The new year has started with a surge in production in Victoria, as Melbourne plays host to three new productions heading down under in 2024.

Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar

Filming is underway in Melbourne for Apple Cider Vinegar – a new Netflix drama backed by VicScreen. The six-part series boasts an A-list cast, featuring Kaitlyn Dever (Dopesick, Unbelievable), and is directed by Melbourne-born Jeffrey Walker (The Clearing, The Artful Dodger, Modern Family).

The film’s star power also includes Alycia Debnam-Carey (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart), Aisha Dee (The Bold Type), Tilda Cobham-Hervey (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart), Ashley Zukerman (Succession) and Mark Coles Smith (Mystery Road: Origin), and is shaping up to be a binge-worthy blend of local and international talent.

“Choosing Melbourne for this global story was easy,” explains See-Saw Films’ Executive Producer Liz Watts. “It was easy because the city is home to renowned creatives and crew. Victoria is home to brilliant locations plus we could double for other locations around the world.”

Inside with Guy Pearce

Award-winning Australian actor Guy Pearce has recently wrapped production in Melbourne on feature film Inside – the debut feature for Victorian writer-director Charles Williams, who won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival with his short film, All These Creatures.

Producer Marian Macgowan said VicScreen was pivotal in enabling the production to film in regional Victoria and Melbourne. “Joe Brinkmann and his team made the application, approval, and investment process transparent, and seamless for filmmakers.”

Liam Neeson returns in Ice Road Sequel

Hollywood icon, Liam Neeson is also returning to Victoria to film his latest project Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky, an action-packed sequel to The Ice Road.

Eminent writer-director Johnathan Hensleigh, known for Die Hard with a Vengeance, Jumanji and Armageddon, will be at the helm, alongside producers Code Entertainment’s Al Corley, Bart Rosenblatt and Eugene Musso, along with Shivani Rawat of ShivHans and Jonathan Hensleigh, as well as Lee Nelson and David Tish of Envision Media Arts (EMA). Executive producers are Jonathan Dana, along with Julie Goldstein and Connor Flanagan of ShivHans, and Lisa Wilson and Myles Nestel of The Solution Entertainment Group, and David Buelow of EMA.

Victoria is renowned for its diverse locations which can double for almost anywhere in the world. In Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky, the small Victorian town of Wahalla doubles as Nepal, where the project’s most sophisticated action scenes will be filmed. The production will also utilize state-of-the-art volume screens and technology at NantStudios @ Docklands Studios Melbourne.

All three blockbuster projects were drawn to Victoria by VicScreen’s globally competitive Victorian Screen Incentive, which attracts footloose productions to Victoria’s global hub for dynamic screen projects.