There is something darkly meditative about Jane Campion‘s (Bright Star) work Top of the Lake, which was the first television series ever to be screened at Sundance, and definitely deserves the distinction.  The premise is reminiscent of works like The Killing or even Twin Peaks, where a special investigator begins unraveling a disturbing central mystery that is ripping a small, remote town apart.  In this case it’s Mad Men‘s Elizabeth Moss as Robin, who is home in New Zealand visiting her cancer-stricken mother when a 12 year old girl, Tui (Jacqueline Joe), the daughter of a local drug lord, is found to be five months pregnant.  The father?  “No one,” Tui writes down.  Soon she disappears completely, and what follows is a dark and twisted journey that uncovers the moral decay of what appears to be a pristine paradise.  For more on the series, hit the jump.

On the AMC series Mad Men, the work of Elisabeth Moss is one many fine points on the period drama, and now she’s taking her talents to another television outlet between her steady work as Peggy Olsen. Deadline has word that the actress is in final negotiations to lead a new six-hour mini-series from BBC 2 called Top of the Lake. Writer/director Jane Campion (who won an Oscar for her work on The Piano) is working with The King’s Speech producers Emile Sherman and Iain Canning to tell the story of Robin Griffin (Moss), a detective investigating the disappearance of a 12-year-old pregnant girl, who is the daughter of a local drug lord. Campion not only co-wrote the script with Gerald Lee, but she will also direct the mini-series as well. Right now it doesn’t have a network home in the United States, but Sundance Channel is apparently interested in picking it up. Either way, I’m sure we’ll see it here in the States sometime down the road, and certainly in contention for the Emmys when the time comes.

Opening this Friday, in limited release, is the new film from director Jane Campion “Bright Star”. The film premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and it’s a portrait of love and loss between the 19th-century Romantic poet John Keats and the 18-year-old muse-next-door, Fanny Brawne. They’re played by Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish. To help promote the film, we’ve been provided with 4 clips and they’re after the jump. Take a look.