Channel 4 Commissions Lucy Kirkwood's CHIMERICA For Television Series

Channel 4 has commissioned Lucy Kirkwood's Chimerica. The series will be directed by William Oldroyd in his television debut.

"Based on Lucy Kirkwood's critically-acclaimed and Olivier Award-winning stage play, Chimerica is a powerful and thrilling 4 X 60' series that explores not just the relationship between East and West, but also some of the most urgent issues affecting society today. Set against the run-up to the 2016 US Presidential election, the original play has been updated to reflect the giddying political changes of the last two years, the series will bring into even sharper focus vital issues such as fake news, the undermining of political protest, the battle between present and future superpowers, the future of democracy itself, and our growing ease with the manipulation of fact and image. Chimerica will be a resonant exploration of our slide into a post-truth world, scrutinising the way we live now, as we wade through unprecedented amounts of information, ill-equipped to know which parts of it are true, or lock ourselves in echo chambers full of people who already agree with us."

Oldroyd's featured film Lady Macbeth was one of the most nominated British independent films of last year. He is the second British nominee for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director.

Lucy Kirkwood, writer, says: "Since I wrote the original play in 2013, the questions it raises have only acquired greater scale and relevance for us all. It was thrilling for me to return to the story of two men, one American and one Chinese, trying to work out how to respond to the outrages of an increasingly outrageous world, and look through their eyes at our changing relationship with journalism, power, protest, and images themselves. I feel especially lucky to have William at the helm, and am very excited to have the chance to collaborate with him on this epic, international story."

The series will be distributed globally by all3media International. The series is produced by Playground with Colin Callender and Sophie Gardiner as Executive Producers. Lucy Kirkwood will also serve as an Executive Producer. The producer is Adrian Sturges. Filming is set to begin in in 2018 with TX and casting details to be announced at a later date.

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