Vertigo Films and SquareOne Productions, the production arm of Munich-based distributor SquareOne Entertainment, have announced their latest cross-border collaboration to produce a new supernatural drama series, called Vamping.

After teaming up on the StreetDance [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] franchise, the two outfits are now working on this 8x60-minute show, developed for a young-adult audience. Set in Berlin, Vamping uses the city’s famously hedonistic, nocturnal LGBTQ+ club culture as the backdrop against which to tell the story of a vampire community fighting to find its place in the world. Described by its team as “a youthful and heady mix of Pose and The Vampire Diaries”, it follows a British drag queen, Everett, a young, black, brash, queer performer. Having celebrated a bit too hard after a triumphant performance at Berlin’s hottest drag club, Dragged Hier, he finds that he has unwittingly been turned into a vampire. Terrified, angry and unsure what has happened to him, he sets off to uncover the truth and becomes the protagonist of an impending culture war between vampire tribes.

Introduced to a whole new side of the queer world that he never knew existed, Everett is torn between his former love, life and friends, and The Untamed: a vampire community who live entirely underground, deprived of all joy and hope, and who want to get rid of humans once and for all. Bouncing between the sequins and camp frivolity of the drag scene, and the darker side of human nature and systematic marginalisation, Vamping promises to celebrate “otherness, belonging, chosen family and finding your place in a fractured world where being different is frowned upon”.

The show was created by London-born writer, director and producer Matthew Jacobs Morgan, who penned it in tandem with German-born multi-disciplinary artist and screenwriter Sophie-Yukiko Hasters.

Speaking about the project, Al Munteanu, from SquareOne Productions, said: “Vamping is a supernatural drama about drag-queen vampires. This already tells you all you need to know. It is with these words that Matthew Jacobs Morgan piqued our interest years ago. We further developed the script with him and our partners at Vertigo Films, and knew immediately that we were on the right track locating the story in Berlin and pairing Matthew with the multi-talented Sophie-Yukiko Hasters in order for this tale to find its unique voice. This is a show that celebrates otherness. When joining forces again after the StreetDance franchise, Allan Niblo [of Vertigo Films] and I were certain that, together, we knew our way around the brash, bright and in-your-face elements!”

Jacobs Morgan added: “I’m so excited to be writing a show set in one of my favourite cities, and through a genre lens that I have always been obsessed with. We’re blurring the lines between queerness and vampirism in a way that explores otherness, belonging and community, whilst also bringing a noisy, queer joy to the forefront with a brilliant army of creatives by my side.”

Vamping is being executive-produced by Allan Niblo for Vertigo Films (UK) and Al Munteanu from SquareOne Productions (Germany). The production will be shot in English and German, and will draw on talent from minority and under-represented communities both in front of and behind the camera, with casting taking place in the coming months.