Holden Sheppard’s Invisible Boys is being turned into a Stan series to be shot in Geraldton

A new Stan 10-part original series, based on a book by an award-winning West Australian author, will commence production in Geraldton and Perth “in the near future”. Invisible Boys is based on the book by WA author Holden Sheppard, recently announced as a judge for The West Australian’s Best Australian Yarn short story contest. His story will be the first homegrown LGBTIQA+ series to be made in Western Australia. According to an official release, Invisible Boys “explores the challenges faced by a group of gay teens in the remote coastal town of Geraldton, Western Australia, after one of them is outed on social media following an encounter with a married man”. The series, a joint development initiative with Screenwest designed to foster local talent and spark the development of new series in Western Australia, has been created by Nicholas Verso, whose children’s series, Crazy Fun Park, won a Logie this year for Most Outstanding Children’s program, beating kids favourite, Bluey. He will be working alongside Sheppard, Enoch Mailangi (All My Friends Are Racist, Year Of), Walkley Award-winning writer Allan Clarke (The Dark Emu Story) and Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre Declan Greene. The series will be produced by Tania Chambers, whose previous projects include How to Please a Woman and Kill Me Three Times. “It’s been such a dream creating this series for Stan who have shown such a strong commitment to quality Australian and LGBTIQA+ storytelling,” Verso says. “We’ve had a blast in the writers’ room, diving deeply into this world and expanding upon the characters and themes of the book with all its love, heartbreak, confusion, messiness and joy.” “Nick and Tania’s vision for this adaptation of Holden Sheppard’s acclaimed novel really sets apart this project as a unique and gripping coming-of-age story — told against a beautiful and often unseen backdrop of a Western Australian coastal town,” Simon Cox, EVP content acquisitions at Banijay Rights, who is handling international distribution of the series, said. Invisible Boys is the second major screen project to be announced for Western Australia in recent weeks — Binge’s award-winning series The Twelve, starring Sam Neill, will begin production in Western Australia soon. “Screenwest is beyond excited to see local production company Feisty Dame secure a Stan Original series based on a homegrown West Australian story,” Rikki Lea Bestall, Screenwest CEO said. “The WA screen sector is experiencing its busiest year to date with local creatives, crew and production companies making unprecedented levels of screen content, showcasing WA stories and locations to audiences around the world.”