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Sundance TV is adding another scripted drama to its growing roster.
The cable network announced Wednesday that it is teaming with Oscar winner Danny Boyle to co-produce drama series Babylon with U.K. broadcaster Channel 4.
Described as a workplace satire set inside a modern police force, Brit Marling (Another Earth) and James Nesbitt (The Hobbit) star in the drama from writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong (Peep Show).
Babylon centers on an earnest executive who attempts to modernize the culture only to discover her certainties shattered and herself undermined in the murky realpolitik of contemporary policing.
Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) directed the pilot and will executive produce alongside producer Robert Jones (The Usual Suspects) and Derrin Schlesinger (Southcliffe). Babylon will premiere in 2015. Jon S. Baird (Filth) will direct the first three episodes of the series, while Sally El Hosaini (My Brother the Devil) will helm hours four through six. Jon Brown (Misfits) will pen two episodes. Boyle, Jesse Armstrong, Bain and Jones created the series and will exec produce. The feature-length pilot aired on the U.K.’s Channel 4 earlier this year with the rest of the series set to debut in the autumn. Sundance TV will co-produce the six new episodes, which will air in completion in 2015.
“Startlingly frank and at times hilarious, Babylon is a highly entertaining satirical drama that entirely fits with Sundance TV’s mission to deliver unique and surprising content,” Sundance TV president Sarah Barnett said. “As you’d expect with Danny Boyle’s first foray into television, this project is unrelentingly original, and underneath its stylish surface has true heart.”
Sundance TV has been pushing further into original scripted dramas. The cable network’s current roster includes the second season of Rectify and the recently renewed The Red Road as well as acquisition The Returned, upcoming mini The Honourable Woman and recently announced One Child.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit
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