Images: All supplied by Steel Springs Pictures
Feature Image: Catherine Zeta-Jones as Jackie Price, Photo by Unai Mateo
A new thriller starring Hollywood star Catherine Zeta-Jones might be set across Europe, but some of the work bringing it to the screen happened right here in Adelaide.
The eight-part series Kill Jackie follows a former cocaine kingpin who has spent 20 years building a new life as a luxury art dealer, only to find herself targeted by a group of elite assassins known as the Seven Demons.
But behind the international locations, high-stakes action and star-studded cast is a significant South Australian connection, with Adelaide production company Steel Springs Pictures brought the series to life and local studios completing key post-production work.
Creative Producer Peter Lawson, who spent more than 25 years working across Los Angeles, Hollywood and New York, made sure that the series’ post-production work would return to Australia.
“I made that a contractual condition of doing the show,” shared Peter. “They wanted to do a lot of the editorial and post-production work in the UK, but I said no. I wanted to come home eventually.”
An array of Adelaide businesses were involved in the post-production process, with the project supported by the South Australian Film Corporation’s post-production, digital and visual effects rebate.
For Peter, bringing the work back to South Australia was about more than simply returning home. It was also an opportunity to showcase the talent and technical capabilities available in the local screen industry.
“Australia has some of the best post-production, visual effects, sound and music composers in the world,” he said. “In Adelaide in particular, we’ve got places like Resin and KOJO, and Studio 508, which we used for sound. They were fantastic. The facilities and the people available here are top-notch.”
The series stars Zeta-Jones as Jackie Price, a former criminal who has reinvented herself as an art broker in Bilbao, Spain. When her carefully constructed life begins to unravel and assassins close in, she is forced to confront her past and fight to survive.
Peter first optioned the book, The Price You Pay by Nick Harkaway, on which the series is based years ago, initially considering it as a feature film before deciding the story had the potential to work as a television series.
The original story centred on a male protagonist, but Peter saw an opportunity to change the character’s gender without losing the qualities that made the story compelling.
“I thought, what if we flipped the gender but didn’t really change much about the character? That could be interesting,” he said.
Having admired Zeta-Jones’ work for years, Peter approached her representatives and was delighted when the actor became involved early in the project.
“I had a feeling there was something about this character, who’s a bit wild and crazy, that she hadn’t really tapped into,” he said. “She’s also got a wicked sense of humour, which I don’t think people had seen enough of.”
The production was filmed across Spain, the UK and Wales, before the post-production process brought the project to Adelaide.
After spending decades working overseas, Peter returned to Australia to focus on developing more projects with local connections. He believes South Australia has plenty to offer international productions, from its locations and facilities to its experienced crews and creative talent.
However, he says further investment in infrastructure, particularly additional sound stages, could help attract even bigger projects to the state.
“We just need to keep bringing more work to South Australia and continue building the infrastructure,” he said.
With another television series in development that is set to film in South Australia, alongside a feature film planned to shoot partly in the state, Peter hopes Kill Jackie will be one of many international productions helping create opportunities for local screen professionals.
For viewers, the series offers an action-packed thriller led by one of Hollywood’s most recognisable stars. For Adelaide, it is another reminder that some of the most important work behind international screen productions can happen far from the locations audiences see on screen.
Kill Jackie is available to stream on Stan.
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