (Underbelly: Squizzy Taylor, Reef Doctors) as Andrew Farriss, Alex Williams (Underground: The Julian Assange Story) as Kirk Pengilly and Hugh Sheridan (Packed to the Rafters) as Garry Gary Beers.
Damon Herriman, who stars in the upcoming Australian horror/comedy movie 100 Bloody Acres and in the US TV series Justified and Vegas, will play Murphy.
Seven hasn't yet announced who will play Kylie Minogue, Paula Yates, Bono and Helena Christensen. Daina Reed is the director and the producers are Kerrie Mainwaring and Andrew Prowse.
It’s the first of three projects on Hutchence and his band. Producers Trevor Ray Field and Suzy Markovski and screenwriter/executive producer Robert Lewis Galinsky are preparing the movie Two Worlds Colliding, based on the book Just A Man – The Real Michael Hutchence by the singer’s sister Tina and his mother Patricia Glassop.
Screen Australia is funding the development of the biopic Michael with producer Sue Murray and writer- director Richard Lowenstein, based on the latter’s work with Hutchence and the band and interviews with his siblings.