The ABC has unveiled more details of upcoming period comedy Gold Diggers, with the broadcaster to work with CBS Studios and Kojo Studio/Stampede Ventures partnership The Alliance on the production.
Briefly announced at last week’s upfronts, the eight-part series is set to take audiences back to Australia in the 1850s, where thousands of men from around the world flocked to the goldfields to hit the jackpot.
It is within this environment that two sisters seek their own prosperity: newly-rich idiots.
Gert, a heavy-drinking sociopath, and Marigold, her virginal, naïve sister, are willing to do anything —or anyone — to get their fortune; but first they must suffer the lads, lice, and lechery of the Australian goldfields.
Gold Diggers is created by Jack Yabsley, who wrote the scripts alongside Erica Harrison, Shontell Ketchell, Alex Lee, Sara Khan, Wendy Mocke and Amy Stewart.
Helena Brooks is set-up director, with Muffy Potter serving as series producer, Trudi-Ann Tierney as script producer, and Kate Butler as co-producer.
Executive producers are Linda Ujuk, JP Sarni, Greg Silverman, and Dale Roberts. Production is expected to take place in Victoria during the first half of next year.
No casting information is available as yet.
ABC head of comedy Todd Abbott said the series would pull no punches.
“If Broad City met Deadwood on a drunken night in a gold mining theme park, it might almost resemble the action-packed, female-first, raucous retelling of history that Gold Diggers promises,” he said.
In a statement, Sarni and Ujuk said “the world is about to become completely obsessed with the scrappy Brewer sisters and their outrageous adventures”.
“We’re overjoyed to have the opportunity to share the comedic brilliance of Jack Yabsley and his fabulous co-writing team in this irreverent anti-patriarchy comedy packed with laughs, cheek and anarchy,” they said.
CBS Studios vice president of international co-productions and development Lindsey Martin agreed, noting that the project allowed the company to “support diverse talent in front of and behind the camera while helping to tell entertaining stories that authentically reflect the world around us”.
Gold Diggers will debut on ABC and ABC iview in 2023.