New York, NY – August 10, 2022 – AMC Networks’ streaming platform Sundance Now today announced the commission of two new series, Totally Completely Fine and Sanctuary. These commissions finalize on the heels of recent announcements for upcoming series Clean Sweep, The Lovers, SisterS, Black Snow, and Far North – promising a robust 2023 for the network.
Inspired by true events, six-part dark comedy Totally Completely Fine stars Thomasin McKenzie (JoJo Rabbit, Last Night in Soho) and explores the complexities of grief, the power of friendship, and the ways our sadness can unite us. The series follows 20-something Vivian Cunningham (McKenzie), whose life is a mess. Last week she accidentally burnt down her brother’s vegan food truck with a bacon-flavored vape and this week she’s inherited her grandfather’s coastal clifftop shack and is tasked with helping people who come too close to the edge. Strangely enough, they’ve responded to her chaotic, nihilistic brand of psychology. Maybe, just maybe, in saving these people, she’ll slowly start to save herself?
Alongside McKenzie, Totally Completely Fine stars Devon Terrell (Rap Sh!t, Cursed), Brandon McLelland (ANZAC Girls, The Other Guy), Rowan Witt (Book of Mormon – Original Australian Cast, Spreadsheet), Contessa Treffone (Doctor Doctor, Here Out West), James Sweeny (Total Control, Home and Away), Max Crean (Mystic) and Brigid Zengeni (The Good Liar, MotherFatherSon).
Totally Completely Fine is a Sundance Now Original series and co-production between Sundance Now and Stan, produced by Fremantle Australia. The series is created and executive produced by Gretel Vella (The Great, A Sunburnt Christmas), who writes alongside Keir Wilkins and Emme Hoy. The series is produced by Alice Willison, with Nat Lindwall as executive producer. The series is directed by Lucy Gaffy (Here Out West, Doctor, Doctor), with Adrian Chiarella directing episode four.
Sanctuary is a fantasy mystery series based on the novel by V.V. James and set in a small fictional UK town, Sanctuary. When the local golden boy dies in an unexplained accident, accusations of murder start flying. Sanctuary’s resident witch and her daughter are quickly embroiled in a modern-day witch-hunt, as the once close community of Sanctuary unravels in a storm of paranoia and suspicion, with horrifying consequences.
The Sanctuary cast is led by Elaine Cassidy (A Discovery of Witches) as Sarah Fenn, Hazel Doupe (Smother, Into the Badlands) as Harper Fenn, Stephanie Levi-John (The Spanish Princess) as DCI Maggie Knight and Amy De Bhrún (Line of Duty, Vikings) as Abigail Whithall. Debra Hayward, Alison Owen, Alison Carpenter, Karen Richards, Debbie Horsfield, V.V. James and Guymon Casady serve as executive producers. Debbie Horsfield leads series writing alongside Jess Ruston and Gabbie Asher and directors include Lisa Mulcahy and Justin Molotnikov. Sanctuary is an AMC Studios production in partnership with Monumental Television.
And as recently announced, the upcoming 2023 slate will be rounded out by:
- Clean Sweep: Created by Gary Tieche (Preacher, Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer) and inspired by true events, this Irish thriller follows Shelly Mohan (Charlene McKenna, Bloodlands, Peaky Blinders), a housewife, mother of three, married to a Garda detective, who kills her former partner in crime when he threatens to expose her dark past. With her unsuspecting husband hunting for the killer, Shelly must cope with pressures of the tightening noose as well as continue caring for an ailing son, her unfaithful husband, and all usual burdens of motherhood. (U.S. Only)
- The Lovers: A darkly comic romantic drama about Janet (Roisin Gallagher, The Fall, The Dry), a foul-mouthed, hilarious, Belfast supermarket worker who couldn’t give a shit about anything much at all, including her life and Seamus (Johnny Flynn, Beast, Emma), a handsome, self-centered, political broadcaster with what looks to be a perfect London life and a celebrity girlfriend. So, when Seamus unexpectedly drops into Janet’s world (literally over the wall and into her backyard) they instantly clash—and yet also find themselves inextricably drawn to each other. The series also stars Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League, Entourage) and Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones, Suits).
- SisterS: An IFC and Sundance Now Original dramedy created by, written by, and starring Emmy Award-nominee Sarah Goldberg (Barry) and Susan Stanley (Hotel Amenities). The series centers on two women, born continents apart, in Canada and in Ireland, who discover they are half-sisters and embark on a road trip to find their alcoholic father. Real-life best friends Goldberg and Stanley make their writing debuts and star. Emmy Award-nominee Declan Lowney (Ted Lasso, Alan Partridge) is establishing director and is set to direct the first three episodes of the six-part series. (U.S. Only)
- Black Snow: Deeply rooted in its North Queensland setting, Black Snow is a coming-of-age drama with the gripping mystery of a classic whodunnit. In 1995, seventeen-year-old Isabel Baker was murdered. The crime shocked the small town of Ashford and devastated Isabel’s Australian South Sea Islander community. The case was never solved, the killer never found. But in 2020, the opening of a time capsule unearths a secret that puts cold-case Detective James Cormack (Travis Fimmel, Vikings, That Dirty Black Bag) on the trail of the killer.
- Far North: The extraordinary true story of how an everyday couple from the Ahipara community foiled an international crime ring’s largest ever deal in the Pacific. Acting legend Temuera Morrison (Star Wars, The Book of Bobba Fett, Once Were Warriors) and international multi-award-winning actress Robyn Malcolm (Top of the Lake, The Outpost) will play Far North-based couple Ed and Heather, who unwittingly become involved in one of the largest international drug deliveries to ever hit the shores of New Zealand.
All series will stream exclusively on Sundance Now and AMC+ in the U.S. and Canada in 2023, except Clean Sweep and SisterS which are U.S. only.
About Sundance Now
AMC Networks’ Sundance Now offers cross-genre escapism for insightful viewers seeking fresh perspectives, thought-provoking experiences and transportive journeys to far-off places. With a rich selection of engrossing dramas and romance, imaginative fantasy, gripping mysteries, to riveting true crime and intelligent thrillers, Sundance Now programming features empowered characters telling one-of-a-kind of stories from around the world – all streaming commercial-free. Sundance Now houses critically-acclaimed and award-winning original and streaming exclusive series including popular supernatural thriller A Discovery of Witches (Matthew Goode, Teresa Palmer), highly anticipated UK adaptation of the French hit Call My Agent!, Ten Percent, (Jack Davenport, Jim Broadbent), multi-Emmy winner State of the Union (Rosamund Pike, Chris O’Dowd; Patricia Clarkson, Brendan Gleeson), glamourous coastal drama Riviera (Julia Stiles), incomparably clever comedy Back (David Mitchell, Robert Webb), British true crime thriller Des (David Tennant), hit mystery The Drowning (Jill Halfpenny), French spy drama The Bureau, Australian psychological thriller The Secrets She Keeps (Laura Carmichael), acclaimed Swedish drama The Restaurant, British thriller The Cry (Jenna Coleman), Liar (Joanne Froggatt, Ioan Gruffudd), Motherland (Anna Maxwell Martin, Lucy Punch, Joanna Lumley), and Total Control (Rachel Griffiths, Deborah Mailman), to name a few; alongside riveting true crime series including The Night Caller, Secrets of a Psychopath, The Suspect, The Dakota Entrapment Tapes, The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park, No One Saw a Thing and Killing for Love featuring the Amanda Knox podcast.
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