"During that period David worked on another four drafts, finessing the structure and building the moral nightmare that the central character of J finds himself trapped within. I just loved the richness of the characters and the fact that they felt both strong and real."
On a simplistic level, Animal Kingdom follows the misadventures of J, a seventeen year-old boy, who following the death of his mother, a heroin addict, goes to live with the Cody family - his deceptively sunny grandmother, Smurf, and her hardened criminal sons, Pope, Craig and Darren.
But it's not long before J finds himself caught between family loyalties, and the police, who want him to testify against his uncles in a murder case involving two slain members of the force.
"J is essentially our tour guide," explained Michôd. "I wanted the story to be about a particular epoch during which the criminals realise that their illegal pursuits are shifting in terms of their lucrativeness, which precipitates a crisis. They then commit this terrible crime and their world collapses.
"Relating these events via J was the perfect way in which to navigate their world, as I never wanted Animal Kingdom to feel as though it was a movie solely about a kid, but someone out of place in a world that is maybe going to really harm them."
Guy Pearce (who plays Leckie) elaborates, "this film has a very particular style to it - it's about the potential energy rather than the kinetic, it's what's sitting there under the surface that really allows the audience to go - wow, what would this be like if I was in that situation? It's really fascinating".
From Joel Edgerton (Baz), "You are going to be as shocked as you are excited ...It really places the audience very much there in with the kid, with J, and that?s incredibly suspenseful".
Animal Kingdom is released 25th February