Latest news with #Untamed
Sydney Morning Herald
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘A lot of wacky stuff goes on': Eric Bana goes wild, again, for Netflix murder mystery
A brooding cop, troubled by his past. Stunning wilderness. Long-held secrets in a tight-knit community. A murder investigation. Eric Bana. Share these details with an Identikit artist, and you'll probably get something that looks like The Dry, or its sequel Force of Nature, the Australian feature films in which Bana starred as Jane Harper's detective Aaron Falk. But that, insists the 56-year-old whose star turn on the other side of the law as Chopper Read is now, remarkably, 25 years old, would be wide of the mark. 'I just love working outdoors. It's been a pretty consistent theme, that I'm always drawn to big outdoor shows,' he says. 'But I don't think they have too much in common after that.' In Netflix's six-part crime series Untamed, Bana plays Kyle Turner, a detective with the Investigative Services Branch. 'It's kind of like the FBI of the National Park Service,' he explains of the real-life ISB. 'There aren't that many of them [investigators], and they move around from park to park, depending on the workload.' Kyle is based in Yosemite, where he's lived for years. His ex-wife Jill lives nearby, and though she has repartnered, they are bound – not especially healthily – by trauma. Neither of them can, or will, move on. When a young woman drops to her death from a cliff (almost collecting a couple of climbers along the way, in one of the more spectacular opening sequences in recent memory), Kyle suspects foul play rather than an accident. Soon, he realises the dead woman is linked to a case he had investigated many years earlier, and that the sprawling wilderness he holds dear also hides a whole range of nefarious activities besides illegal campfires. The spark for the show was lit when screenwriter Mark L. Smith read an article about a real-life crime in a park, and the ISB investigation that followed. 'And it was just like, 'We haven't seen this on film before, a murder mystery thriller investigation in a national park',' Bana says. 'That's where the idea began, and then he just started fleshing it out. 'Well, who would this person be?' Loading 'He's not based on a real character,' he hastens to add of Kyle. 'It was just the germ of the idea.' Bana is a producer as well as star of the series, and as it was in development, a real-life story was unfolding in the Australian wilderness – the so-called High Country Murders of Russell Hill and Carol Clay, for which former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn was ultimately convicted. For Bana, that duality of the remote wilderness was part of the appeal of the Untamed story. 'A lot of wacky stuff goes on, and that plays into the psyche,' he says. 'Even if you love the outdoors, there's the element that you always feel a little bit exposed.' There's the natural aspect – which, in Australia, often means the threat of bushfire or flooding or extreme heat or cold, or simply wandering off track and becoming hopelessly lost. 'But then there's also that thing of, well, what if there's someone else out here? What about the humans, you know? So on a subconscious level, I think everyone relates to that, and we definitely were trying to tap into that.' Bana read a script for the first episode in 2018, and was immediately onboard. But it took years to get it made. Why the delay? Loading 'COVID, strikes, trends, quality, making sure we had everything right. Just all the normal things – and the abnormal ones. I've lived with Kyle for a long, long time, probably one of the longest gestation periods I've had for a character.' ISB officers generally 'don't work as part of a massive team, and they are often highly skilled in their particular areas, used to working alone', Bana says. And Kyle has that lone-wolf vibe dialled up to 11. Basically, he just doesn't like people very much, himself included. Though the park is a major character too, the series was actually shot in Canada's Whistler, which Bana had previously visited on skiing holidays with his wife and kids a couple of times, but had never seen in the warmer months. 'In the middle of summer you can't get into Yosemite because of the tourists, and the restrictions,' he says. 'We just had more freedom of movement in British Columbia.' For Bana, much of that movement was done on the back of a horse. He first learnt to ride for Troy, more than 20 years ago. 'That was a pretty intensive training period because we were bareback, no stirrups for that film. So from there, everything's pretty easy afterwards.' Sometimes he'd get to set in the backwoods by car, sometimes by chairlift. And on one memorable day, he and co-star Sam Neill rode their horses to location. Loading 'They weren't in the scene, we were just using them as transpo,' he says of their trusty steeds. 