Netflix, E4 prepare for End of the F***ing World

Streaming service Netflix and UK youth-skewing network E4 have co-commissioned a dark comedy-drama about a twisted road trip.

The End of the F***ing World is based on comic books from Charles Forsman, and follows the confusing lives of two teen outsiders (Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden).

Channel 4 commissioning editor Roberto Troni described the series’ tone as if “David Lynch made a rom-com road movie about a pair of teen misfits in British suburbia”.

Netflix and E4 are already coproducing Kiss Me First, a six-part emotional thriller, as relations between the SVOD player and E4 parent Channel 4 continue thaw after the former controversially took the rights to Black Mirror.

The new series follows Lawther as a 17-year-old who believes he is a violent psychopath and the road trip he takes with his first intended target, a cool and moody female schoolmate who believes he is her soulmate and takes him on a journey to find her real father.

The 8×30 mins series has Charlie Covell (Banana) attached as writer, with Clerkenwell Films (Misfits) and Dominic Buchanan Productions coproducing. Jonathan Entwistle and Lucy Tcherniak are directing.

Filming begins today and it will air on E4 in the UK and Netflix globally later this year.

“From the instant we were introduced to the utterly original Charles Forsman graphic novel we knew it was something special,” said Troni. “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.”

Troni co-commissioned The End of the F***ing World with Channel 4 head of drama Beth Willis, and Netflix’s Elizabeth Bradley and Alex Sapot.

Kate Ogborn is producing, with Petra Fried, Ed Macdonald and Andy Baker executive producing for Clerkenwell, and Dominic Buchanan doing the same for his prodco. Entwistle is also an exec producer.

BBC Worldwide, which has distribution rights, brought Netflix to the project.