Netflix has released the first-look images of Apple Cider Vinegar, a new limited series shot in Melbourne, in which Kaitlyn Dever stars as the infamous Australian wellness influencer Belle Gibson. The series tagline is: A true-ish story, based on a lie.
As per Netflix’s website Tudum:
‘Inspired by a true story that was based on a lie, Apple Cider Vinegar stars Kaitlyn Dever as Belle Gibson, an Australian wellness influencer who claims to have cured her terminal brain cancer through health and wellness. Sounds unlikely?
‘That’s because it is. As it turns out, Belle has never actually been diagnosed with – or cured of – the malignant brain tumor that she shares with the world through social media, the mobile app she develops, and its companion cookbook.’
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The synospis for the series is as follows: ‘Set at the birth of Instagram, Apple Cider Vinegar follows two young women who set out to cure their life-threatening illnesses through health and wellness, influencing their global online communities along the way. All of which would be incredibly inspiring if it were all true.
‘This is a true-ish story based on a lie, about the rise and fall of a wellness empire; the culture that built it up and the people who tore it down.’
Watch the Apple Cider Vinegar teaser trailer
Apple Cider Vinegar: creator
As per Tudum, the show was ‘created by award-winning Australian writer Samantha Strauss (Nine Perfect Strangers, The End, Dance Academy), who was living in Melbourne during the peak of the real-life Gibson’s success.
‘The six-episode limited series serves as a cultural interrogation of the times, exploring the birth of Instagram; the allure and rise of wellness culture; peak girl boss start-up culture; and the age of innocence on social media with very few checks and balances in place.’
Apple Cider Vinegar: cast and crew
- Director: Jeffrey Walker (The Clearing, The Artful Dodger, Modern Family)
- Creator: Samantha Strauss
- Writer: Samantha Strauss (The End, Nine Perfect Strangers, Dance Academy), with Anya Beyersdorf (The Twelve, Fake) and Angela Betzien (Total Control)
- Inspired by: ‘The Woman Who Fooled the World’ by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano
- Executive Producers: See-Saw Films’ Liz Watts, Helen Gregory, Emile Sherman and Iain Canning; Picking Scabs’ Samantha Strauss and Louise Gough; and Kaitlyn Dever
- Producer: Yvonne Collins
- Co-Producers: See-Saw Films’ Libby Sharpe
- Co-Executive Producers: Jeffrey Walker; See-Saw Films’ Simon Gillis
- Previously Announced Cast: Kaitlyn Dever (Dopesick, Unbelievable), Alycia Debnam-Carey (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Fear the Walking Dead) Aisha Dee (The Bold Type, Safe Home), Tilda Cobham-Hervey (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, I Am Woman), Ashley Zukerman (Succession), Mark Coles Smith (Mystery Road: Origin)
- Newly Announced Cast: Susie Porter (Irreverent, Wentworth), Matt Nable (Transfusion, Last King of the Cross), Phoenix Raei (The Night Agent), Chai Hansen (Night Sky, The New Legends of Monkey), Rick Davies (Offspring), Kieran Darcy-Smith (Mr Inbetween), Catherine McClements (Total Control) and Essie Davis (One Day, The Babadook)
Apple Cider Vinegar was shot on-location in Melbourne, Australia with support from VicScreen through their Victorian Production Fund and will premiere globally on Netflix in 2025. Post Production took place in NSW with support through Screen NSW and their PDV Fund.
Also on ScreenHub:
Territory, Netflix review: a soapy Shakespearean outback saga
‘How Aussie is the new Netflix series Territory? Sure, it’s set on a Northern Territory cattle farm bigger than Belgium; that’s pretty Aussie.
‘The series opens with a lot of sweeping shots of the landscape that could have come from a tourism commercial while we’re told that everything up north will try to kill you but people stick around for the ‘beauty’. Sounds Aussie enough. Then in the first ten minutes, someone gets torn apart and eaten alive by dingoes. Australia!
‘Across six one-hour episodes of prime export beef, Territory uses the settling of a modern-day industrial farming operation to play out the kind of story that used to be the territory (as it were) of trashy 80s mini-series, only today they’d rather you compared it to shows like Succession and Yellowstone.’