'He's not even on camera today, my guy, but I'm using his saddlebag for packing some stuff. You'd just pinch yourself every day you were up on a horse on top of a mountain somewhere at the back of Whistler, and realise it was actually a job. It's just amazing.' Untamed marks Bana's second TV series out of the States, following Dirty John (based on the true-crime podcast) in 2018. Those with long memories will recall that he got his start as part of the cast of sketch-comedy show Full Frontal in the mid-1990s, had a brief eponymous solo show, Eric, from 1996, and played Joe Sabatini in the ABC's weeknight serial Something in the Air in the early 2000s. But post- Chopper, he has almost exclusively been a movie actor. Untamed doesn't represent a major shift, he insists. 'It doesn't feel that different. I mean, there are some days when you feel like, 'OK, we're really having to go quickly', but generally, there's not a huge difference between making a TV show and making a movie. ' On Dirty John, we had one director over the eight episodes, so that just felt like a big film. This, because I worked so closely with [creators] Mark and Elle, felt like a big film shoot, with three directors. It was amazing and incredible to work on and to put together an incredible cast for this.' That includes Rosemarie DeWitt (Mad Men, United States of Tara, The Boys) as Kyle's ex-wife, Jill, and Lily Santiago (La Brea) as Kyle's offsider Naya Vasquez. And, of course, it includes Sam Neill, aka The Prop (see the NZ actor and winemaker's prolific social media output for further detail). 'Sam Neill's a legend,' Bana proclaims happily. But, remarkably, this was the first time the pair had ever worked together. In fact, he adds, 'We'd never even met prior to this project, ever been in the same room. 'We have mutual friends, and the first day we met, we're both like, 'How is this possible?' 'He said, 'I feel like I've known you my whole life'. And I said, 'I feel the same'.' Of course, they got on like a house on fire. And, of course, Neill brought out a few bottles of his Two Paddocks pinot noir at the end of long shooting days. 'Absolutely, my word. He wasn't getting away from the job without some of that,' Bana says. But tell me, Eric – did he open the really good stuff, his top-of-the-line Fusilier, or First Paddock offerings? 'Oh,' Bana says with a laugh. 'I'm going to have to go through my picture library this afternoon and find out just how close a friend I am.'
The Age
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
‘A lot of wacky stuff goes on': Eric Bana goes wild, again, for Netflix murder mystery
A brooding cop, troubled by his past. Stunning wilderness. Long-held secrets in a tight-knit community. A murder investigation. Eric Bana. Share these details with an Identikit artist, and you'll probably get something that looks like The Dry, or its sequel Force of Nature, the Australian feature films in which Bana starred as Jane Harper's detective Aaron Falk. But that, insists the 56-year-old whose star turn on the other side of the law as Chopper Read is now, remarkably, 25 years old, would be wide of the mark. 'I just love working outdoors. It's been a pretty consistent theme, that I'm always drawn to big outdoor shows,' he says. 'But I don't think they have too much in common after that.' In Netflix's six-part crime series Untamed, Bana plays Kyle Turner, a detective with the Investigative Services Branch. 'It's kind of like the FBI of the National Park Service,' he explains of the real-life ISB. 'There aren't that many of them [investigators], and they move around from park to park, depending on the workload.' Kyle is based in Yosemite, where he's lived for years. His ex-wife Jill lives nearby, and though she has repartnered, they are bound – not especially healthily – by trauma. Neither of them can, or will, move on. When a young woman drops to her death from a cliff (almost collecting a couple of climbers along the way, in one of the more spectacular opening sequences in recent memory), Kyle suspects foul play rather than an accident. Soon, he realises the dead woman is linked to a case he had investigated many years earlier, and that the sprawling wilderness he holds dear also hides a whole range of nefarious activities besides illegal campfires. The spark for the show was lit when screenwriter Mark L. Smith read an article about a real-life crime in a park, and the ISB investigation that followed. 'And it was just like, 'We haven't seen this on film before, a murder mystery thriller investigation in a national park',' Bana says. 'That's where the idea began, and then he just started fleshing it out. 'Well, who would this person be?' Loading 'He's not based on a real character,' he hastens to add of Kyle. 