Netflix has started production on a series based on Miles Franklin’s classic novel My Brilliant Career, creating hundreds of jobs and injecting a record $17 million into a state economy.

The streaming giant is partnering with Jungle Entertainment on the fresh take on the 1901 coming-of-age tale, which resonated deeply with a generation of young Australian women who longed for the freedom to shape their own destinies.

South Australian Arts Minister Andrea Michaels said the production, which has started filming in Adelaide and across SA, will create 450 local jobs across key creatives, crew and extras and engage 260 small businesses.

It represented the largest local expenditure of any TV series made in the state, she said on Wednesday.

Netflix has not revealed the budget for the series, which will stream globally, but the SA government said the projected economic return to the state was $17 million.

The book’s original 1979 movie adaptation – directed by Gillian Armstrong, and starring Judy Davis, Sam Neill, and Wendy Hughes – won significant critical acclaim, receiving nominations for the Academy Award for best costume design, and the Golden Globe for best foreign film.

The story follows a young woman in rural, late-19th-century Australia whose aspirations to become a writer are impeded by her social circumstances and a budding romance.

Netflix vice president Minyoung Kim said it was a “timeless Australian story with themes as relevant today as when it was originally published”.

“We’re excited to be partnering with some of Australia’s best creatives and talent to bring this story to a whole new generation on Netflix, and with its stunning locations, there’s no better home for this production than South Australia,” she said.

Judy Davis and Sam Neill in the 1979 version. Photo: NSW Film and Television

Writer and executive producer Liz Doran said it was “a privilege to work with so many incredible creatives on this reimagining of Miles Franklin’s rollicking tale of a young woman’s quest to determine her own life”.

Locations across the state are being transformed for the period production, with filming in the SA Film Corporation’s Adelaide Studios and across the city, the Barossa region and the South-East.

The cast includes Philippa Northeast (Territory) as Sybylla and Christopher Chung (Slow Horses) as Harry, as well as Anna Chancellor (My Lady Jane), Genevieve O’Reilly (Andor), Kate Mulvany (Hunters), Jake Dunn (What It Feels Like For a Girl), Alexander England (Black Snow), Sherry-Lee Watson (Thou Shalt Not Steal) and Miah Madden (Paper Dolls).

My Brilliant Career is the second major Netflix series to be made in SA in as many years following Outback drama Territory, which premiered in 2024.

The SAFC and Netflix have partnered to create four training roles to work on My Brilliant Career including a production design assistant, costume assistant, costume maker/machinist attachment and safety attachment.

-AAP