Rebecca Gibney on the TV drama Wanted that she has co-produced

WANTED, the new TV series Rebecca Gibney built from the ground up, is like the movie Thelma & Louise as a road drama, she says excitedly.

IT’S Rebecca Gibney as you’ve never seen her before — dishevelled, covered in dust, hair unkempt, clad in a shapeless flannelette shirt, trucker’s cap, hiking boots, and on the run.

This is the first look at Wanted — the series Gibney built from the ground up, coming up with the concept and developing it for 18 months with her production designer husband Richard Bell, before pitching it to Channel Seven and convincing Matchbox Pictures to make it.

The result is Gibney, 50, transformed into Lola Buckley — a suburban supermarket worker, who along with a stranger named Chelsea (played by new face Geraldine Hakewill embarks on a Thelma & Louise-style road trip on the run across Australia.

Revealing details of her character and the plot exclusively to News Corp Australia, Gibney, who not only stars in Wanted but also takes on producer duties, gave the same pitch she delivered to make the series a reality.

“It’s two women, at a bus stop, poles apart, nothing in common,” Gibney said.

“They’ve been standing at this bus stop every morning at 5am for 18 months, have never spoken a word to each other. Then one morning this incident happens at the bus stop which is going to change their lives irrevocably, and they are forced to look after each other and become friends to survive.”

“It’s like Thelma & Louise in terms of it’s a road movie — well, series — but they were two friends who went away on a weekend and something bad happened.

“These two are more a reluctant Thelma & Louise — polar opposites thrown together as strangers. They’re like more like Felix and Oscar (the famed mismatched characters in The Odd Couple), really.

“Where Chelsea is stitched up, Lola is wild. Where Chelsea refuses to take risks, Lola will take too many.”

Before getting down to work ... Geraldine Hakewill, Stephen Peacocke and Rebecca Gibney at Kangaroo Point Cliffs, Brisbane. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

It’s the first major TV gig for Gibney’s co-star, Hakewill, who Gibney predicts will be a ‘massive star’.

“Everyone is like ‘wow, where has this girl been hiding’,” Gibney said.

“She’s been doing a lot of theatre and film but she hasn’t done a lot of television. She just walked in and she was Chelsea.

“Physically she is my polar opposite — I mean she’s 28, she’s tall and pale-skinned and skinny and dark hair and gorgeous. And I’m dumpy and middle-aged and blonde with a tummy.

“And she’s this elegant, extraordinary actress.”

One of the nation’s favourite Gold Logie winners ... Rebecca Gibney created Wanted with her husband Richard Bell. Picture Chris Pavlich

Filming of Wanted, which also stars Steve Peacocke, Alex Dimitriades, Nicholas Bell and sees Gibney reunited with her former Packed to Rafterscasemate Ryan Corr, wrapped last week after a hectic 10 weeks filming in 60 locations.

Wanted will air on Seven in February.

Originally published as Rebecca Gibney on the TV drama Wanted that she has co-produced