Two internationally-acclaimed actors will star in SBS’s new Australian drama series being filmed in the streets of Sunshine.
Anthony LaPaglia, of Without a Trace, Balibo and Lantana fame, and Melanie Lynskey, know for her roles in The Intervention and Heavenly Creatures, will star in the four-part crime thriller Sunshine.
SBS announced on Monday the multi-award winning actors would be joined by a South Sudanese Australian cast, as well as other well known homegrown actors in Kim Gyngell (Rake, Jack Irish), Tiarnie Coupland (Love Child), Vince Colosimo (Jack Irish, Underbelly), Leah Vandenberg (The Wrong Girl), Paul Ireland (Never Tear Us Apart: The INXS Story, Underbelly) and Trudy Hellier (Winners and Losers, The Doctor Blake Mysteries).
The network’s television and online content director Marshall Heald said Sunshine was set to be a bold and “uniquely SBS drama” centred around a crime mystery.
“I’m thrilled the show has attracted internationally-acclaimed talent like Anthony LaPaglia and Melanie Lynskey, and I’m especially proud that the drama will showcase young, fresh and diverse local talent, something SBS is incredibly passionate about.”
Star Weekly revealed earlier this month that filming of the joint SBS and Carver Films’ series would begin this month.
Film crews started production last Monday and will continue until mid-May.
A number of Sunshine and Albion residents have been asked by the series’ location manager if they can use their houses for the production.
Naomi Harper received a letter asking whether she would consider opening up her Norwood Street, Albion, home for filming for a day next month.
She said she was told the producers wanted a renovated, weatherboard house with a picket fence, and a brick veneer “family home”.
The series is directed by Daina Reid who has TV hits Offspring, Paper Giants, Howzat! and INXS biopic Never Tear Us Apart to her name, and was written by playwright Matt Cameron and actor, screenwriter and director Elise McCredie.
The story follows the life of Jacob, a young, talented South Sudanese-Australian basketball player hoping to be drafted to the US College league. Jacob hopes to lure a Sunshine sports shop owner and former US basketballer Eddie (LaPaglia) to coach his team, The Sunshine Kings, to elevate their chances of a successful season.
Running parallel to his attempts to win at all costs is a police investigation involving a teenage girl from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Jacob finds himself caught up in the investigation and answering to a lawyer who grew up locally, Zara Skelton (Lynskey).
The drama will air on SBS later this year.
