SBS has announced an award-winning ensemble cast (pictured) to star in the new Matchbox Pictures-produced drama series Safe Harbour.
The four-part drama will feature Australian actress making waves internationally Phoebe Tonkin (The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, H2O Just Add Water), AACTA and Logie award-winner Joel Jackson (Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door, Deadline Gallipoli) award-winning actor Ewen Leslie (Rake, Janet King, the upcoming second season of Top of the Lake), acclaimed actress Leeanna Walsman (Seven Types of Ambiguity, Cleverman, Looking for Alibrandi) and award-winner Jacqueline McKenzie (The 4400, The Water Diviner). Other members of the cast include Hazem Shammas (Underbelly), Nicole Chamoun (Kick), Robert Rabiah (Tomorrow When the War Began).
The series will be filmed on location in Brisbane, directed by Glendyn Ivin (Seven Types of Ambiguity, The Beautiful Lie) and produced for SBS by award-winning production company Matchbox Pictures (The Family Law, Secret City, Seven Types of Ambiguity, Wanted, Barracuda).
Safe Harbour is executive produced by SBS’s Sue Masters (The Principal, Deep Water, The Family Law) and produced by Matchbox Pictures’ Stephen Corvini (Better Man, Hyde & Seek).
Safe Harbour is described as a bold psychological thriller set in Brisbane about a group of friends whose sailing holiday of a lifetime to Indonesia alters their lives forever after they cross paths with a fishing boat overloaded with asylum seekers en route to Australia.
The four-part series is a Matchbox Pictures production for SBS, and is produced with major production funding from Screen Australia in association with Screen Queensland with NBC Universal handling international sales.