'It was just the germ of the idea.' Bana is a producer as well as star of the series, and as it was in development, a real-life story was unfolding in the Australian wilderness – the so-called High Country Murders of Russell Hill and Carol Clay, for which former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn was ultimately convicted. For Bana, that duality of the remote wilderness was part of the appeal of the Untamed story. 'A lot of wacky stuff goes on, and that plays into the psyche,' he says. 'Even if you love the outdoors, there's the element that you always feel a little bit exposed.' There's the natural aspect – which, in Australia, often means the threat of bushfire or flooding or extreme heat or cold, or simply wandering off track and becoming hopelessly lost. 'But then there's also that thing of, well, what if there's someone else out here? What about the humans, you know? So on a subconscious level, I think everyone relates to that, and we definitely were trying to tap into that.' Bana read a script for the first episode in 2018, and was immediately onboard. But it took years to get it made. Why the delay? Loading 'COVID, strikes, trends, quality, making sure we had everything right. Just all the normal things – and the abnormal ones. I've lived with Kyle for a long, long time, probably one of the longest gestation periods I've had for a character.' ISB officers generally 'don't work as part of a massive team, and they are often highly skilled in their particular areas, used to working alone', Bana says. And Kyle has that lone-wolf vibe dialled up to 11. Basically, he just doesn't like people very much, himself included. Though the park is a major character too, the series was actually shot in Canada's Whistler, which Bana had previously visited on skiing holidays with his wife and kids a couple of times, but had never seen in the warmer months. 'In the middle of summer you can't get into Yosemite because of the tourists, and the restrictions,' he says. 'We just had more freedom of movement in British Columbia.' For Bana, much of that movement was done on the back of a horse. He first learnt to ride for Troy, more than 20 years ago. 'That was a pretty intensive training period because we were bareback, no stirrups for that film. So from there, everything's pretty easy afterwards.' Sometimes he'd get to set in the backwoods by car, sometimes by chairlift. And on one memorable day, he and co-star Sam Neill rode their horses to location. Loading 'They weren't in the scene, we were just using them as transpo,' he says of their trusty steeds. 'He's not even on camera today, my guy, but I'm using his saddlebag for packing some stuff. You'd just pinch yourself every day you were up on a horse on top of a mountain somewhere at the back of Whistler, and realise it was actually a job. It's just amazing.' Untamed marks Bana's second TV series out of the States, following Dirty John (based on the true-crime podcast) in 2018. Those with long memories will recall that he got his start as part of the cast of sketch-comedy show Full Frontal in the mid-1990s, had a brief eponymous solo show, Eric, from 1996, and played Joe Sabatini in the ABC's weeknight serial Something in the Air in the early 2000s. But post- Chopper, he has almost exclusively been a movie actor. Untamed doesn't represent a major shift, he insists. 'It doesn't feel that different. I mean, there are some days when you feel like, 'OK, we're really having to go quickly', but generally, there's not a huge difference between making a TV show and making a movie. ' On Dirty John, we had one director over the eight episodes, so that just felt like a big film. This, because I worked so closely with [creators] Mark and Elle, felt like a big film shoot, with three directors. It was amazing and incredible to work on and to put together an incredible cast for this.' That includes Rosemarie DeWitt (Mad Men, United States of Tara, The Boys) as Kyle's ex-wife, Jill, and Lily Santiago (La Brea) as Kyle's offsider Naya Vasquez. And, of course, it includes Sam Neill, aka The Prop (see the NZ actor and winemaker's prolific social media output for further detail). 'Sam Neill's a legend,' Bana proclaims happily. But, remarkably, this was the first time the pair had ever worked together. In fact, he adds, 'We'd never even met prior to this project, ever been in the same room. 'We have mutual friends, and the first day we met, we're both like, 'How is this possible?' 'He said, 'I feel like I've known you my whole life'. And I said, 'I feel the same'.' Of course, they got on like a house on fire. And, of course, Neill brought out a few bottles of his Two Paddocks pinot noir at the end of long shooting days. 'Absolutely, my word. He wasn't getting away from the job without some of that,' Bana says. But tell me, Eric – did he open the really good stuff, his top-of-the-line Fusilier, or First Paddock offerings? 'Oh,' Bana says with a laugh. 'I'm going to have to go through my picture library this afternoon and find out just how close a friend I am.'
