Animal Kingdom is an Australian crime thriller, released in 2010, written and directed by David Michaud. Movie stars Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce and Jackie Weaver. Motive of this crime thriller is about a family of malicious criminal Melbourne was inspired by the Pettingill family and the murder of police officers on Welch Street, which happened in Melbourne in 1988. The film was received good feedback from the critics and won a prize at Sundance in 2010. Animal Kingdom is directed by David Michaud, who interested in Melbourne's underworld. He wrote the screenplay under the name J. Working for the Screen NSW Script Development. His friend, producer Liz Watts, saw the potential in the script, pushed the director to rewrite the script several times and eventually produced this movie with a budget of AUD 5,000,000. The film was shot in Victoria, mostly in Melbourne. The scene with the funeral was filmed outside the Church of the Mother of the Lord in the East Ivanho.