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Rumour: The next Underbelly….

It's a long shot but this one may not be set in the 90s, the 80s or even the 70s.

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Take this one with some degree of caution…..

TV Tonight is hearing whispers about the next season of Underbelly.

It’s a long shot but this one may not be set in the 90s, the 80s or even the 70s.

What would Underbelly be like in Melbourne during the 1920s?

That’s Squizzy Taylor time, the diminuitve gangster who went from pickpocketing

to murder and armed robbery. He was once portrayed on the big screen by David Atkins.

Producers are said to be exploring the logistics of doing shooting a major period piece.

If it goes actually proceeds would that make Ned Kelly next logical candidate?

23 Responses

  1. If it goes actually proceeds would that make Ned Kelly next logical candidate?

    Please no! Leave Ned alone! The Underbelly series should have ended with the first one.They have just gotten worse & worse each series.Extremely overrated.I think most people are well and truly over it.

  3. @ grinspoon – we did a few mini series in the 80s set in those times,such as For The Term Of His Natural Life etc. A shame they don’t do stuff like that anymore.

    As for Squizzy Taylor a big name movie was made in the 80’s iirc and starred the gorgeous Kim Lewis of The Restless Years/Sons & Daughters.

  5. I don’t think many of you know what the 1920s was like; It wasn’t like the conservative 1820s. This was the flapper era, a culturally revolutionary time of new freedoms, hedonism, and immorality, in reaction to coming out of WWI. At least, superficially it was.

    Presumably the same cultural upheaval was going on in Australia as elsewhere.

  6. It’s something that makes money so surely they might spend a few bob…..

    Period would be good. HBO has the excellent Boardwalk Empire on at the moment. It’s set in the 20s during Prohibition in Atlantic City.

    I don’t know what storys for that period there’d be, but that’d definitely be an influence on them wanting to do a period. It’s essentially an underbelly type show. True story, underworld characters except it’s better written, acted, directed, produced ect.

    Maybe they could do like an Aussie Deadwood! in Goldrush times! If they did something early colonies ect, that’d be great! Something we’re not used to seeing on film or TV., As long as it wasn’t over loaded with shagging and tits instead of story it’d have mass appeal.

  7. can’t see it myself. 1920’s underwear in the graphic obligatory sex scenes of Underbelly won’t be sexy enough. women struggling to get out of knicker bockers, muscled crims trying to rip their bloomers off in a frenzy…

  8. looking forward to seeing the 1920s speakeasy instead of the 80s nudie bar. Look, an ankle! How risque! LOL

    A good story well told, doesn’t matter what the setting is. It’s all about the characters.

    I love the idea of the first fleet as well, *snort* Rum-derbelly?

  9. @ Peter that is too funny! I just know Andrew Rule and John Silvester would be laughing their heads off!

    Screentime and Nine are milking this idea for everything, but I’m disappointed. I reckon it could have been Australia’s version of The Wire with a little more time and integrity in development and production. It’s all so hysterical and rushed and legal issues etc etc.

  12. So much of Melbourns landscape has changed in the the last decade that it’d be really hard to do long term. Although I’d be interested in a period piece I don’t think the typical Underbelly fan would so much, as Kevin has intimated. It’s really a different thing alltogether. Attaching the Underbelly brand to it, is a marketing ploy to get more viewers. Anyway the Sqizzy Taylor thing has been done before. There was a movie and I think he was also covered in Carsons Law.The movie would be a better idea for any Underbelly as the last two series have been stretched at 13 episodes.

  14. I agree this does sound very interesting and hoping it goes ahead. The Melbourne crime scene in the 20’s would make for great tv. But I’m sure I read somewhere that the next one would be about QLD corruption in the 80’s?

    1. Yes there was talk of Qld. Seems to have ben speculative (as this may well prove too). It’s clear we won’t be kicking off 2011 with a new completed series, but there are 3 telemovies, presuming all can legally play. There is also the option Nine may stick with the telemovie format instead of a 13 arc series.

  15. Considering that Underbelly was considered to have been influenced by ‘The Sopranos’, I wonder if the current success of ‘Boardwalk Empire’ in the US (set in the 1920s in Atlantic City) may be a possible influence here.

  20. HA Ned Kelly Underbelly style LOL!

    I don’t think a 1920’s underbelly series would work well at all. I mean the producers had a hard enough time trying to make the second series feel like the 70’s and 80’s with bits and pieces from modern society populating the screen.

    Unless they’ve got the big big budget to make this look authentic and believable its best to leave this idea to the side; last thing I want to see is a 1920’s drama with bits of 2010 scattered throughout.

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