Sundance Channel: Miniseries co-directed and co-written by Oscar winner Jane Campion featured in 2012-13 programming overview

“Top of the Lake,” a seven-episode miniseries directed by Acadamy Award winner Jane Campion  (“The Piano, “Portrait of a Lady”) and Australian director Garth Davis and written by Campion and Gerard Lee (“Sweetie”) is among the upcoming programming to be featured in 2012-2013 on the Sundance Channel, according to a news release.

An overview of Sundance Channel’s upcoming programming, provided by the network, includes:

NEW ORIGINAL UNSCRIPTED SERIES

GET TO WORK

Premiere: August 13, 2012
1 Hour, 8 Episodes

It’s no secret that getting, and keeping, a job in this economy takes more than just luck. After enough rejection, it’s easy to feel entirely locked out of the game. Right now there are millions of Americans out of work, and this August, Sundance Channel’s original docu-series “Get to Work” will take you inside a groundbreaking back-to-work program in San Diego, a hardcore boot camp that gives hope to the chronically unemployed: those who have no jobs, no direction, and seemingly no chance. It’s a high-stakes make-or-break moment and, for most of the students, this is their last crack at a real future. But it doesn’t come easy; as they push their students to learn workplace skills that will land them a job, the Instructors contend with those who have never learned anything other than bad attitudes and bad behavior. Not everyone makes it to graduation.

ORIGINAL SCRIPTED MINI-SERIES

RESTLESS

Premiere: December 2012
2-Part Mini-Series

Award-winning contemporary British novelist William Boyd penned both the book and script of this 2-part original mini-series, which depicts the thrilling story of a daughter who discovers that her mother was recruited as a spy during World War II.  The series, slated to premiere in December 2012, will be produced by Emmy Award winner Hilary Bevan Jones (“State of Play,” “The Girl in the Café”) under her shingle Endor Productions and directed by acclaimed theater and television director Edward Hall.

The cast includes Hayley Atwell (“Any Human Heart,” “Captain America”) Rufus Sewell (“Pillars of the Earth,” “Zen”), Michelle Dockery (“Downton Abbey”, “Anna Karenina”), Michael Gambon (“Page Eight,” Luck) and Charlotte Rampling (“Melancholia,” “The Eye of the Storm”).  Filming will commence this summer in South Africa and the UK.

NEW ORGINIAL SCRIPTED SERIES

TOP OF THE LAKE

Premiere: 2013
1 Hour, 7 Episodes

“Top of the Lake,” is a seven-part mini-series directed by Oscar winner Jane Campion (The Piano, Portrait of a Lady) and Australian director Garth Davis, and written by Jane Campion and Gerard Lee (Sweetie).  The project stars SAG Award winner and three time Emmy Award-nominated actress Elisabeth Moss (“Mad Men,” On the Road).   In addition, Holly Hunter, who won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Campion’s The Piano, stars alongside BAFTA nominee Peter Mullan (War Horse, Trainspotting) and AFI Award-winning actor David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings, Australia). Lucy Lawless (Spartacus) has a featured cameo.

Produced by Academy Award winners Emile Sherman and Iain Canning (The King’s Speech, Shame) of See-Saw Films, and Philippa Campbell (Black Sheep) of Escapade Pictures, “Top of the Lake” is a powerful and haunting mystery about the search for happiness in a paradise where honest work is hard to find.  Set in the remote mountains of New Zealand, the story follows the disappearance of a five months pregnant 12-year-old named Tui who was last seen standing chest deep in a frozen lake. In this classic mythic struggle, investigating detective, Robin Griffin (Moss), must lose herself in order to find the missing girl.  During the investigation, she collides with Matt Mitcham (Mullan), Tui’s father, a local drug lord, and G.J (Hunter), a guru at a local women’s camp.  Robin will find this the case that tests her limits and sends her on a journey of self-discovery. This project marks the first time that Campion and Hunter have worked together since each won an Oscar for their work on The Piano in 1993.