Archive for category: Acting and Extras Work in Sydney

‘The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart’ has started filming in Sydney with film legend Sigourney Weaver leading the production. The Daily Mail has published photos of Weaver filming on a Sydney flower farm.

The 7 part series for Amazon Prime is based on the highly successful Aussie novel of the same name by Holly Ringland. The book tells the story of a young girl whose violent childhood casts a dark shadow over her adult life. After a family tragedy, nine-year-old Alice Hart is taken in by her estranged grandmother, June, a flower farmer who raises Alice on the language of Australian native flowers, a way to say the things that are too hard to speak.

The series is being produced by Made up Stories (‘Big Little Lies’, ‘Penguin Bloom‘). Sigourney Weaver is also Executive Producing the show, which has been adapted for the screen by Australian writer Sarah Lambert (Lambs of God). Glendyn Ivin (The Cry) is directing. This is going to be a huge series.

MCTV has been submitting for this one for a couple of weeks. Congratulations to everyone who has scored a role so far and good luck to all!

One of the industry’s top producers, Mark Fennessy has officially launched a new production company with 2 new Sydney series already planned for production in 2022. The new company, Helium, takes Fennessy back to his independent roots and aims to produce film (Helium Pictures), TV (Helium Studios) and music (Helium Records).

As reported in IF Magazine Helium’s initial projects include ‘Last King of the Cross‘, a 10 part series based on Sam and John Ibrahim’s story; feature film ‘6 Festivals’, both for Paramount+, and 6 hour miniseries ‘Sex and Thugs and Rock n Roll‘, which tells the story of Billy Thorpe in 1960s Sydney, in advanced development.

Helium is the latest venture for Mark and his brother Carl, who have a stellar track record in film and TV production. They started indie production company, Crackerjack (later merged with Freemantle and Grundy to become Freemantle Media), going on to form Shine with Elisabeth Murdoch (merged with Endemol to become Endemol Shine). They have produced hours of local drama, reality TV programs and documentaries including Australian Idol, Australia’s Got Talent, The Farmer Wants a Wife, The Apprentice, The Biggest Loser, MasterChef, Beauty & The Geek, The Bachelor, Shark Tank, The Voice, INXS: Never Tear Us Apart, Lambs of God, Catching Milat and Peter Allen: Not The Boy Next Door.

With a legacy like this, great new locally produced content and opportunities seem inevitable. More to come on this…

📷: Mark Fennessy: IF Magazine

Season 2 of the highly-acclaimed comedy series, ‘Frayed’ has started on ABC TV and ABC iview. New episodes are dropping each Wednesday at 9pm, with catch up on ABC iview.

The show is written by and stars Aussie comedian Sarah Kendall (pictured) as Sammy Cooper – a once fabulously wealthy London housewife who is running from her past. Season 2 kicks off in London, where the lives and secrets of the Cooper family continue to unravel as they deal with the ramifications of season one’s explosive finale, and their Australian past insists on catching up with them. Sammy is desperate to find a way to reclaim her opulent London life. She also needs to keep her kids far away from Australia and the truth about what happened to their neighbour, Terry.

Meanwhile back down under in Newcastle, an ambitious cop named Fairbank has been brought in to head up the missing persons case and simply does not believe Terry would just disappear. It’s only a matter of time before the truth catches up with Sammy…

‘Frayed’ debuted on ABC TV in Australia and on Sky in the UK in October 2019. The series was nominated for five AACTA Awards and Kendall also garnered a BAFTA Television Award nomination for Female Performance in a Comedy Programme. It featured 83 MCTV members. If you missed it, you can catch up on Season 1 here.

18 MCTV members also appear in Season 2 which filmed here in March. Congratulations to everyone who appears.

Seriously Red wrapped principal photography back in December 2020. The movie, which is directed by Gracie Otto (Unusual Suspects) stars Krew Boylan (who also wrote the script), Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale and Daniel Webber. It is the first feature for Dollhouse Pictures (formed by Otto, Byrne, Krew, Shannon Murphy and Jessica Carrera).

The musical dramedy follows Red (Boylan), a vivacious and hilarious red-headed woman grappling with high expectations and low self-esteem. Red trades her job in real estate to take up a new career as a Dolly Parton impersonator.

The support cast includes many familiar Aussie faces including Celeste Barber, Thomas Campbell, Jean Kittson, Wayne Blair, Todd Lasance, Sarah Su, Sophia Forrest, and Rarriwuy Hick.

MCTV members have been submitted this week for ‘pick up scenes’. These are minor additional shots used to augment the footage already shot. The film was recently awarded part of $6.5 million production funding from Screen Australia.

This looks like a really fun project to be a part of that could become a major hit and instant classic, not just here but around the world, like Muriel’s Wedding (coincidentally released 27 years ago today!!) or Priscilla.

Best of luck to everyone who has been submitted!

📷: Dollhouse Pictures’ Gracie Otto, Rose Byrne, Jessica Carrera and Krew Boylan: Screen Australia

Channel Nine has announced new drama offerings at its Upfront 2022 virtual event. As reported in IF magazine, the announcement included Underbelly: Vanishing Act to be produced by Sydney production company Screentime. Similar to Australian Gangster , the series will follow the recent real life Sydney story of Melissa Caddick, the high-roller who allegedly embezzled over $40 million before disappearing from the Eastern suburbs in 2020.

A fantastic cast has been announced for the series including Kate Atkinson (Wentworth, Jack Irish, SeaChange) as Melissa Caddick, Colin Friels (Water Rats, BlackJack, Mystery Road), Tai Hara (Madam Secretary, Home and Away, Hyde & Seek), Maya Stange (Love Child, A Place to Call Home, Rake), Ursula Mills (Out of the Blue), and Sophie Bloom (Love Child, Amazing Grace).

More to come on this one, in the meantime you can read the full article here.

📷: Kate Atkinson and Colin Friels