NBCUniversal's Universal Studio Group will produce three high-end scripted television series in Australia under the Government's Location Incentive program.
The productions are expected to generate more than $140 million of expenditure in Australia and provide more than 1,000 jobs for Australian cast and crew and 2,000 extras.
These are the first productions supported under the Morrison Government's $400 million boost to the Location Incentive to create a pipeline of international projects, which will generate Australian jobs in the screen industry over the next seven years.
The projects will run for 18 months back-to-back in the Screen Queensland Studios in Brisbane, as well as locations in South East Queensland and Far North Queensland.
They will be led by the Australian based film and television production company, Matchbox Pictures (Clickbait, Stateless, Glitch, Safe Harbour), which is part of NBCUniversal International Studios, and will provide highly-skilled jobs for Australians to work on large scale television series for NBCUniversal's flagship network NBC, USA, streaming service Peacock and the global market.
The productions are:
- Young Rock—a single-camera comedy from Nahnatchka Khan (Fresh Off the Boat) and Dwayne Johnson, inspired by Johnson himself. Executive producers are Khan, Johnson, Jeff Chiang, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Brian Gewirtz and Jennifer Carreras. The show will be produced by Universal Television, Seven Bucks Productions and Fierce Baby Productions.
- Joe Exotic—a limited series from UCP based on the hit Wondery podcast depicting the true events surrounding Carole Baskin (Saturday Night Live's Kate McKinnon), a big cat enthusiast, who learns that fellow exotic animal lover Joe 'Exotic' Schreibvogel is breeding and using his big cats for profit, and sets out to shut down his venture, inciting a quickly escalating rivalry. It is written and executive produced by Etan Frankel. Wondery's Hernan Lopez, Marshall Lewy and Aaron Hart will also executive produce along with McKinnon.
- Irreverent—a series developed and produced for the global market by Matchbox Pictures, which follows a criminal on the run from his life of crime back in New York, who is forced to hide out in a reef town in Far North Queensland, posing as the new church Reverend.
