In early 2010 the
Nine Network announced that three separate stand-alone crime telemovies would continue the
Underbelly franchise. Known by the collective title
Underbelly: Files, the first was
Tell Them Lucifer was Here, the second
Infiltration and the third
The Man Who Got Away. They premiered on Australia's
Nine Network early in the 2011 ratings season. A fourth telemovie
Chopper followed in 2018.
Underbelly Files: Tell Them Lucifer Was Here Tell Them Lucifer Was Here depicts the 1998 murders of Victorian police officers
Gary Silk and
Rod Miller. It shows the enormous efforts of the Lorimer Task Force in leading the manhunt for their killer or killers. It stars
Brett Climo,
Jeremy Kewley,
Todd Lasance,
Greg Stone, Dimitri Baveas,
Ditch Davey,
Jane Allsop,
Annie Jones,
Paul O'Brien, Daniel Whyte, Chris Bunworth, James Taylor, Craig Blumeris, Jasmine Dare,
Marshall Napier,
Robert Taylor, Shanti Pezet and
Lee Cormie, with a return guest appearance by
Don Hany as
Nik ‘The Russian’ Radev – the same character he played in the original
Underbelly series (which was set a few years after the events that take place in this movie). The movie had its premiere screening across Australia on the
Nine and
WIN networks on Monday 7 February 2011, followed by an encore screening on GEM on Sunday 13 February 2011. Late in 2010, this telemovie hit a legal snag as part of a pending court case in the NSW law courts, which resulted in a slightly altered version of
Lucifer being broadcast in Sydney and NSW on Monday 7 February. The version screened in NSW omitted one particular scene and changed the names of a number of individuals in the case (for example 'Bandali Debs' changed to 'Patrici Fabro'); however, in an oversight, the subtitles were not edited and showed the original names. When the DVD of the
Underbelly Files telemovies were released,
Tell Them Lucifer Was Here was omitted from the release in NSW only. Like the first series of
Underbelly in Victoria, releases of the DVD that contained
Tell Them Lucifer Was Here had a warning sticker banning the exhibition of the telemovie in NSW.
Underbelly Files: Infiltration Infiltration is an adaptation for screen from an autobiographical novel written by ex-cop
Colin McLaren. He and his police partner lived undercover in
Griffith, New South Wales for a number of years, in order to infiltrate the very closed and deadly Mafia community there. For days, weeks, then months and years, Colin eats with them, sits in their homes and cuddles their kids, all the while climbing the
'Ndrangheta, finally befriending the Griffith Godfather, Antonio Romeo. The two-hour telemovie aired on 14 February 2011 and stars
Sullivan Stapleton as Colin McLaren,
Jessica Napier as Jude,
Tottie Goldsmith as Sara, Kassandra Clementi as Chelsea McLaren, and co-stars Valentino del Toro, Buddy Dannoun, Glenda Linscott and
Henry Nixon.
Underbelly Files: The Man Who Got Away The Man Who Got Away tells the story of
David McMillan who was a British born Australian drug smuggler and the only westerner in history to escape from Klong Prem prison in
Bangkok. It stars
Toby Schmitz,
David McMillan and
Claire van der Boom as McMillan's partner Clelia Vigano. The cast also features
Jeremy Sims,
Aaron Jeffery,
Nicholas Eadie,
Brendan Cowell,
Freya Stafford,
Josh Lawson,
John Orcsik, William Zappa,
Heather Mitchell and
Deidre Rubenstein. It also features Anthony Tsingas as David's father.
The Man Who Got Away premiered on the
Nine Network on Monday 21 February 2011.
Chopper premiered on the
Nine Network on Monday February 12, 2018, and concluded on Tuesday February 13, 2018. == Cast and characters ==