Sky announces A Town Called Malice crime thriller
August 26, 2021
Sky has announced a new eight-part Sky Original drama A Town Called Malice, a raucous crime thriller and family saga set on the Costa Del Sol in the early 1980s, with a pulsating ’80s soundtrack. Casting is yet to be announced but filming is set to begin later this year and run into 2022 in London and Spain.
The series is a co-production between Vertigo Films, Sky Studios and Rogue State, and is created by Nick Love (Bulletproof, The Sweeney), who is also the lead writer on the series. A Town Called Malice follows the Lords, a crime family of petty thieves from South London who have fallen to the bottom of the criminal food chain. And they’re not happy about it.
Gene Lord is the youngest son in the clan, overlooked and neglected by his family who fail to recognise his killer instincts and keen intelligence. After narrowly surviving a gangland battle, Gene and his formidable girlfriend, Cindy, flee to Spain to evade arrest. The lovers quickly find themselves embroiled in the local underworld, and trouble starts to follow these two like night after day.
When the other Lords join them on the Costa del Sol, the family realises this is a golden opportunity to re-invent themselves and re-capture their former glory – much to the annoyance of Gene and Cindy, who have a very different plan. This is an operatic and high-octane thriller – and a musical love letter to the ’80s – filled with romance, obsession, violence, deceit, swagger and high camp.
Gabriel Silver, Director of Commissioning, Drama, Sky Studios, said: “If Dallas and Pulp Fiction created a love child to the strains of Duran Duran, it would be A Town Called Malice – an intoxicating cocktail of ‘80s romance, avarice and violence, served up with pineapple chunks and an umbrella… Brought to life so brilliantly by Nick Love’s scripts, audiences will be taken back to the vivid world of the Costa Del Sol in its pomp, with a glorious take on the soundtrack of the era. The series is a fantastic addition to our growing line-up of home-grown, British drama on Sky in 2022.”
Nick Love creator and writer said: “I’m over excited and hugely grateful to Sky for supporting my vision once again – I have lived and breathed Malice for the past few years, and for it finally to come to fruition, is a dream come true.”
Jane Moore, CEO of Vertigo Films said: “Vertigo is delighted to be working once again with Sky and our long-time friend and colleague, Nick Love, on this exciting project, and look forward to bringing Nick’s unique vision of the 80s to life on screen.”
A Town Called Malice was commissioned by Zai Bennett, Sky’s Managing Director of Content with Paul Gilbert as the Commissioning Editor for Sky Studios. The series is a co-production between Vertigo Films, Sky Studios & Rogue State. Nick Love is the lead writer and is joined in writers’ room by Melissa Bubnic, John Jackson, Liz Lake and Matt Evans. The series producer is Andy Noble.
NBCUniversal Global Distribution will handle international sales of the series on behalf of Sky Studios.
A Town Called Malice will TX on Sky Max and NOW in late 2022.