ABC doomsday comedy Preppers has started filming in Sydney, with the six-part series set to air later this year.
Directed by Steven McGregor, Preppers follows Charlie (Nakkiah Lui), a young Aboriginal woman whose world crumbles around her after experiencing a personal, cataclysmic event.
Escaping the fallout, Charlie finds herself at the centre of a hilariously mismatched community of doomsday preppers.
Written by Lui and Gabriel Dowrick, the cast includes Ursula Yovich, Chum Ehelepola , Meyne Wyatt, Aaron McGrath, Eryn Jean Norvill, Jack Charles, Grant Denyer, Christine Anu, Miranda Tapsell, Brooke Satchwell, Luke Carroll and singer Kate Miller-Heidke.
Preppers is a Porchlight Films production, in association with Spirit Pictures. Sylvia Warmer produces, with Liz Watts executive producing alongside Margaret Ross from the ABC.
Backers include Screen Australia’s First Nations Department, while there has also been a major production investment from the ABC, in association with Screen NSW.
Lui and Dowrick, a wife and husband team, said they were looking forward to seeing their story take shape.
“It’s very exciting for us to see the comedic world we’ve created come to life with such a great cast and crew,” they said.
“And we are also particularly pleased that Preppers is being made (and will hopefully be seen) before the eventual apocalyptic event(s) that wipe out humanity…”
Watts and Sylvia Warmer said it was difficult to imagine a “more blackly comic and pertinent series” for the time.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering again with Nakkiah Lui, as well as Gabe Dowrick, on Preppers, along with a brilliant cast and crew,” they said.
“Preppers will be smart, relatable, and very, very funny.
“It also might make you shed a tear.”