Australia’s Flying Bark Productions has unveiled Doomsweepers, a new original 2D animated project created and directed by Sarah Harper, whose credits include Monkie Kid, Glitch Techs, and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Described as an action “zom-com,” the project is being developed in partnership with franchise development studio Lightfold and Final Space creator Olan Rogers, who is attached as an executive producer. Flying Bark says the project’s candy-colored art direction will distinguish it from the darker visual conventions commonly associated with dystopian and apocalyptic stories.
Doomsweepers takes place inside a mysterious research facility, where a team of misfit janitors suddenly finds itself responsible for saving the world. As the group confronts the unfolding crisis, its members begin to uncover the facility’s deepest, darkest secret.
According to Harper:
Doomsweepers follows a cute team of latex-clad cogs in a machine, knuckling down and doing their best no matter what gets thrown at them. The story is a post-pandemic side-eye at big tech, but at its heart, it’s about having each other’s backs, sticking together, and celebrating the folks who continue to show up and do the thing. Even when the thing is scary and the world around you is falling into chaos.
No specific format or release window has been announced for the franchise’s debut, but the companies say they hope to develop Doomsweepers into a larger multimedia property spanning animation, games, and comics.
For Flying Bark, Doomsweepers marks its first original direct-to-fan digital production. The Australian studio’s recent credits include Netflix’s upcoming Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, Paramount’s Aang: The Last Airbender, and the original series Shaun Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia for ABC and BYUtv.
