A best-selling novel by a local Victorian author is being adapted for TV in yet another major production being filmed in Victoria this year.
Production is underway on the TV adaptation of Sally Hepworth’s beloved novel The Family Next Door at Half Moon Bay in Black Rock. The production will inject over $9.7 million into the Victorian economy and create more than 275 jobs for Victorian screen industry workers including 175 crew, 13 Head of Department roles and 130 cast and extras.
The six-part drama, which will screen on ABC TV, was brought to Victoria through the Victorian Government’s Victorian Screen Incentive and is filming on location in and around Melbourne’s bayside suburbs, as well as in regional locations such as Anglesea.
Produced by Beyond Entertainment and Muse Entertainment, the series follows a stranger as she arrives in a quiet Victorian beachside cul-de-sac, with her drive to solve a mystery casting suspicion on four neighbouring families.
The Family Next Door boasts a stellar Australian cast including AACTA nominated Teresa Palmer (The Clearing), Bella Heathcote (Pieces of Her), Philippa Northeast (Territory), Bob Morley (The 100), Catherine McClements (Return to Paradise), Jane Harber (Offspring) and Ming-Zhu Hii (Prosper).
Created for television by Sarah Scheller (Strife), The Family Next Door is directed by Emma Freeman (The Newsreader), produced by Melinda Wearne and Dean O’Toole (The Great) with Executive Producers David Ogilvy, Jenny O’Shea, Joel Rice and Meghan Mathes Jacobs, and ABC Executive Producers Rachel Okine and Rebecca Anderson.
The series is written by Sarah Scheller, Pip Karmel (Total Control), Julia Moriarty (Total Control) and Andrew Anastasios (Troppo) and was attracted to Victoria through the Labor Government’s Victorian Screen Incentive.
With major investment from Screen Australia and the ABC, and VicScreen, The Family Next Door will be distributed internationally by Sphere Abacus and will screen on ABC TV and ABC iview in 2025.
This production is just one of the major screen projects filming in the state, including All Her Fault, War Machine and Beneath the Storm – which recently wrapped at Docklands Studios Melbourne.
The Victorian Government’s screen strategy has so far created 29,000 jobs and generated $1.25 billion in economic activity across the state – backing local jobs, businesses and securing the state’s reputation as a global destination for screen and games production.