Disney+ pledge Aussie Originals

Nine new Aussie originals, including three scripted dramas commissioned for Disney+ have been announced in Sydney by The Walt Disney Company.

‘Last Days of the Space Age’, is an eight-part dramedy series to be filmed in Sydney and WA and set in Western Australia in 1979. A power strike threatens to plunge the region into darkness, while the city hosts the iconic Miss Universe pageant and the US space station, Skylab, crashes just beyond the city’s suburbs. The cast includes Radha Mitchell, Jesse Spencer, Deborah Mailman, and Linh-Dan Pham. Submissions have been happening for this one.

Jeffrey Walker (Director of ‘Young Rock’, ‘Lambs of God‘, ‘The Commons‘) will direct ‘The Artful Dodger’, a character drama set in 1850s Australia that picks up 15 years after the events of Charles Dickens’s ‘Oliver Twist’. Across eight episodes, the scripted series explores the adult double life of Dickens’ famous prince of thieves, now a surgeon, as he tries to shake his predilection for crime. No details yet on where filming will take place but locations in NSW and Victoria are being considered.

Great to see more local content being made. More to come…