Tasmanian author Heather Rose scores TV rights deal for her acclaimed novel, Bruny

Tasmanian author Heather Rose wrote her acclaimed novelas a warning about Australia’s food security, the encroachment of foreign powers and, perhaps most prophetically of all, the potential health threat posed by the booming cruise ship industry.

TASMANIAN writer Heather Rose’s best-selling and highly prescient novel Bruny, will be adapted for television.

The book, which has sold more than 40,000 copies since its October launch, has been optioned by Film Art Media and will be developed as a TV series by producers Charlotte Seymour and Sue Maslin.

Heather Rose, Tasmanian author of award-winning novel, Bruny. Picture: PETER MATHEW.

Rose wrote Bruny as a warning about Australia’s food security, the encroachment of foreign powers and, perhaps most prophetically of all, the potential health threat posed by the booming cruise ship industry.

Speaking with the Sunday Tasmanian from her home in Hobart, Rose says she could not have predicted that a global pandemic would emerge within months of the book’s release, making her Tasmanian tale more timely than ever.

“I wrote it very specifically for Tasmanians and if it had a national or an international appeal then that was a side project. I wrote it as a real love letter to Tasmania and our fellow Tasmanians and I wrote is as a cautionary tale for Australia,” she said.

“I didn’t see this (coronavirus crisis) coming. It did concern me that we were going to face biosecurity issues if we didn’t tighten our regulations and tighten our scrutiny of cruise ships for example.”

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The novel won the general fiction prize at the Australian Book Industry Awards earlier this month and, if not for COVID-19, would undoubtedly be fuelling increased tourism to Tasmania.

Bruny, by Heather Rose

“I’ve had an absolutely constant flow of reader feedback every single day since I wrote the book and the ones that have never been here say ‘I’m planning my trip to Tasmania as soon as I can’,” Rose said.

Film Art Media produced the high-grossing Australian film from 2015 The Dressmaker, starring Kate Winslet.

Rose said she chose the Melbourne company over a number of other contenders for the TV rights because producers Seymour and Maslin feel strongly connected to Tasmania and have a house on the East Coast.

“I was very keen to ensure that it would be shot in Tasmania and would faithfully depict Tasmania in a way that Tasmanians felt comfortable with, unlike some other productions,” Rose said.

“I didn’t want any cliches and I didn’t want it suddenly set over in east coast America or somewhere.”

Meanwhile, another of Rose’s award-winning novels, The Museum of Modern Love, is being adapted for the big screen by film producer Virgina Whitwill, while the theatre version is in development in Sydney and will be launched next year.

The stage version has been adapted by Melbourne playwright Tom Holloway and directed by Sydney-based Tim Jones, who are both originally from Tasmania.

“The three of us are a little Tassie triumvirate, which is really exciting,” Rose said.