22/08/2026
Come to the festival, 3-5 October and help Chris Hammer launch his latest tome - Full Circle!
Chris Hammer recently logged onto ABC iview to watch the new suspenseful outback noir, Treasure & Dirt.
Just like the rest of the audience, he had no idea how the six-part crime series would end.
Unlike the rest of the audience, he wrote the book that the TV adaptation was based on.
Hammer still can't quite comprehend it.
"It's a little bit unbelievable to see things you've imagined suddenly made real," he says.
Book-to-screen adaptations are an Australian television industry mainstay. So, we asked Hammer to share what the process can really be like for the authors behind these stories.
"Many authors get their books optioned for screen, but it's a very low percentage that get made," Hammer explains.
"It can be quite a long process. You're never really sure [it will happen] until they start filming."
Hammer knew he wouldn't "really" be involved from the outset; that's how he wanted it, even though the screenwriters weren't obliged to stick to the original story.
The author went to the Treasure & Dirt set to watch filming one day — a process he describes as "absolutely fascinating" — and that was the extent of his involvement.
The next he saw of the show was an early preview of the first two finished episodes.
"I was really eager to get the rest, I streamed them on ABC iview as soon as I could," Hammer says.
While the author believes his readers will be able to tell the series is based on the book, some storylines were cut from the show, with others changed and new ones added.
Some of the changes are small, from gender swaps to characters that have been aged down.
Then there are the big changes, including deaths that weren't in the book. Biggest of all?
"The whole ending is quite different," Hammer says.
"I thought I would be more protective and defensive, but I find that I'm not."
The fact that people want to turn his stories into television still feels surreal.
"I really wanted another group of people to take my book and re-imagine it, create something different," Hammer says.
"If they changed the book and ended up with a terrible result or something, obviously I'd be upset.
"[However], there's a lot of police procedurals on television and I think Treasure & Dirt is very distinctive."
Read more: https://ab.co/4gm3mtv
Watch Treasure & Dirt free on ABC iview and ABC TV.
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