The Australian sequence “Firebite” places a brand new spin on an age-old bloody vampire story.
For starters, it’s from the viewpoint of Indigenous most important characters — and it’s bought an uncommon setting of an underground city.
“As lots of people of my era do later of their grownup life, you begin leaning increasingly more about our colonial previous in Australia,” sequence star Rob Collins, 42, informed The Put up.
“One story that caught with [creator Warwick Thornton] was discovering out that there have been vials of smallpox on the primary ships that arrived in Australia again in 1788, and that began him pondering, ‘What if the vials had been really vampires?’
“It was a cool idea to have the ability to have a look at Australian historical past by way of this fantastical style lens. It’s not simply studying a textbook. It’s participating, it has motion, it has all the things you’d count on from a style present however kind of subversively laying in some highly effective messages about what it means to be an Indigenous particular person in Australia, and having a critical have a look at issues around colonization.”
Now streaming on AMC+, the present follows Indigenous vampire hunter Tyson Walker (Collins), and his adopted daughter Shanika (Shantae Barnes Cowan) as they shield their group from blood-sucking fiends.
“I’ve performed style TV sequence earlier than,” stated Collins, who has a Tiwi Islands background and has additionally appeared in different Australian reveals corresponding to “Glitch” and “The Incorrect Lady.”
“But it surely’s been some years, and positively nothing to do with vampires. So it was a extremely totally different mission for me. On the coronary heart of it, it’s an actual cool story between this father determine and this younger lady. Having youngsters myself, it was one thing I may simply relate to. Tyson is reckless, he’s the sort of character that – to make use of a preferred phrase repeated typically by my mother-in-law – ‘snatches defeat from the mouth of victory.’ He’s his personal worst enemy. However within the midst of all that, he’s an actual sweetheart, and actually making an attempt to do the appropriate factor by this younger lady in his life.”
The present’s uncommon setting of Coober Pedy is a city largely made up of underground caverns (so that individuals can keep away from the unforgivable desert warmth). That sounds just like the stuff of fiction that’s a handy place to set a vampire story, but it surely’s an actual place in Australia, and “Firebite” was filmed on location.
“Whereas it was superb, it was a reasonably making an attempt location to be in,” stated Collins. “Coober Pedy is that this stark opal mining city, and we had been working underground. The circumstances had been very dusty, very sunny and scorching on the floor. It was my first journey there. It’s a really specific sort of city, with specific individuals in it. The one sport on the town is opal mining, actually, and that draws all kinds of colourful characters. I actually love the time that I spent there.”
