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Underbelly 3: 1985 – 1997

Underbelly 3 looks set to be squeezed in between the stories of its first and second seasons.

underbelly-trimbole2Acclaimed Underbelly director Peter Andrikidis says the third series is being written, with plans to look at the period from the end of series to to the beginning of series one. It’s turning into the Star Wars of television.

“I’d say it’d have something to do with the people that were set up in series one,” he told News Limited.

“But they’re still developing that, it’s just what they can get the rights on.”

Andrikidis hasn’t been involved with the current series because of a scheduling clash with his SBS series East West 101 but is hopeful of directing the third.

“We’re talking,” he said.

The AFI Award winning director, who has also directed episodes of ABC’s Rogue Nation,  said Underbelly had helped changed the Australian television landscape.

“It’s a good thing that it came along … you actually are delving into the dark side of human beings, which is a great,” Andrikidis said. “There is an audience for material that is not light.”

He also echoed statements made this week by Screen Producers Association of Australia executive director Geoff Brown who said, “Underbelly is a program that 10 years ago the ABC would have done, and the irony is that commercial networks, which have always been a bit risk adverse, instead took on the very challenging program.”

Andrikidis agreed, adding, “And it would be easier to make on the ABC without commercial breaks because it is a dense story.”

Maybe by the time the third series ends at 1995 the first series will be cleared to air legally in Victoria?

Source: news.com.au, The West

30 Responses

  1. i think they could do quite alot of different under belly’s,way over 10!we have alot of crims that didn’t get mentioned in either of the first two series.i think that the first two series were good and pritty close to what happened,even thought some of the things that happened were done by others and not the way it was pertrayed in the series.
    i look forward to seeing more of these series to see how they recreate the events
    or weather they make it up to save from incrimination!

  2. I think series 1 was better than series 2 as it wasnt so predictable. Series 2 was actually boring and didnt reaklly have a story. Thats my opinion anyway…

  3. I think they should just stop whilst they are ahead and find a new story already! There are so many great Asussie stories. It’s like if an Australian show actually rates – they have to work it into the ground. On a lighter note I found a hilarious audition for season 3 on utube

    I think it points out how badly they shouldn’t do the next season!

  4. Why are you guys so serious on how bad you think the film is? Grow up a little bit and chill out, dont expect everything to be perfect, so what if theres some tits here and there. I love watching the show because it’s just funny as all f***uck, and its fun too sit around with some mates and laugh at the s**t that happens with a few brewskies 😀

  5. Ok ok.

    To be honest they have already chosen the story for underbelly 3.

    It called chopper vs alphonse Gangitano. I was reading it on the age i think ti was.

    I think they will make an underbelly on the bikies and maybe even today in sydneys gangs. Or even the gangs in queensland related to the mafia and bikies.

    They have heaps of stories. If everyoen keeps tuning on they’ll keep making them and keep making money. haha

  6. In reply to Jack.. perhaps one reason the ratings of this series are higher than the first series is because Victoria wasn’t included in the rating for the first series.

    I think with all the hoopla if Victoria was allowed to see it, it would be higher than the second series.

    Hopefully Victoria gets to see the full first series intact soon.

  7. I don’t think Underbelly is “dense” at all. I found the first series to be too slow moving. The second is too simplistic and with too much pointless nudity.

    However, Nine have connected with their target market so good luck to them. It keeps locals employed too, so I guess there’s no harm.

  8. I think series 2 has been fantastic and a vast improvment on series 1- and the ratings are solid proof of this!

    Series 1 I felt didn’t really have a place in the Aussie Tv industry. It seemed out of place and too contrasting from the other shows on air at the time. Considering a year before that series people were settling down to watch the likes of McLeod’s daughters now for something as dark as Underbelly to be on air seemed too out there for me. I also felt series one failed me because of the weak cast and the way the poor setting. I’m sure Melbourne is a lovely place but it was made to look really rough and full of very unsavoury characters that were just totally unlikeable.

    However series 2 has a much stronger cast including the likes of Asher Keddie, Alison

  9. Oh please no more, if Underbelly 2 is as bad as people are saying (and as bad as I expect it to be) then I think there will be a drop in ratings for season 3, whats so good about this show anyway.

  10. I am surprised the ratings have not gradually dropped.

    I don’t think season two has been very compelling. It is like watching crime investigation Australia with lousy reinactments.

    It does not have the intense visceral feel of season one. I think the main storyline is not as strong and it suffers from having well known actors.

  11. Andrikidis agreed, adding, “And it would be easier to make on the ABC without commercial breaks because it is a dense story.”

    The major problem with this U2 series is that the story actually is not dense at all!

  12. “….the irony is that commercial networks, which have always been a bit risk adverse, instead took on the very challenging program…”

    …and made sure that there’d be a pair of boobs on screen every five minutes to appease the Nine demographic.

  13. @camo,

    ur kidding me 7 are making their own underbelly. i thought that was only something ch9 did. the story has been told what can they do. where did you hear about this?

  14. Maybe they can do a more indepth story of Vince Colossimo’s character from Underbelly 1. That could be interesting. We didn’t really see any thing from his character in the first series, only a snippit, would be great to see what happened before. Wonder if Colossimo would come back though, he’d be a main player, it could also bring in Roger Corser and Caroline Craig towards the end of the 3rd series, to represent the set up for everything that happened in the first.

    The second has been extremely slow and overrated, not a patch on Series 1, but Series 3 can have the potential to be better.

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