Milly Alcock and Tim Minchin.
Lingo Pictures’ eight-part series Upright, starring Tim Minchin and Milly Alcock, has kicked off production in South Australia.
Joining the actors in the Foxtel/Sky UK series are Heather Mitchell (A Place to Call Home, The Great Gatsby, Palm Beach), Daniel Lapaine (Muriel’s Wedding, Black Mirror, Catastrophe), Ella Scott Lynch (Love Child, Janet King), Daniel Frederiksen (Ghost Rider, Matilda the Musical), Kate Box (Rake, Picnic at Hanging Rock), Ningali Lawford (Mystery Road, Last Cab to Darwin), Sachin Joab (Hotel Mumbai, Pine Gap), Luke Carroll (Strangerland, Redfern Now) and Rob Collins (Secret City, Cleverman, The Wrong Girl).
Created by The Chaser’s Chris Taylor, Upright follows Flynn (Minchin), a gifted pianist whose talent for music is matched only by his talent for self-destruction. When he learns that his mother has only days left to live, Lucky sets off in a hire car to drive the 4000 kilometres from Sydney to Perth to say goodbye to her, taking with him his only cherished possession in the world – a battered and scarred upright piano. But what should have been a straightforward drive across the Nullarbor soon becomes a test of Lucky’s emotional fitness, when he (quite literally) runs into Meg Adams (Alcock), a teenager who discover has plenty of scars and secrets of her own.
Taylor and Minchin are writing the eight-part series alongside writer-actors Kate Mulvany (Fighting Season, Jasper Jones stage play) and Leon Ford (Offspring, No Activity). The director is Matthew Saville (Please Like Me). Minchin also writes the music and is an EP with Penny Win and Helen Bowden. Producers are Lingo Pictures’ Jason Stephens (Lambs of God), Taylor and Melissa Kelly (Hounds of Love). Production will conclude later this year in Western Australia.
The series is made with major production investment from Foxtel and Screen Australia, in association with the South Australian Film Corporation, and support from Screenwest and Create NSW.
International sales are repped by eOne.