The third and final season of star-studded HBO drama series The Leftovers will shoot on location in Melbourne and in purpose-built sets at Docklands Studios Melbourne made possible through attractive production incentives provided by Film Victoria and the Victorian Government.

Created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta The Leftovers explores a world in shock and the lives that are changed forever when 140 million people inexplicably vanish. In the second series, the show expanded on the original concept of ‘The Rapture’ that was explored in Perrotta’s bestselling novel of the same name, while the third series finds the Garveys drawn to Australia.

Produced for HBO by White Rabbit in association with Warner Bros. Television, The Leftovers will commence shooting in June 2016 and will feature a range of unique Victorian locations, which are at the heart of the final season.

The production is also using the world-class production facilities at Docklands Studios Melbourne, with sets now under construction on two sound stages.

Access to evocative locations and film studios was a critical consideration for The Leftovers Showrunner Damon Lindelof when selecting a filming location for season three.

“The great television shows that we aspire to all have one thing in common — an undeniable and confident sense of place. The Wire and Baltimore, Friday Night Lights and Dillon, Breaking Bad and Albuquerque.

We have always wanted The Leftovers to have a beginning, middle and end and for the audience to experience each of those chapters as distinct in and of itself.  So we left behind the cold, bleak, depressing winter of New York in season one for the warm, spiritual energy of Texas in season two.

Where to next?  We’ve known for a while that wherever we ended up would have to be someplace strange and mysterious and funny and off-kilter, someplace both unpredictable and inevitable. [So] we’re going to Australia. The Leftovers are headed down under. We’re immensely grateful for the opportunity to try something that looks and feels different from the preceding season as we bring our story to its conclusion.”

The Leftovers season three cast headed to Melbourne include Justin Theroux, Carrie Coon, Amy Brenneman, Kevin Carroll, Christopher Eccleston, Scott Glenn, Lindsay Duncan, Regina King, JovanAdepo, Janel Moloney, Margaret Qualley, Jasmin Savoy-Brown, Liv Tyler, and Chris Zylka.

It’s the second time American entertainment powerhouses HBO and Warner Bros. have chosen Victoria as a filming location: Warner Bros. chose Victoria to film its visually stunning feature Where the Wild Things Are, and HBO selected Victoria as the backdrop to its award-winning 10 part television miniseries, The Pacific; and both productions filmed scenes on specially created sets at Docklands Studios Melbourne.

The Leftovers is created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta; executive produced by Lindelof, Perrotta, Mimi Leder, Tom Spezialy, Gene Kelly, Peter Berg and Sarah Aubrey.

For more information on Victoria’s production incentives and filming locations contact:
Joe Brinkmann, Manager – Incentives and Investments
[email protected] or visit www.film.vic.gov.au 

For more information about filming at Docklands Studios Melbourne contact:
Rod Allan, Chief Executive Officer
[email protected] or visit www.dsmelbourne.com

Image credit: Justin Theroux as Kevin Garvey, Carrie Coon as Nora Durst. Photo: Van Redin/HBO