APOTCALYPSE
I’m a big fan of stoner comedies but watching back over the classics of the genre, they’re mostly told through a male lens.
As shows like Broad City and High Maintenance have demonstrated, stoner culture isn’t an exclusively male domain.
It’s HIGH time for a female-led stoner comedy.
Enter APOTCALYPSE.
Apotcalypse logline:
Her dad's carked it and his missus is a gold-digging psycho. What's a sheila to do? Fang it across the Aussie outback thru a zombie apocalypse, all while ripped to the tits... of course!
SYNOPSIS
If there’s one thing Danni Smith learned when she was growing up it’s that you can only rely on yourself.
Her alco Dad has been peddling this principle for as long as she can remember. And it’s a dictum she’s taken to heart. Her Mum died when she was little. Her sister took off when she was a teenager. And she had a falling out with her one-time mate Kylie. Life has done a great job of reinforcing the message.
Now in her 30s, Danni is fully indoctrinated. She’s cynical and jaded. But she’s got a cracker of a way to cope: getting blazed.
Working at the family hotel in Victoria, the Cock and Bull pub – aka, the Cock and Balls – she doesn’t need anyone. Except maybe her pot dealer. That is until her Dad succumbs to a mystery illness and carks it. His gold-digging miso, Maureen, lays claim to the pub.
According to Murray’s last will and testament, bodgily tattooed on his bum cheek, the pub belongs to Danni and her sister Zoe. But Maureen thinks otherwise. Problem is, Danni can’t seem to get Zoe on the blower.
That’s because a pandemic is sweeping across Australia knocking out shitloads of the population. The phone lines are down. The internet is glitching. Even the bloody pubs are closing!
Determined to find Zoe and save the Cock and Balls from mad-as-a-cut-snake Maureen, Danni heads off on a mission 15-hour’s drive north to Nimbin, the pot-smoking capital of Australia and Zoe’s last known location. But when her car won’t start, she’s forced to hitch a ride with her former bestie Kylie. Given the pair haven’t spoken for 15 years, this is gonna be awkward.
On the road, it’s fun and games until victims of the pandemic start to rise from the dead. Turns out the virus that took out Murray is a fast train to zombie town, population too bloody many to count.
To get what she wants, Danni will have to battle the undead as well as her crippling fears of abandonment and mend some seriously broken relationships along the way.
The audience
From our 30-something protagonist and her one-time best mate to the Grey Nomads, Ron and Colleen, Apotcalypse has a little something for everybody.
At its core, though, the audience is the much-loved TV demographic of 25 to 54s. All the better if they have a penchant for the devil’s lettuce.
COMPS
It’s Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion meets Shaun of the Dead with stoner influencers of Cheech & Chong and This is the End; following in the footsteps of great female-led Aussie comedies Muriel’s Wedding and Kath & Kim.
The vibe of the thing
Danni’s road trip from Boronia on the outskirts of Melbourne to the pot-smoking capital of Australia, Nimbin, in Northern NSW, relies heavily on the backdrop of regional Australia.
Tapping into the unique atmosphere of Aussie towns and the almost tribal cultures of these communities – bogans, surfies, suburban misfits and pub culture – Apotcalypse runs the full gamut of this wide brown land.
Set in the present day, yet inspired by nostalgic Australiana at its finest, the vibe of Apotcalypse is best summed up by cracking a tinny down the local. Stubbies and moccasins optional.
About the writer
Brooke Hemphill is a writer based on the Central Coast of NSW, Australia.
In 2023, she was the first ever Australian writer to attend The Writers Lab NYC where she workshopped Apotcalypse.
Brooke has a post-grad in screenwriting from the Australian Film Television and Radio School and a Bachelor of Visual and Performing Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts.
A published author – her book Lesbian for a Year ‘came out’ in 2014 – and former journalist, her work has appeared in publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, Women’s Health and Marie Claire.
Visit her website here.
Find out more
Seven years in the making, Apotcalypse has been through a 12-month development program with thanks to the incredible team at Script Compass. In November 2023, the project travelled to New York for further development at the Writers Lab.
If this has piqued your interest, please get in touch so you can have a read.