Boy Swallows Universe is the much-anticipated Netflix adaptation of the bestselling debut novel of the identical identify by Australian writer Trent Dalton, with the primary episode set to grace our screens on Thursday.
The sequence will hint the tumultuous childhood of 12-year-old Eli Bell, a working-class boy rising up in Nineteen Eighties Brisbane with a heroin-dealer stepfather, a mute brother, a drug-addicted mom and a infamous prison for a father determine.
Staying true to its Aussie roots, the sequence is populated with a star-studded solid of Australian actors, together with Phoebe Tonkin as Frances Bell, Eli’s mom.
In response to Netflix, the eight-part restricted sequence will painting “an epic coming-of-age story […] that blends the magic and innocence of youth with the brutal actuality of the grownup world”.
© NetflixThe troubled story tugged on the heartstrings of many Australians when the ebook was first launched in 2018, and it seems that sure components of the enduring story have been really loosely impressed by among the writer’s personal real-life childhood experiences.
In an interview with the Townsville Bulletin, the writer remembers that he himself grew up with two unconventional male position fashions: his prison stepfather, and his household pal Arthur “Slim” Halliday, who was a convicted assassin who grew to become infamously referred to as ‘The Houdini of Boggo Highway’.
Rising up within the Nineteen Eighties, Trent knew his household pal “Slim” as a heat, enjoyable and pleasant father determine. “He was the funniest, kindest previous bloke,” Trent informed the Townsville Bulletin.
It’s laborious to reconcile this description with the stunning and severe occasions that marred Slim’s youthful years. After two infamous jail escapes within the Nineteen Forties, he would later be accused and convicted of murdering a taxi driver on the Gold Coast by beating him with a pistol in 1952.
From a younger age, Trent was hypnotised by the legend surrounding this man. Likewise, he remembers that his stepfather, an imposing character with taut muscle mass and pores and skin etched with numerous tattoos, was a defining determine in his early childhood.
He informed the Townsville Bulletin: “That man was genuinely the primary man that I ever cherished and he was most likely in some ways my mum’s real love, the love of her life …”
© NetflixLike his protagonist, Trent needed to deal with the truth that the individuals he cherished most on this planet throughout his childhood have been concurrently criminals who have been haunted by a shadowy previous.
Nevertheless, there are lots of components of the story that undoubtedly stem from Trent’s creativeness relatively than his personal experiences.
As seen within the trailer for the sequence launched by Netflix final autumn, a lot of the story centres round a retro crimson rotary phone. Trent remembers that this phone did really exist in his stepfather’s house, however in his fictionalised story, he brings this unassuming object into the highlight.
He revealed that this childhood reminiscence shaped the idea for a significant plot level within the story, the place he imagines the cellphone in an eerie underground room and weaves a whole narrative “fantasising about who’s on the tip of that cellphone line”.
© NetflixMost of the jolting twists and turns that make up the plot are solely fictional. Actuality and fantasy have been masterfully mingled collectively to construct this fascinating story.
The sequence, following faithfully within the footsteps of the novel that impressed it, is about to poignantly steadiness moments of playful pleasure and reckless abandon with sobering notes of grief and worry, culminating in a heart-wrenching, realist portrayal of life in all its complexity.
The primary episode of Boy Swallows Universe airs on Netflix on Thursday 11 January.
