Cate Blanchett to direct a TV series based on the true story of Cornelia Rau

CATE Blanchett is to direct a new TV series based on the story of Cornelia Rau, the young woman who escaped a cult and was put in the now-closed Baxter Immigration Detention Centre.

Cate Blanchett walks the blue carpet at the premiere for Cinderella.Photo Jeremy Piper

CATE Blanchett is to direct a new television series based on the true story of Cornelia Rau, the young German/Australian woman who made headlines in 2004 when she escaped a frightening cult only to wind up in the notorious Baxter Immigration Detention Centre.

Stateless will be the two-time Oscar winner’s first venture into high-end TV.

It is unclear whether Blanchett also intends to appear in the series.

True story ... Cornelia Rau before a press conference in Adelaide in May 2005. She was found at Baxter Detention Centre after being mistaken for German illegal immigrant.

Also unclear was what impact the just-announced project will have on Blanchett’s earlier plans to helm a feature film adaptation of the Herman Koch’s best-selling novel The Dinner, a psychological thriller exploring just how far a parent will go to protect their child.

Blanchett honed her directing chops on stage at the Sydney Theatre Company, where she was co-artistic director, alongside husband Andrew Upton, for five years.

David Harrower’s Blackbird and Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, with Robyn Nevin, were two of her more notable successes.

The Cornelia Rau project was announced today in a list of 23 film and TV projects that have received a total of $640,000 in development funding from Screen Australia.

Other high profile talent named in the latest line up include Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward, who will collaborate on a film version of Randolph Stow’s post-apocalyptic novel Tourmalin, and writer/director Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert), who is working on a comedy called Flammable Children.

Film, stage and TV actor Richard Roxburgh, soon to be seen opposite Blanchett in an STC production of Chekov’s The Present, is also developing his first film directorial project since Romulus, My Father (2007). Veteran producer Jan Chapman is producing Roxburgh’s bittersweet comedy Babyteeth.

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Originally published as Cate Blanchett to direct a TV series based on the true story of Cornelia Rau