Sky re-establishes ties with Vertigo

A Town Called Malice is created and written by Nick Love, who also co-created Bulletproof, which was cancelled by Sky after three series in May following allegations of bullying and harassment against star Noel Clarke, which he denies. 

Love’s newly-established Rogue State indie is co-producing A Town Called Malice, alongside Britannia producer Vertigo and Sky Studios.

The show, which is for Sky 1 successor Sky Max, centres on a south London family of petty thieves whose youngest son flees to the Costa Del Sol with his girlfriend following a gangland battle.

The pair become embroiled in the Spanish underworld but are then increasingly irritated by the arrival of the other members of the family as they leave England to reinvent themselves.

Love said he has “lived and breathed” the project for the past few years. He is joined in the writers’ room by Melissa Bubnic, John Jackson, Liz Lake and Matt Evans.

Vertigo chief exec Jane Moore added she is “delighted” to be working with Sky once again.

Sky Studios’ commissioning editor Paul Gilbert ordered the series alongside managing director of content Zai Bennett. NBC Universal Global Distribution will handle sales of the show, which will start filming later this year and air in late 2022.

Funny Girl

Elsewhere, Sky Comedy is to adapt Nick Hornby’s Funny Girl into a 6 x 60-minute series with Generation Kill indie Potboiler Productions and Rebel Park Productions.

Rebel Park co-founder Gemma Arterton will star as Barbara Parker, a young beauty queen from Blackpool who travels to London in the 1960s to become a comedy star.

Bennett is the commissioner with Sky Studios’ director of comedy Jon Mountague and commissioning editor Tilusha Ghelani.

Hornby and Arterton will exec produce with writer Morwenna Banks, Potboiler’s Andrea Calderwood and Gail Egan and Rebel Park’s Jessica Malik and Jessica Parker.