Netflix Boards ‘The Airport Chaplain’ Starring Hugo Weaving
EXCLUSIVE: Australian drama series The Airport Chaplain is set to take flight globally on Netflix.
We hear the streamer has struck a deal for worldwide rights (ex Australia) on the show, which is from Sydney-based production house Wooden Horse and stars Hugo Weaving (Slow Horses) as an unconventional airport terminal chaplain and The Pitt breakout Shabana Azeez as his put-upon boss.
A launch date on August 26 has been set, meaning the eight-part series will go day-and-date with the commissioning network, Australian broadcaster SBS and its streaming service, SBS On Demand. You can watch a first-look teaser trailer above.
The show, which was first unveiled at Series Mania last year, will have a world premiere next month at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and development is already underway on Season 2.
The show was inspired by Wooden Horse co-founder Jude Troy’s chance encounter with a Melbourne Airport chaplain, who helped her recover a lost handbag. It follows Tobias Wallace (Weaving), a chaplain at a bustling international airport terminal who shepherds travellers on their way around the world.
Scruffy and benevolent in a hi-vis ‘Chaplain’-printed vest, Wallace is willing to bend rules to help passengers and workers alike, but ambitious new terminal manager Mira (Azeez) has the liability nightmare marked for redundancy. However, as crises appear everywhere – overworked baggage handlers, security breaches, families torn apart and grief-stricken relatives – Mira has to begin seeing Tobias differently.
Also part of the ensemble cast are Claudia Karvan (Bump), Thomas Weatherall (Heartbreak High), Erroll Shand (All Her Fault), Kavitha Anandasivam (Aftertaste), Jackson Tozer (The Newsreader), Elias Anton (Swift Street), Arka Das (Monarch: Legacy of Monsters), Fanny Hanusin (Wentworth), Echo Palo (The Correspondent), Nicholas Denton (Dangerous Liaisons), George Mason (Run), Brenna Harding (The Twelve), Michael Logo (Colin From Accounts), Priscilla Doueihy (Lioness), Claude Jabbour (Last King of the Cross) and Ras-Samuel Welda’abzgi (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes).
“The founding mission of Wooden Horse was to take premium scripted Australian stories to a global audience, so we’re thrilled to be partnering with Netflix to bring The Airport Chaplain to over 190 countries and regions around the world,” said Troy.
“This series is very close to my heart, and we couldn’t be prouder of this universal, yet distinctly Australian story, which perfectly captures the nuanced, heartbreaking and heartwarming stories inside an international airport.”
“The Airport Chaplain is a series that speaks to our humanity – love, loss, grief, joy – all the things that make us human coalesce in the heightened limbo of an international airport,” said Weaving in a statement to Deadline.
“I was immediately drawn to the role of airport chaplain Tobias Wallace – a flawed but deeply humane character who struggles to separate himself from the emotional terrain of the airport and the myriads of characters that seek his counsel. With such universal resonance it couldn’t be more perfect that The Airport Chaplain is set to reach a global audience via Netflix .”
Screenwriter Elise McCredie (The Clearing, Stateless) created the series, and is an exec producer alongside Troy and Wooden Horse co-founder Richard Finlayson, co-producer Alex Cameron and SBS’ Nakul Legha. Bonnie Moir (Run, Exposure) and Tig Terera (Swift Street, Heartbreak High) are the directors McCredie, Sarah Bassiuoni (Critical Incident), Mithila Gupta (Four Years Later) are the writers alongside screenwriter and playwright Vidya Rajan (Why Are You Like This).
Wooden Horse made The Airport Chaplain for SBS, and landed major production investment from Screen Australia. It was financed with support from VicScreen. UK-based distribution outfit DCD will handle second window sales.
