He sold top business minds on a TV show that promised to save the world – and make them famous. They handed over thousands. Then reality set in: when the cameras stopped rolling in the United States, they started falling silent.
But not in Australia where the sale went global – from the big US TV networks to the small start-up, to the news websites, to the booksellers. A global network grew up around “The Secret” – and like all great business stories, once the hard work was done, it got even bigger.
And then, even better.
“The Secret” is back on the big screen with an updated production team and the same old cast.
Now, with the show set to be released in Australia in March, this time, it’s about to be a whole lot busier.
Director David Gillmore says he wants the new show – to star Matthew McConaughey and Morgan Freeman – to be as “unfiltered” as it was when the first series was broadcast in the US.
“Part of the problem is, we knew we couldn’t go through one series, you know, a real story-telling show with all the usual tricks,” he says.
“We just couldn’t do it. And if we’d done it as an episodic TV show, I think we might have lost a little bit of the magic.”
The original “The Secret” took a unique approach: in fact, it was so unique, that it made it impossible to even try doing a US version – without risking an identity crisis and losing the magic.
“I am an Australian,” the writer and director explains.
“But I am from Missouri, because my father’s family is from Missouri. So the question was, what would happen if I put somebody who had no connection with Australia on, who didn’t have any knowledge of Australian culture, who didn’t have any knowledge of Australians, who didn’t know what sort of thing that would mean for Australian television – would it be the end? If you were Australian and American – and we found out later that it wasn’t – you could be very, very angry at us.”
He says he couldn’t have done it without the help of the American public.