USA Today
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Could there be a Season 2 of ‘Untamed'? What we know so far
Netflix dropped its latest thriller mystery series 'Untamed' last week and fans are desperately anticipating more suspense and drama at Yosemite National Park. The show stars Eric Bana as National Park Service special agent Kyle Turner who investigates the brutal death of a woman who falls off a summit of El Capitan. Throughout the investigation he must also grapple with the tragic death of his son and a complicated divorce while battling alcoholism. Unfortunately for eager viewers who finished the series, the streaming platform has yet to announce plans for a follow-up season to what has so far been promoted as a limited series. However, key stakeholders have discussed the possible second season of the miniseries. Here's what we know so far. Has 'Untamed' been renewed for Season 2? No, Netflix has not announced a second season of 'Untamed.' What have key voices said about a second season of 'Untamed'? When asked about a follow up season in a Variety interview, star Eric Bana said 'we'll have to wait and see.' 'We spoke about what would happen to Kyle after this, in theory. So you never know,' Bana told the outlet. Co-showrunner Elle Smith discussed what a hypothetical Season 2 could look like in an interview with TV Insider, telling the outlet the theoretical follow-up season would likely follow an unrelated case at a different national park. "If we got the opportunity to do it again, it would be getting to explore a different park, a different case,' Smith told TV Insider. 'We would do this forever if they let us, but we'll see. We'll see how many adventures Turner has left in him.' Where to watch 'Untamed' The thriller series 'Untamed' is available to stream on Netflix. How many episodes are in 'Untamed'? There are a total of six episodes of Netflix's thriller miniseries 'Untamed.' When did untamed come out? Netflix premiered its new thriller mystery series 'Untamed" on July 17, 2025. Where was untamed filmed? While Netflix's miniseries 'Untamed' takes place at California's Yosemite National Park, production actually took place in British Columbia, Canada. 'We couldn't get the kind of access that we would've needed, particularly in summer to Yosemite. So we stitched a lot of things together and we were in a beautiful, beautiful part of Canada. Just absolutely stunning,' Bana told Variety. 'Untamed' miniseries full cast The cast of Netflix miniseries 'Untamed' includes the following:
USA Today
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Eric Bana reveals what he almost took from Netflix's 'Untamed' set, talks Marvel future
NEW YORK - Eric Bana thought about taking something from the set of Netflix's "Untamed" back home to Australia: the horse he rides in the new limited series about an agent investigating a death at Yosemite National Park. "It was expensive," Bana, 56, says of the cost to transport a horse from British Columbia, where the show was filmed. "I'm not even sure if he was for sale, but I looked into it. I was going to smuggle him." Bana jokes that his wife Rebecca would have had no issue with the addition to the household, "so long as it was (my) responsibility." The actor has two pets, a poodle and a Burmese cat, and confirms that both "live in harmony" together. Bana tackles demons and a murder case in 'Untamed' "Untamed" is set in Yosemite National Park. Bana stars as Kyle Turner, the special agent investigating the death of a woman in the park. As the case unfolds, so does Turner's past, which includes the death of his son, a struggle with alcohol abuse and a divorce. "There's a shared trauma between the two of them," Bana says of the relationship between Turner and his ex-wife Jill (Rosemary DeWitt)." Their son's death "affects him, as it would any human. It's a very spiritual connection that he has with the park as a result and with nature. And we really try and tap into that." Bana says he received the script of the pilot episode as early as 2018, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the