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From The Queen's Gambit to 100 Year of Solitude to Boy Swallows Universe, Netflix has a track record of adapting novels to series hits, and now it is going back further in time to a 1901 Australian literary classic - My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin.
Sydney-headquartered production company Jungle Entertainment is shooting the Netflix period drama series at Adelaide Studios as well as various locations across South Australia.
Written by Franklin while she was still a teenager, at the turn of the 20th century, the novel My Brilliant Career resonated deeply with a rising generation of young Australian women who longed for the freedom to shape their own destinies.
Franklin's influence extended far beyond her collection of works, bequeathing her estate to fund what would become Australia's most prestigious literary prize, the annual Miles Franklin Award, the first of which was awarded to the author Patrick White who would go on to become Australia's only winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The novel was also turned into a film by award-winning director Gillian Armstrong in 1979, starring Judy Davis, Sam Neill and Wendy Hughes.
The screenplay for the Netflix series was written by executive producer Liz Doran, and stars actors including Philippa Northeast (Territory, The Newsreader), Christopher Chung (Slow Horses, Blitz), Anna Chancellor (My Lady Jane, Outrageous), among many others.
"It’s been a privilege to work with so many incredible creatives on this reimagining of Miles Franklin’s rollicking tale of a young woman’s quest to determine her own life," says Doran.
"It’s thrilling to bring this Australian classic to a whole new audience," adds executive producer Chloe Rickard. "Partnering with Netflix and fellow executive producers Liz Doran and Alyssa McClelland, with Philippa Northeast as our rebellious and witty Sybylla, has been the stuff that dreams are made of."
Netflix's vice president for content APAC (ex-India), Minyoung Kim, describes My Brilliant Career as a timeless Australian story with themes as relevant today as when it was originally published.
"We're excited to be partnering with some of Australia's best creatives and talent to bring this story to a whole new generation on Netflix, and with its stunning locations, there's no better home for this production than South Australia," Kim says.
South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) CEO Kate Croser says the organisation is delighted to welcome Netflix back to South Australia and Adelaide Studios, along with award-winning production company Jungle Entertainment.
"The SAFC is proud to support this exciting new series which will harness the world-class skills of a majority South Australian crew, led by top South Australian producer Paul Ranford, and which will once again provide a showcase for our state’s screen production capability, talent and endlessly beautiful locations," Crosser says.
The announcement comes as another Netflix series based on an Australian book, The Survivors, climbs to #2 on the platform's global Top 10 English TV show list, amassing nine million views in the last week.
The Survivors has ranked highly in Netflix's five largest markets the US (#4), Brazil (#3), the UK (#3), Germany (#2) and France (#2), and is the number one English-language show in Spain, Türkiye, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The series also hit the #2 spot in Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico and Chile, among other markets.
The series, based on the book of the same name by The Dry author Jane Harper, is the largest production to have been filmed in Tasmania.
The Survivors has received critical acclaim from around the world, with The New York Times declaring, "'The Survivors is a polished and potent murder mystery" and "its plot lines nest like Russian dolls, giving the story a real sense of heft and potency." The Guardian adds, "[The Survivors] is full of twists, turns and red herrings. Its focus on the terrible grief of bereaved mothers makes it a cut above."
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