Nicole Chamoun will star opposite US actor Thomas Jane in ABC crime drama Troppo, with cameras now rolling in Queensland.
Produced by Beyond Entertainment and EQ Media Group in association with Jane’s production company Renegade Entertainment, the FNQ-set series is created by Yolanda Ramke and based on the novel Crimson Lake by Candice Fox.
Chamoun, best known for her roles in On The Ropes, The Gloaming, Safe Harbour and Romper Stomper, plays Amanda Pharrell, an eccentric PI with a disturbing criminal past. She begrudgingly recruits disgraced ex-cop Ted Conkaffey (Jane) to investigate the murder of a brilliant research scientist.
As they battle to uncover the truth, and the tightly held secrets of Crimson Lake, their own traumatic pasts are dragged painfully into the present – tearing them apart, as each of them faces their own fight for sanity and survival.
The supporting cast includes David Lyons, Sun Park, Simon Lyndon, Yerin Ha, Kate Beahan, Angela Punch McGregor, Thomas Weatherall, Damien Garvey, Cramer Cain, Ling Cooper Tang and Peta Wilson.
The series has already piqued international attention, with international distributor AGC Studios inking a deal with Amazon’s IMDB TV.
Jocelyn Moorhouse is the series set-up director, alongside Catherine Millar, Grant Brown, and co-directors Ramke and Ben Howling, who made Cargo together. The series producer is Karl Zwicky.
The script producer is Jane Allen, with writers Blake Ayshford, Penelope Chai, Kodie Bedford, Craig Irvin and Andrew Lee.
EQ Media Group’s Greg Quail, Lisa Duff and Simmone Overend are the executive producers, with Mikael Borglund and David Ogilvy from Beyond, Stuart Ford, Lourdes Diaz and co-EP Matt Bankston from AGC Studios, Sally Riley and Andrew Gregory from the ABC, Jane and Courtney Lauren Penn from Renegade Entertainment and Ramke.
In making the cast announcement, the producers said in joint statement: “EQ Media and Beyond Entertainment are thrilled to be working with such a talented cast and crew, bringing life to the world of Crimson Lake and the gripping journey of Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Pharrell as, together, they struggle to unravel the intertwined and dangerous secrets of the past and present amid the ever-changing shadows of tropical North Queensland.”
Troppo received major production financing from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, AGC Studios in association with Aperture Media Partners, and Screen Australia in association with Screen Queensland and with support from the City of Gold Coast.
AGC International is handling international distribution.
Troppo will premiere on ABC TV and ABC iview in 2022.