Holden Sheppard’s ‘Yeah the Boys’ To Become TV Drama

Yeah! Yeah the boys!

Deadset Pictures has secured the screen rights to Australian author Holden Sheppard’s recent novel Yeah the Boys and is developing the book as a premium television drama for Australian and international audiences.

Yeah the Boys is centred on professional Australian rules football star Kade “Hammer” Hammersmith, whose public life begins to unravel after he speaks out against Pride Round while privately concealing his sexuality. Set across Perth, Geraldton and the world of elite sport, the story follows Kade as he is pulled back into contact with estranged former schoolmates Zeke and Charlie through escalating blackmail threats tied to his past. As his carefully maintained image collapses, the narrative explores his relationships, friendships and the pressures within football culture. The story examines masculinity, secrecy and identity within the context of Australian sport and small-town life.

His earlier novel Invisible Boys, which was adapted into a television series, also explored the lives of gay teenage boys in Geraldton as they navigated identity, secrecy and social expectation in a conservative environment.

Deadset Pictures co-founder Steve Pennells said the adaptation has strong potential for screen audiences, especially off the back of the success of Heated Rivalry.

“Holden has written the kind of book that demands to be seen,” Pennells said. “It’s funny, filthy, wounded, political and completely specific. Football is not a backdrop. Sex is not a backdrop. Shame is not a backdrop. They’re all part of how these men survive, lie, hurt each other and try to become honest.“That’s what makes it exciting. It has the heat and romance audiences are responding to, but it comes out of our own sporting culture, our own cities and our own damage.”

Deadset Pictures co-founder Dan Bennett also commented on the adaptation.

“Deadset Pictures is deeply honoured to be involved, hand-in-hand, with Holden. LGBTQIA+ relationships are having a moment in mainstream culture in a way they never have before. This story is not only timely but also desperately, deeply important.
“The chance to bring this world to screen is enormous. It is intimate, confronting, funny, sexy and deeply Australian.”

Sheppard himselfwill serve as executive producer on the project.

“I am so stoked to be working with Deadset Pictures on this project,” Sheppard said. “I was absolutely blown away with Steve and Dan’s vision for Yeah the Boys and I knew immediately my book was in the right hands to be adapted authentically in this cultural moment.

“I am so grateful that the characters of Zeke, Charlie and Hammer have received so much love from Australian audiences and I hope they’ll be as excited as I am to see this chapter of their lives on screen.”

The screen rights were secured in a deal brokered by Gaby Naher at The Naher Agency.