The NSW Government has helped secure the making of Underbelly III in Sydney generating over $12 million in film industry work and creating 170 jobs.
The third instalment of the highly-successful Underbelly series will start pre-production in late June with filming scheduled from August to December.
Premier Nathan Rees said this announcement confirms Sydney as a world class centre for film and television production.
The NSW Government has helped secure the making of Underbelly III for Sydney with an incentive from our Film and Television Industry Attraction Fund, Mr Rees said.
Underbelly III will be filmed and set in Sydney focusing on the circumstances around the Wood Royal Commission.
It will create 170 jobs in production and post-production, helping contribute to NSW's creative industries sector.
The news comes just three months after the Government announced the new TV series Rescue would be filmed in NSW bringing an estimated $10.8 million into the economy and employing 329 people.
Underbelly III will involve the production of 13 one-hour episodes and is expected to hit television screens in 2010.
The second series, Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities, was also made in Sydney. It premiered in February to 2.5 million viewers, and was billed as the highest rating drama program in the history of Australian television.
The first series focused on Melbourne's gangland war which raged from 1995 to 2004.
The latest instalment, Underbelly III, will link the first and second series focussing on police corruption and the Wood Royal Commission.
Des Monaghan of Screentime, Executive Producer of Underbelly, said the support of the NSW Government was critical in ensuring that we could produce Underbelly III in Sydney.
"We always wanted to make the series in this city and we very much appreciate the Governments efforts to make that possible", he said.
Last month Premier Rees announced that NSW had secured the post production for Peter Weir's latest film, The Way Back, starring Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris and Colin Farrell, employing 100 post production specialists.
In April, Mr Rees said that the big-budget Hollywood film Green Lantern would be filmed in Sydneys Fox Studios, with 500 jobs across the creative sector.