Spy: Netflix turns Mission Bay into a sweet post-apocalyptic world

Christian Convery. Photo / Instagram

Have you spotted any animal/human hybrids in Auckland's eastern suburbs this week?

The latest Netflix series shooting in New Zealand closed down Atkin Ave, Mission Bay, over the past few days.

Sweet Tooth, which has Hollywood megastar Robert Downey jnr as an executive director, is a series about Gus, a half-human, half-deer boy surviving in a post-apocalyptic world with other hybrids.

What better place to film it than Godzone? It's not just our picturesque filming locations that attracted producers. It is part one of a TV series and movie franchise going gangbusters after crews were allowed into New Zealand to film while our borders remain shut.

Production has been seen all over the country, filming the adventures of Gus (played by Christian Convery), who leaves his home in the forest to find the outside world ravaged by a cataclysmic event. He joins a ragtag family of humans and animal-children - hybrids like him - in search of answers about this new world and the mystery behind his hybrid origins.

Ten-year-old Convery has already had a stellar career, having starred in Tiger Rising opposite Dennis Quaid, and alongside John Cena in Playing with Fire, for which Convery won a Young Artist of the Year Academy Award last month. His Instagram has seen the young actor and his mother in myriad scenic locations, including Queenstown, Milford Sound, Waipū, Hūnua Falls and spots around greater Auckland.

So how does Atkin Ave fit into the storyline?

Sweet Tooth's TV filming was scheduled over the past week, with parking restrictions and stop/go traffic management from 6:30am to 9:30pm on Atkin Ave and Marau Crescent.

Filming is understood to have been around a classic white two-storey weatherboard house with a white picket fence that sits adjacent to a reserve. One local swears the house had turned green since filming began.

Others starring in the series include South African actor Neil Sandilands of The Flash fame, who is also appearing alongside Tom Hanks in the upcoming feature News of the World.

Amongst the international talent is our own Stefania LaVie Owen, best known for her role in The Carrie Diaries. Filming is expected to continue for about a week.