EXCLUSIVE: Apple TV is heading Down Under for a bit of tropic noir.
Hot off the launch of its first Australian original, the streamer has acquired hit Aussie series Dustfall starring The Last of Us’ Anna Torv for its next big international acquisition.
Described as a “propulsive, atmospheric tropic noir,” Soapbox Pictures and Moonriver’s Dustfall follows seasoned detective, Antigone “Tig” Pollard (Torv), whose deep sense of justice is challenged by a world where victims are doubted, predators hide in plain sight, and the legal system too often falls short. Tig is called in to investigate a harrowing sexual assault case, which spirals darker after a key suspect turns up dead.
Torv leads the cast of the Dianne Taylor-penned series alongside the likes of Juliet Stevenson, Peter Fenton and Bert LaBonté.
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Apple has taken worldwide rights to the show bar Australia, where it airs on the ABC and will launch in three days’ time. The streamer will have to wait a while to get Dustfall in the UK and Germany, where it will soon launch on the BBC and ZDF, becoming available on those netwoks for a year. Federation Studios is the seller.
Dustfall will sit alongside Last Seen, Apple’s first Australian original, which stars Colin From Accounts’ Patrick Brammall as an emergency dispatcher looking for his daughter. The deal represents Apple’s latest dip into the well of international acquisitions, with the streamer appearing keener nowadays to populate its service with more than just originals. Earlier this year, we revealed Apple had bought Small Prophets, the hit British series from Mackenzie Crook about an eccentric man who creates homunculi to try and find the woman who disappeared from his life.
Dustfall is based on award-winning novel The Unbelieved by Vikki Petraitis. It is directed by Emma Freeman (The Newsreader) and adapted for TV by BAFTA-nominee Taylor, Stuart Page, Belinda Chayko and Beatrix Christian. The series is exec produced by Freeman, Xavier Marchand (A Gentleman in Moscow) and Daisy Gilbert (Nautilus) for Moonriver, Deb Balderstone (Ticket to Paradise) for Soapbox Pictures and Torv, as well as Brett Sleigh and Rachel Okine, for ABC.