Three years into its local production effort in Australia and New Zealand, Netflix has greenlighted two new series, one feature film and one full-length documentary from Australia.
These are in addition to previously announced renewals of teen series “Heartbreak High” and “Surviving Summer” and the go-ahead for prestige book-to-series adaptation “Boy Swallows Universe” and kids animation “Eddie’s Lil Homies.”
Set in the Australian Outback, epic succession tale “Desert King” revolves around billionaire miners, traditional owners, cowboys and desert gangsters fighting over the world’s biggest cattle station the size of Wales. It’s a hot, dusty, sexy Outback Western with guns and helicopters.
It is directed by Greg McLean and created by Tim Lee and Ben Davies, with production by Paul Ranford. The series is a co-production between Easy Tiger and Ronde.
“We’re thrilled to have assembled an incredible creative team, on and off screen, to do justice to the rarely-seen world, characters and stories of the Top End—a place where timeless meets modern, and where landscape is life and livelihood, but also mortal danger,” said Davies and Gibson, who executive produce along with Ian Collie.
“The Survivors” series is an ambition crime -mystery adaptation of the novel of the same title by Australian writer Jane Harper. Set in a Tasmanian seaside town, the narrative explores the impact of unresolved grief when the murder of a woman brings events of 15 years earlier into focus. Production is by Tony Ayres Productions, part of Universal Studios.
“Love is in the Air” is a movie starring Delta Goodrem as a seaplane pilot flying in the north Australian tropics who falls in love with the man sent to ruin her business. It is directed by Adrian Powers and co-written by Powers, Caera Bradshaw and Katharine E. McPhee and produced by the Steve Jaggi Company.
Other cast members include Joshua Sasse, Steph Tisdell and Roy Billing. “Shot entirely on location, we pushed the boundaries by shooting in glorious 8K Vista Vision,” said Jaggi. The film will premiere on Netflix on Sept. 28.
Documentary feature “ONEFOUR: Against All Odds” is an examination of the drill rap phenomenon that is popular in Pacific Islander and working class parts of Australia, the genre’s most popular Australian group and the specialist police force set up to stop them performing live.
The film is directed by Gabriel Gasparinatos for Entropico and Stranger Than Fiction with Sarah Noonan, Erin Moy, Jennifer Peedom and Gasparinatos producing.
“The story of ONEFOUR is one of the most significant cultural moments in recent Australian history,” said Gasparinatos. “It’s about the changing face of this country and who gets to have a voice in it. Australia markets this sun-kissed image of itself and it’s so important to show it’s not all like that.”