Cate Blanchett is heading to South Australia to film a TV series about people stuck in an immigration detention centre.

Blanchett, who started her career in small roles on Australian TV shows like Police Rescue and GP, has until now focused on her film and theatre work.

media_camera Cate Blanchett with her Oscar for Blue Jasmine. Picture: Supplied media_camera Cate Blanchett and husband Andrew Upton. Picture: Supplied

The 50-year-old Oscar winner is also a producer on the show, Stateless, alongside her husband Andrew Upton, with production expected to start next month.

Blanchett will star alongside The Handmaid’s Tale actress Yvonne Strahovski, Offspring star Asher Keddie, Suicide Squad’s Jai Courtney and The Affair’s Dominic West.

media_camera Dominic West. Picture: Supplied media_camera Yvonne Strahovski in The Handmaid's Tale. Picture: Supplied

Stateless focuses on four strangers — a flight attendant escaping a suburban cult, an Afghan refugee fleeing persecution, a young Australian father escaping a dead-end job and a bureaucrat caught up in a national scandal — who are stuck in an immigration detention centre in the Australian desert.

Each character deals with the contradictions of protection and border control from a unique perspective, offering relevant and timely insight into issues that countries are grappling with around the world.

media_camera Asher Keddie. Picture: Supplied media_camera Jai Courtney. Picture: Getty

“Whilst this story centres on Australia, the dilemmas that it explores through four absorbing characters will resonate globally: the desire for personal freedom, the need for social stability, an escalating lack of faith in the political process and the deeply unsettling impact this has on individual lives,” Blanchett said.

Originally published as Blanchett to star in Aussie TV drama