Pyros follows a young, impressionable boy who must navigate treacherous ringleaders during a fiery crime spree while evading the police unit sent to bring them all to justice.
IN PRODUCTION
Pyros is an emotionally-charged drama short with thrilling action, cinéma-vérité and relevant themes addressing the impact of youth crime upon Australian rural communities. Inspired from true crimes and Rodwell's first-hand experiences documenting first responders witnessing the good, the bad and the ugly on the emergency frontlines.
Designed for the big and small screen, Pyros aims to captivate global audiences across broadcasters, film festivals, streamers and exhibition with impactful storytelling and high-end production values targeting 2026 release dates.
Pyros serves as a cohesive proof-of-concept to generate marketplace interest for a larger body of work in development which expands upon the story, characters and themes in-depth.
Pyros is filming in Orange NSW throughout 2024/25. The production is collaborating with local arts, business, council and tourism sectors to bring this exciting story to life regionally and discover the wealth of untapped talent to appear on screen and/or behind-the-scenes.
FUNDING
In November 2023, Pyros was awarded the Regional Arts Fund (RAF) Project Grants 2023-24 in major production funding from Regional Arts NSW. RAF funds high-quality arts projects, multiple art forms or cross-disciplinary practice benefitting regional or remote artists, arts workers, audiences and communities.
In September 2023, Pyros became a recipient of 2023-24 MATCH Lab program facilitated by Creative Australia and Australian Cultural Fund, a dollar-for-dollar match funding program up to $10,000 for independent artists and groups undertaking fundraising campaigns to develop and produce new works. The campaign for Pyros was a success which raised a total of $31,400 towards production funding generously supported by Orange Regional Arts Foundation, Orange Film Society and various private donors.
Across 2022, the development phase of Pyros was supported by Create NSW and Arts OutWest through the Country Arts Support Program. In addition, Pyros was awarded a Quick Response Grant from Regional Arts NSW supporting continuous development on script drafts and concept art visualising the story, characters and world-building.