AMC Studios Sets Australian Vampire Fantasy Series ‘Firebite’ From See-Saw Films

AMC Studios has greenlit AMC+ original Firebite, an Australian vampire fantasy series from See-Saw Films, the UK and Aussie producer behind AMC’s Top Of The Lake.

Created, written, and directed by Australia’s Indigenous auteur Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah) and Brendan Fletcher (Mad Bastards), Firebite is billed as a high-octane series that follows two Indigenous Australian hunters, Tyson and Shanika, on their quest to battle the last colony of vampires in the south Australian desert.

The eight-part drama is set in a remote desert mining town, a hive for the last vampire stronghold shipped from Britain to Australia in 1788 by the colonial superpower to eradicate the Indigenous populations.

Sheltering from the sun in the underground mines and tunnels that surround the town until the present day, the colony’s numbers and hunger is growing. War is coming. Tyson and Shanika stand vanguard to the war.

But what hope does an expertly reckless man full of bravado and a 17-year-old orphan possibly have to defeat these vicious blood-thirsty parasites, when legions of warriors before them have failed?

Firebite will be filmed at the traditional Country of the Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara people of the Western Desert and Kaurna People of the Adelaide Plains in and around Adelaide, the regional town of Coober Pedy, and at the Adelaide Studios in South Australia.

Executive Producers for See-Saw Films are Rachel Gardner, Emile Sherman, and Iain Canning, alongside Thornton and Fletcher. See-Saw’s Simon Gillis serves as co-executive producer. Paul Ranford (Stateless) will produce the series alongside Indigenous filmmaker Dena Curtis (Elements), who is co-producing. The writing team includes Kodie Bedford and newcomers Devi Telfer and Josh Sambono.

Firebite is the first TV series Thornton and Fletcher have created. Commenting on the project, the duo said: “We are really proud of the worthy and important stories we’ve brought to the screen over the last twenty years. Now it’s time for some rock and roll.”

Warwick and Brendan are repped by UTA and by attorney Darren Tratter.