'Picnic At Hanging Rock' Trailer: Something Terrible Has Happened

Picnic at Hanging Rock, previously adapted into a perfect movie by Peter Weir, has now been turned into a mini-series for Amazon. The story focuses on the mysterious disappearance of three students from an all-girls private school in Australia. Watch the first Picnic at Hanging Rock trailer below.

If you've never seen Peter Weir's 1975 film Picnic at Hanging Rock, I urge you to seek it out ASAP – it's currently streaming on FilmStruck. Weir's take on the material (based on a novel by Joan Lindsay) is pretty much a perfect film. It's haunting, and gorgeous, and unforgettable. Which makes me a bit hesitant to embrace Amazon's new mini-series adaptation of the same story. I just don't think anyone can improve on what Weir did, but I'm willing to give it a chance. The new Picnic at Hanging Rock trailer gives us a glimpse at the mini-series, and it looks to be approaching the story in a similar fashion, but with a slightly more sensationalist twist.

This looks promising, but I'm still cautious. Here's my biggest concern with this: the novel, and Weir's film, are deliberately vague. There are no real answers, which makes the story all the more haunting. But modern audiences demand answers; they want things explained to them – they treat stories like this as things to be solved, like a puzzle. I don't know if this new take on the story tacks on a needless conclusion to appeal to modern audiences, but I certainly hope not. Here's the trailer for the original film, just in case you want to compare.

Natalie Dormer leads the cast of the new mini-series, which also features Lola Bessis, Yael Stone, Anna McGahan, Sibylla Budd, Lily Sullivan, Madeleine Madden, Samara Weaving, Ruby Rees and Inez Curro. The mini-series will first screen at this year's Tribecca Film Festival on April 28, before dropping all six episodes to stream on Amazon Prime May 25, 2018.

Plunge into the mysterious disappearance of three girls from the Appleyard Ladies College. Picnic at Hanging Rock is based on the timeless Australian novel by Joan Lindsay and starring Natalie Dormer, with all six episodes of the mini-series available to stream on May 25, 2018.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a gripping reimagining of the Australian novel that plunges into the mysterious disappearance of three schoolgirls and their governess. Starring Natalie Dormer as the enigmatic headmistress of Appleyard College, the six episode limited series follows the subsequent investigation and the event's far-reaching impact on the students and staff of the college.