The David Bain case is coming to local screens in a new TV series.

The cast has been announced for Black Hands, TVNZ's upcoming adaptation of the podcast of the same name.

Recent drama school graduate Richard Crouchley has been cast as David Bain, while Joel Tobeck and Luanne Gordon play parents Robin and Margaret.

The show has NZ on Air funding of up to $5.2 million, and will focus on the months leading up to the infamous 1994 murders.

Producer Robin Scholes told Heather du Plessis-Allan that their story is more about the family than it is about the crime. 

It will not depict a murderer, she says, and that each episode will focus more on the individual family members. 

"This has been tried several times and David has been released from prison, and our job is not to relitigate or review. That is something that is done and dusted from our point of view." 

The series, based on the Stuff podcast of the same name by Martin van Beynon's, will also draw material from a book that he is writing at the moment. Scholes says that they have approached key family members, including Bain, but he has not responded. 

Bain's longtime supporter Joe Karam says that Bain is aware of it but he has tried to switch out and ignore it. 

"He never told me they'd written to him. I got hold of the producers and they wouldn't talk to me." 

• Newcomer cast as David Bain for upcoming TV series

He says that money being spent on this is about five times bigger than most other NZ on Air projects. 

"What a pathetic waste of money!" 

Karam says that the time frame that has been set aside for this series is not long enough to depict the type of violence that would develop.