Australian actor Matt Newton is reported to have signed to play one of New Zealand's worst criminals, Terrence Clark, better known as "Mr Asia" in a prequel to the Australian TV series Underbelly.
While Channel 9 yesterday was tight-lipped about casting details and plot lines, the series will follow Sydney's underworld in the 1970s and '80s, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The Australasian crime world was dominated in the 1970s by Clark, formerly of Gisborne, known as Mr Asia when he was the ruthless head of a New Zealand drug syndicate which imported heroin into New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
A string of people died as Clark forced himself to the top of the syndicate and he was eventually jailed for ordering an associate's murder when a Thailand drug deal went wrong.
Journalist David Lomas, who followed the case for several decades, reported in The Listener that Clark's deputy, "Diamond" Jim Shepherd told him Clark had a "lust to kill" and said: "You can put all the drug problems in Australia today down to one man -- Terry Clark".
Clark died in a British prison in 1983, officially of natural causes, but speculation arose that he was secretly murdered.
The Telegraph reported actor Andrew McFarlane is tipped to play anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay, while Roy Billing is expected to step into the shoes of crime boss Robert Trimbole.
Filming for the series will begin in Sydney next week.
