Brie Larson's Creature Feature Skeletons Wraps Filming in Australia

Skeletons has wrapped principal photography in Victoria, Australia. The Brie Larson-led creature feature from director JT Mollner and producer J.J. Abrams filmed across Melbourne and regional Victoria, with VicScreen confirming that it became the first film to use the reactivated Nunawading studios now known as The Studio Forest Hill — the former home of Neighbours.

The film is based on Philip Fracassi’s short story “Fail-Safe” and follows a young boy who begins to realize that his parents are hiding a disturbing secret about his mother’s true nature. Brian Duffield wrote the initial screenplay, with Mollner handling revisions. The project brings Mollner back to creature-horror territory after his breakout thriller Strange Darling.

Sony Pictures secured worldwide rights to Skeletons earlier this year after a bidding war at the European Film Market. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Sony beat Paramount, Warner Bros. and Neon for the project.

Larson leads an ensemble that also includes Kyle Gallner, Daithí Ó hAragáin, John Goodman, Keith Carradine, Ione Skye and Willa Fitzgerald. Gallner and Fitzgerald previously starred in Mollner’s Strange Darling, giving Skeletons another connection to the filmmaker’s 2024 breakout.

The production was also a substantial local investment. VicScreen says the shoot generated an estimated 635 jobs for Victorian cast and crew, including 14 heads of department and 50 post-production and visual-effects roles. It injected more than $21.5 million into the state’s economy and engaged around 300 local businesses. Filming took place around Melbourne as well as the Yarra Valley, Dandenong Ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Werribee.

Post-production and visual-effects work will remain in Victoria, and VicScreen says the project helped catalyze the creation of Chroma Film Lab in Brunswick East. Sony has set Skeletons for a June 4, 2027 theatrical release.