E4 & Netflix order The End Of The F***ing World
- Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden are starring in a new dark comedy for E4 and Netflix
- The End Of The F***ing World is about a pair of teenagers, James and Alyssa, on a road trip to find her father
- However, James believes himself to be a psychopath and the pair's trip is beset by menacing and dark events
E4 and Netflix have ordered a new comedy drama, filming on which begins today.
Actors Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden star in The End Of The F***ing World, aka TEOTFW, written by Charlie Covell and based on the comic graphic novel of Charles Forsman, first published in 2013.
Producers Clerkenwell Films and Dominic Buchanan Productions tease that the 8-part series will: "invite viewers into the dark and confusing lives of teen outsiders James and Alyssa as they embark on a road trip to find Alyssa's father, who left home when she was a child."
The series is described as "dark, intriguing, tense and chilling, and shot through with moments of dark absurdity and humour".
E4 explain: "James, 17, is pretty sure he's a psychopath - emotionally detached, cold and disdainful, he's decided he's ready to graduate from killing animals. He thinks it might be interesting to kill something bigger...a human. And he's got the perfect person in mind...
"Alyssa, also 17, is new in school - cool and moody, she's existential angst made flesh. But despite being popular at school, she still feels like she doesn't belong. Spotting James one day at school, however, she thinks she may have found a soulmate...
"When things come to a head at home between Alyssa, her mother and stepdad, she leaves and persuades James to join her in search of her real father. And so begins a journey of discovery that becomes progressively ominous as James's urge to act on his sociopathic and violent inclinations increase while Alyssa, blinded by young love, remains wilfully ignorant of the consequences that lie at the end of the road. One night, however, the pair find themselves caught up in events that lead them down an ever more menacing and surreal path."
Roberto Troni, commissioning editor at Channel 4, says: "From the instant we were introduced to the utterly original Charles Forsman graphic novel we knew it was something special. Reimagined by the multi-talented Charlie Covell, Jon Entwistle and the guys at Clerkenwell for this side of the Atlantic, it's by turns funny, brutally violent, ultimately quite uplifting in a screwed up way. If David Lynch made a rom-com road movie about a pair of teen misfits in British suburbia it might look something like The End Of The F***ing World. What could be more E4?"
Murray Ferguson, Chief Executive of Clerkenwell Films, said: "It's great to be partnering once more with both Channel 4/E4 and with Netflix on this new and ambitious project. This is a series full of originality and flair. We can't wait to get started."
Charlie Covell, writer, says: "I'm thrilled that The End Of The F***ing World starts filming on Monday - I can't believe it's really happening! From the minute I got sent Chuck Forsman's comics to read, I wanted in. They're beautiful, and they tell a dark, unconventional coming-of-age love story. It has been a massive privilege to bring Chuck's characters to screen."
The End Of The F***ing World will be broadcast on E4 in the UK later this year, and published globally by US-based on-demand viewing platform Netflix thereafter.
Clerkenwell has previously produced Misfits and The Aliens for E4, as well as Not Safe For Work and Scrotal Recall for Channel 4, the latter of which has moved to Netflix under the name Lovesick since its second series.