Hayes met director George Miller when he did the novelisation of the script to Mad Max (1979). He and Miller got on well and the director subsequently hired Hayes to help on the script for Mad Max 2 (1981).[2]
Hayes subsequently became an in-house writer for Kennedy Miller, working on the scripts for all their subsequent mini-series.[3] Further work included a script for Dead Calm in 1989.[4] He wrote Bangkok Hilton specifically as a vehicle for Nicole Kidman.[5]
Hollywood and novelist
Hayes moved to Hollywood. His work includes an unused screenplay for Planet of the Apes, titled Return of the Apes in 1994.[6]
Hayes' debut novel, I Am Pilgrim was published by Transworld Publishers on 18 July 2013. That same month, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired the film rights to the novel with Hayes attached to adapt it into a screenplay.[8] His second novel entitled The Year of the Locust was planned for release in 2016,[9] was finally released 9 November 2023.
In 2024, Hayes and British author Tammy Cohen were revealed as the writers of the tie-in novel to the film Argylle, under the pseudonym "Elly Conway".[10] The book overleaf credits the (pseudonymous) author's full name as "Elizabeth Conway".[11]
Argylle: A Novel (2024) – ISBN978-0593600016 — writing as Elly Conway (writing team pseudonym), co-authored with Tammy Cohen. A tie-in novel to the Argylle media franchise.[10][11]
^Scott Murray, "Terry Hayes: Interweaving the Fabric", Cinema Papers, November 1989 p25-29, 76
^"BANGKOK HILTON". The Canberra Times. Vol. 64, no. 19, 745. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 30 October 1989. p. 31. Retrieved 28 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
