The film is loosely inspired by the real life Pettingill family and by the Walsh Street police shootings that occurred in Melbourne in 1988 . Director David Michôd was interested in the underworld in Melbourne and wrote a script titled '' J' ' in December 2000 . Working at Screen NSW Script Development , fellow producer Liz Watts saw potential in the script . Watts said , " It needed more characterization and structure , which he kind of agreed with . It was important to me that he recognize that there was still work to be done on it . " Michôd then did a number of draft scripts gaining feedback from many different people in the film industry . Liz Watts then became a producer on the film with a budget of A$ 5 million from Screen Australia , Film Victoria , Screen NSW and Showtime Australia . The final version of '' Animal Kingdom '' did not contain any of the dialogue featured in Michôd 's script for '' J' '
Walsh Street police shootings
Walsh Street police shootings
Animal Kingdom (film)