Streaming service Stan has unveiled plans for a film that deep dives into Australia's worst mass shooter.
Martin Bryant carried out the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 in Tasmania and slaughtered 35 people and wounded 23 more with an AR-10 rifle.
While Stan didn't mention Bryant by name, the upcoming film is called NITRAM, which is Martin backwards.
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The service described the project as 'a scripted feature film that looks at the events leading up to one of the darkest chapters in Australian history in an attempt to understand why and how this atrocity occurred'.
Justin Kurzel, director of True History of the Kelly Gang and Snowtown, has been tapped to direct the film and Shaun Grant will write the script.
The team has already cast Caleb Landry Jones (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Essie Davis (True History of the Kelly Gang) and Anthony LaPaglia (Lantana).
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Stan Chief Content Officer Nick Forward said in a statement: "Stan is pleased to again collaborate with Justin Kurzel and Shaun Grant and we have complete faith in the NITRAM team's creative vision and ability to handle the film's subject matter with sensitivity and respect."
While there will be some who are keen to see a film about the rise of Australia's worst mass murderer, the opinion on social media is split. Some have taken to Twitter to protest against the project, even from one Port Arthur massacre survivor.
Justin Woolley, who was 12 when Martin Bryant unloaded rounds at the town's former prison colony, wrote: "As a survivor of the Port Arthur massacre I would like to state that this can, and let me be clear, f**k the f**k off.
"Our family was amazingly lucky given we all walked away. Not interested in 'exploring this dark chapter of Australian history' or the 'study of a man driven to do' this."
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Others joined Justin in voicing their opposition to the movie.
One said: "The Port Arthur massacre IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT. And that these filmmakers want to profit off it is grotesque. Nobody needs to understand Martin Bryant or relive what happened. That man ruined so many lives. We all live with it today. This film must be stopped."
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Another added: "Nobody attend this movie - the attempt to profit from the Port Arthur massacre where a deranged lunatic shot people, including little girls. A movie will bring back the horror to related victims. Boycott."
The Sydney Morning Herald says the film won't explore the actual mass shooting and that filming will be done in Victoria over fears it could be too sensitive to film in Tasmania.
The film is due to be released on Stan and in cinemas next year, which will be the 25th anniversary of the mass shooting.
Bryant is currently serving 35 life sentences and 25 years for the remaining 36 charges on five other offences without the possibility of parole at Hobart's Risdon Prison where he is in permanent solitary confinement.
Featured Image Credit: Sunday Night/Channel 7Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film, Australia