Hollywood strikes delayed production. He also signed on as an executive producer, something he does, "when I really feel like I want to be extremely supportive of the original vision and not have it diluted at all. There's a version of this show that you could sell to someone and (the studio says), 'Yeah, we'll make this show. Do you really need to go to that location? Do you really need that much time in the forest?'" he says. "Luckily, in this case, we were all moving in the same direction." Bana's succinct response to a Marvel return Bana played the title character in the 2003 film "Hulk," but he wasn't asked to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (Edward Norton also made a single appearance as the superhero, in 2008's "The Incredible Hulk.") Would he ever consider it, as fans speculate he might for "Avengers: Secret Wars," due in 2027? The actor offers a firm "no." "It was a one'er for me," he adds of the MCU experience. "I love doing what I'm doing (now)."
News18
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Untamed Ending Explained: Who Really Killed Lucy Cook?
Last Updated: Untamed, set in the Yosemite National Park, stars Eric Bana in a key role. Untamed, starring Eric Bana, premiered on Netflix on July 17. The murder mystery drama concluded with a shocking twist that revealed that Lucy Cook's death wasn't a murder, but a tragic sequence of events culminating in her own desperate act. Who killed Lucy Cook? Before discovering the truth, Untamed features a few red herrings. At first, Kyle Turner (Eric Bana) thinks Lucy's death was mostly caused by her participation in an illegal drug trade. When it turns out to be a dead end, he suspects park's wildlife management officer, Shane Maguire (Wilson Bethel) as the killer but finds him not responsible for Lucy's murder. After requesting Lucy's parental DNA matches, Turner learns that Paul Souter (Sam Neill), his mentor and head park ranger, is Lucy's biological father. When Turner confronts Souter, he confesses to his affair with Lucy's mother but requests Turner to keep his wife in the dark. As Souter comes clean, he shares that he placed Lucy in a foster home in Nevada after her mother's abusive husband Rory grew violent towards her. But Lucy quickly got away and came back to Yosemite. Souter didn't see her for a few years until she started extorting money from him by threatening to divulge his secret to his family. As he attempted to pursue her down on El Capitan, Souter fired a warning shot to her knee to scare her but an injured Lucy rushed to the edge and leaped to her death. Who is Sean Sanderson and how did he die? In addition to the mystery surrounding Lucy's passing, Turner and his ex-wife Jill are troubled by the mystery behind Sean Sanderson's disappearance. Turner gets to lead the charge on the case. It turns personal for the couple as Sanderson is the man who killed their son Caleb. While he was arrested in the murder case, Jill didn't want to stuck in the limbo of awaiting a trial so she paid Maguire to kill Sanderson. Turner didn't know about Jill's plan and was shocked when Sanderson went missing. This revelation led to the breakdown of their marriage. What happens to Turner in the end? Turner doesn't make a big exit at the end of Untamed. Just a quiet, steady departure from Yosemite, the place that held his pain for so long. He leaves Vasquez the horse he taught her to ride, and for her son Gael, a worn box of Caleb's toy cars. That says more than any goodbye could. When the series began, Turner was lost, broken by grief, hovering at the edge of giving up. But somewhere along the way, something shifted. Being around Vasquez and Gael didn't fix him, but it stirred something he hadn't felt in years: a sense of purpose. Maybe even hope. He walks away still carrying scars, but also with the strength to face whatever is next. Where is he going? No one says. What matters is he is finally moving forward. Untamed is now streaming on Netflix. First Published: July 21, 2025, 19:17 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
