[derek500]

Kudos Film and Television is to make its first Channel 4 drama in more than a decade – a dark conspiracy thriller written by the co-creator of Olivier Award-winning musical Matilda.

The 6 x 60-minute Utopia centres on a group of people forced to go on the run from a shadowy organisation known as The Network after discovering the manuscript of a cult graphic novel. Utopia

The novel, called Utopia, is rumoured to have predicted the worst disasters of the past century. The Network proves to be all-pervasive, influencing government and the private sector, but the fugitive characters have no idea what its intentions are.

The drama is penned by Dennis Kelly, the writer of Matilda and BBC3 comedy Pulling.

Utopia will go into production later this year and is yet to be cast.

It will be exec produced by Kudos chief executive Jane Featherstone, Karen Wilson (Spooks) and Kelly. Rebekah Wray-Rogers (This Is England ’88) is the producer, and Marc Munden (The Crimson Petal And The White) will direct.

Utopia was ordered by C4 chief creative officer Jay Hunt, who is yet to replace drama commissioners Camilla Campbell and Robert Wulff-Cochrane after they left last year to establish Noho Film and TV with ITV Studios.

“Utopia is everything you expect from a Channel 4 drama – witty, utterly compelling and impossible to ignore,” Hunt said.

Kudos’s last project for Channel 4 was six-part 1999 series Psychos, which followed the lives of a young medical team and their patients.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/c...040622.article

[Transient1]

Originally Posted by derek500

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/c...040622.article

Don't you usually object when newspapers say Murdoch instead of NI or News Corps Derek. At least you do when it's something negative.

[Press_Esc]

Its been done before. X-Files, Lone Gunmen, Alias, yawn. The only audience this thriller is going to cater to are the HAARPtards and 2012ers.

[derek500]

Originally Posted by Transient1

Don't you usually object when newspapers say Murdoch instead of NI or News Corps Derek. At least you do when it's something negative.

I thought I'd try to help the Murdoch haters avoid this show.

Unfortunately, I missed the boat warning them about the other Murdoch hit on C4, Homeland.

[Transient1]

Originally Posted by derek500

I thought I'd try to help the Murdoch haters avoid this show.

Unfortunately, I missed the boat warning them about the other Murdoch hit on C4, Homeland.

Cheers Derek. I will give it a miss. It doesn't sound like my kind of thing anyway.

[lundavra]

Perhaps he could make a thriller about an evil foreigner owning too many newspaper and television interests. Having too much influence with politicians of all flavours. Widespread hacking and blagging .......

No, no one would believe it could happen.

[theonlyweeman]

So your going to not watch the show just because it has loose connection to Murdoch, do you avoid 20th Century Fox films because Murdoch has a connection? Seems a tad extreme, just becuase some UNRELATED parts of his business are unethical...

[popeye13]

Originally Posted by derek500

I thought I'd try to help the Murdoch haters avoid this show.

Unfortunately, I missed the boat warning them about the other Murdoch hit on C4, Homeland.

So because its produced by FOX21, its an automatic Murdoch show is it?
Its made for ShowTime Networks in the US, owned by CBS..
Derek = Child

[derek500]

Originally Posted by popeye13

So because its produced by FOX21, its an automatic Murdoch show is it?
Its made for ShowTime Networks in the US, owned by CBS.

It's made for Showtime, but it's owned by Fox 21. Some shows are owned by the commissioning channel, others by the production company.

[ftv]

Murdoch personally pushed The Simpsons went Fox executives thought it wouldn't work.

[derek500]

Originally Posted by ftv

Murdoch personally pushed The Simpsons went Fox executives thought it wouldn't work.

I expect he liked the Mr Burns character.

Wonder if he did the same with Married With Children?

Another Fox show that broke the mould of the cosy family sitcom.

[popeye13]

Originally Posted by derek500

It's made for Showtime, but it's owned by Fox 21. Some shows are owned by the commissioning channel, others by the production company.

Yes Derek, im aware of how tv is made, be it in the UK or the USA...
But because its made by FOX21, doesn't make it a Murdoch show..