Audiences met the Codys in the 2010 Australian film written and directed by David Michod, inspired by a true-life crime family who ruled the underworld of Melbourne, Australia, through the 1980s and early '90s.
Jacki Weaver played matriarch Janine "Smurf" Cody, and the role brought her an Oscar nomination.
For the new TNT series, Ellen Barkin re-creates the sexually charged Smurf, who both manipulates and cajoles her four grown sons as they compete not only for her attention, but also for a higher stake in the family hierarchy.
"You'd think Ellen might be intimidated by Jacki Weaver's portrayal in the film, but she came in with a vision for the character that was original from the outset," says executive producer Jonathan Lisco. "She is creating a character who is equal parts reptilian and dark, but also genuinely loving of her boys. She is the perfect doting mother for every son who never wanted to grow up."
The producers of this 10-part TV version are hoping audiences will embrace a fresh take on the story, set in the working-class southern California beach town of Oceanside.
"We felt we could translate this to a very American story," Lisco says, "The idea was to set it in California, in a community where there is a patina of paradise but a darker underbelly."
On this particular day, Barkin is shooting a scene for episode six (directed by Emmy-winning actress Regina King), and it's obvious who's in charge as she stares down one of her four sons.
"I thought the family dynamics were really compelling — something I haven't seen on television before," says John Wells, also an executive producer along with Etan Frankel, Christopher Chulack, Liz Watts and Michod (Andrew Stearn was an exec producer on the pilot). Wells and Lisco previously collaborated on TNT's cop drama Southland, which moved to the cable channel in 2010 after one season on NBC.
Animal Kingdom opens, as did the film, with the death of Smurf's daughter from a heroin overdose. Smurf then takes charge of her estranged grandson, known as J (British actor Finn Cole), who is thrust unwittingly into the family business. J's moral compass is more thoroughly fleshed out in the TV version. "We are sticking to the basic elements, but at the same time reinventing this provocative source material," Wells reports.
Animal Kingdom reflects a new commitment by TNT to grittier adult fare, notes Wells, also an executive producer of Showtime's Shameless. "I think the lines are more blurred between pay and basic cable," he observes, "Hopefully Animal Kingdom will find the audience who is not looking for comfort TV, but rather something compelling, with intricate characters and a seductive setting."
Seductive is right. "The DNA of the show is a provocative, perverse, powerful mother," Lisco says, "and the emotionally incestuous hold she has over her four dangerous sons. She has raised them with love but also engaged in some disturbingly leaky psychological boundaries. We find them to be repelled by her, yet also desperately craving and competing for her attention."
