Netflix announce all-star Australian cast for Boy Swallows Universe as filming begins in Brisbane

A host of Aussie stars including Simon Baker, Travis Fimmel, Phoebe Tonkin, and Anthony La Paglia lead the cast of Netflix series Boy Swallows Universe, which is now filming in Brisbane

Australian acting stars Travis Fimmel, Phoebe Tonkin and Simon Baker will bring Boy Swallows Universe to life on the silver screen, leading an all-star cast.

Following the start of production on the series, Netflix announced on Thursday that Melbourne teen Felix Cameron has been cast as young protagonist Eli Bell in the screen adaptation of Brisbane author Trent Dalton’s best-selling novel, after making his acting debut in Penguin Bloom (2020).

Author Trent Dalton with actor Travis Fimmel on the Queensland set of Netflix series Boy Swallows Universe. Photo: Supplied

Tonkin will star as his mother Frances Bell while Fimmel, of Vikings fame, will play her boyfriend, Lyle Orlik and teen actor Lee Tiger Halley is his brother, Gus Bell.

Baker joins the cast as their estranged father Robert, who the brothers are sent to live with when their mother goes to Boggo Road Gaol.

Meanwhile, Bryan Brown is convict babysitter Slim Halliday, while Anthony La Paglia will play heroin kingpin Tytus Broz to round out the star-studded Australian cast.

Author Trent Dalton with actors Travis Fimmel, Lee Tiger Halley and Felix Cameron on the Queensland set of Netflix series Boy Swallows Universe. Photo: Supplied

Author Trent Dalton on the Queensland set of Netflix series Boy Swallows Universe. Photo: Supplied

Inspired by Dalton’s own upbringing in the city, Boy Swallows Universe is a coming-of-age story about a working-class teenager and budding reporter embroiled in a suburban drug circuit.

The Walkley Award-winning journalist is an executive producer on the series and joined the cast on set as filming got under way at a suburban home in Beenleigh.

Rising star Sophie Wilde will play journalist Caitlyn Spies while the cast also includes Christopher James Baker (Ivan Kroll), HaiHa Le (Bich Dang), Deborah Mailman (Poppy Birkbeck), and Ben O’Toole (Teddy).

Phoebe Tonkin, pictured in a recent campaign for Aussie brand Rollas, will star in Boy Swallows Universe. Photo: Supplied

The eight-part series, supported by Screen Queensland, will be filmed across Brisbane, where the story is set, for five months, injecting $33 million into the local economy, creating 185 jobs for cast and crew and employing 2500 extras.

It was adapted by screenwriter John Collee while executive producers include Joel Edgerton, Troy Lum and Andrew Mason, of Sydney-based Brouhaha Entertainment, Chapter One’s Sophie Gardiner, and Anonymous Content’s Kerry Kohansky-Roberts.