AC/DC’s Bon Scott film gets underway in WA

The early life of the late AC/DC frontman Bon Scott is set to hit cinemas in a film currently being developed in Western Australia.

The Kid From Harvest Road will see a young Scott roaming the streets of Fremantle in the 1960s, following his path from troubled youth to globally famous artist.

The film is being developed in a collaboration between HALO Films and Protocol Pictures. Writer Stephen Belowsky and Co-Writer/Director David Vincent Smith are at the helm of the project, with a script that has received no objection from Scott’s estate.

The film is produced by Tim Duffy, with executive producers Ian Hale and Nicko Mezzino.

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‘We are thrilled to embark on this journey to illuminate the early years of Bon Scott,’ says Ian Hale from Halo Films.

‘His story is one of resilience, passion, and the relentless pursuit of his dreams. Through this film, we aim to honour his legacy and inspire audiences with the transformative power of music and determination.’

Lee Tiger Halley, who recently had a breakout role in Boy Swallows Universe, will be stepping into the shoes of young Bon Scott. A Fremantle boy himself, Halley was first choice for producers ‘because of his magnetism which mirrors Bon Scott’.

Read: The Kid From Harvest Road: Bon Scott film won’t be a biopic – producers issue addendum

Bringing a story of Bon Scott’s early years to the big screen has been a passion project for writer Stephen Belowsky. ‘I was truly inspired by his charismatic character, but what interested me most was his early, life not the caricature we all know on stage,’ he said.

‘The teen who walked the streets of Fremantle … this is a love letter to Fremantle and Bon reimagined through the eyes of the author.’

Production on The Kid From Harvest Road is expected to start in early 2025. This article was amended on 8 March to better reflect an addendum from the film’s producers that it would not be a biopic but a film that ‘aims to capture the essence of Bon Scott’s early life in Fremantle in a fictionalised narrative set in the 1960s’.

Physically diminutive but truly larger than life, the late Bon Scott still stands as one of the greatest rock frontmen of all time, a stunning frisson of cheek, humour, rage, menace and voluble, undeniable charisma. Though born in Scotland, Ronald Belford Scott arrived in Australia at the age of six (living initially in Melbourne and then in Fremantle), and has thus, naturally, been claimed as one of Australia’s most loved – if decidedly errant – sons. Fond of a drink and good time, Bon Scott passed away in 1980 at just 33, robbing the world of many more great albums and tours with AC/DC. Bon Scott lived a full, highly adventurous life, and it will now become grist for the cinematic mill courtesy of a set-to-shoot biopic called The Kid From Harvest Road.

With WA-based writer Stephen Belowsky and co-writer/director David Vincent Smith (who has helmed a host of shorts, and has He Ain’t Heavy, starring mother and daughter Greta Scaachi and Leila George, awaiting release) driving the project, The Kid From Harvest Road will focus on Bon Scott’s early teenage years and his initial rise to fame with AC/DC. “I was truly inspired by his charismatic character, but what interested me most was his early life, not the caricature we all know on stage,” says writer Stephen Belowsky. “The teen who walked the streets of Fremantle… this is a love letter to Fremantle and Bon reimagined through the eyes of the author.”

Adds producer Ian Hale: “We are thrilled to embark on this journey to illuminate the early years of Bon Scott. His story is one of resilience, passion, and the relentless pursuit of his dreams. Through this film, we aim to honour his legacy and inspire audiences with the transformative power of music and determination.”

And just who is set to pull on Bon’s famously tight jeans and salty collection of tattoos? That would be young Fremantle-born actor Lee Tiger Halley, who made a very strong impact recently in the Netflix adaptation of Trent Dalton’s acclaimed novel Boy Swallows Universe. With minimal dialogue but reams of charisma, Halley announced himself as a major talent to watch in the mini-series, and it was his “magnetism” that saw the young actor land as the creative team’s first choice for the role. Production on The Kid From Harvest Road will commence in WA in 2025.

Stay tuned for more on The Kid From Harvest Road.