Following its celebrated premiere at Content London last November, presented by distributor All3Media, the gripping six-part mystery-drama series Black Snow will launch on Sundance Now in the US this February 2023.

The series by Goalpost Pictures (The Invisible Man, The Sapphires, I Am Woman, Top End Wedding) was one of five productions selected to launch at the prestigious UK market.

Black Snow dropped on Australian streamer Stan on January 1, rapidly achieving top-ranking status with its local audience.

Supported by Screen Queensland, the popular series filmed in the Whitsunday region of northern Queensland. The pristine tropical location of Proserpine and its surrounds provided the sweeping, golden cane fields and rustic sugar mill, as well as access to the majestic coastline — key elements to the fictional town of Ashford.

Vikings’ Travis Fimmel stars as cold-case detective James Cormack. In 1994, seventeen-year-old Isabel Baker was murdered in a small sugarcane town in North Queensland. The case was never solved; the killer was never found. But the opening of a time capsule in 2019 unearths a secret that puts Cormack on the trail of the killer.

“… As far as the eye can see, there is nothing but cane fields…It was a little bit like shooting in the desert in that it is so uncluttered — it’s one particular and singular landscape.

And it’s interesting to shoot in those environments because it brings the story to the fore. You get a sense that there’s vast tracts of land where you can travel for several kilometres and not see another soul…and these are the places where mysteries can occur.”

Matthew Saville, Director

The location was also chosen for its authenticity to the story, centred on the history of Australian South Sea Islander community. Cultural consultation and training, facilitated by producer Kaylene Butler and cultural consultant Marion Healy, was deeply and consistently integrated into the creative process. This both ensured that culturally appropriate voices were embedded into the storytelling and guarded the cultural safety of the cast and crew.

 “It was just so important for the show to have that, to really be grounded in that country and that culture, and it gives it this incredible authenticity.”

Lois Randall, Producer

“I would love the audience to get to know our Australian South Sea Islander people and to also walk in our shoes for a day. It would make me very happy for people to have more understanding of who we are and where we come from and also that we can all live here in Australia in unity, knowing our history.”

Kaylene Butler, Producer

Black Snow is created by Queenslander Lucas Taylor (Limbo, Harrow), writing alongside fellow Queenslanders Boyd Quakawoot (Black Comedy) and Beatrix Christian (Jindabyne). Directed by Sian Davies (Stan Original Series The Gloaming) and Matthew Saville (Please Like Me), and shot by Queensland Director of Photography Murray Lui (Top End Wedding). The series is produced by Goalpost Pictures’ Rosemary Blight alongside Lois Randall and Queenslander Kaylene Butler (Alick & Albert, The Reef: Stalked, Incarceration Nation).

For more information on Queensland locations, facilities and incentives, contact:

Screen Queensland
+61 7 3248 0500
[email protected]