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EXCLUSIVE: MTV is moving forward with the adaptation of the British award-winning high-school comedy series The Inbetweeners, handing a pilot order to the project.
Brad Copeland (Arrested Development, My Name Is Earl) has been tapped as writer/ showrunner/ executive producer, marking his return to TV full-time after a stint in features. Search for actors to play the leads in the pilot is already underway and is being led by casting directors Juel Bestrop and Seth Yanklewitz who cast blockbuster feature comedy The Hangover. The Inbetweeners has been a passion project for MTV’s EVP scripted development David Janollari, who won the rights to the format in a heated bidding this past summer. “The Inbetweeners is one of the best comedies to come out of the U.K. in years,” he said. “It’s unique and bold, its approach to contemporary teen coming-of-age stories is universal and simply hilarious, and it will resonate immensely with our core demographic.” Iain Morris and Damon Beesley, creators of the original series, which runs on Channel 4′s digital sibling E4, will executive produce the pilot alongside Copeland, Aaron Kaplan, who is producing through his Kapital Entertainment, and former Comedy Central head of original programming Lauren Corrao.
Described as Superbad meets Freeks and Geeks, The Inbetweeners takes a realistic look at life in high school. It revolves around four high school boys who belong to the “inbetweeners” social class — teens who are not the most cool and popular but not geeky enough to be branded uncool. This is the second attempt to adapt The Inbetweeners. Two years ago, ABC gave a put pilot commitment to an U.S. version written by Morris and Beesley. This time, the duo opted not to write the adaptation and went after Copeland as their top choice for the job. On the TV side, UTA-repped Copeland consulted on the first season of HBO’s Eastbound & Down. Last week, Beesley announced that the original series’ third season will be its last, with an Inbetweeners movie and TV special in the pipeline. In addition to Inbetweeners, MTV recently greenlighted for production I Just Want My Pants Back, a drama pilot based on the book by David Rosen, which will be directed by Doug Liman.
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even though mtv is back doing a remake of a british show. at least they are not doing another reality jersey shore hills type thing again should be interesting to see the show if mtv takes the pilot to series
I guess they’re staying true to their audience.
As an aspiring entertainment professional, I don’t understand why british series don’t directly translate to american audiences. why does every british series get remade for american audiences while american series are regularly exported as-is to english-speaking foreign markets. is it all about american dominance in the industry? what is the conventional wisdom on this phenomoenon??
They don’t rate. The US is culturally xenophobic.
Plus you can’t say ‘fuck’ except on premium cable.
Yea the remake will not be as good. The British version is full of sexual situations that would never be allowed on American television. There is no way the American government would allow a pedophile teacher! Or Jay jacking off on an old lady’s picture. They will not allow the language that is used on the English show either. One of the best parts of the show is the main characters making fun of each other using coarse language. Also, the show is so great because you could almost believe these kids are “real.” By that I mean their houses are just about average size, the women in their school are not super hot, and the kids dress pretty average. The American version will have kids in huge houses, model high school students, and kids wearing designer clothes even though they are supposed to be “middle class.” Not to mention MTV is doing the project. Meaning this is just going to be a Superbad sitcom.
for the same reason that most Americans don’t understand most Brits, except in a one on one conversation: different slang, accents and pronunciation.
I love British TV but I can’t understand every line. It varies show to show. Classic shows like Cracker or The Sweeney have lots of dialog that is hard to understand.
I think that American’s are becoming more and more adaptable to English comedy’s sensibility.
People should still watch the original, but as a writer, I’m happy that someone like Copeland has the opportunity to work on such a fantastic property. Also, as mentioned in the article, this is a project close to David Janollari, so I think they are doing it for the right reasons, and not just to capitalize on previous success. That said, I hope it is a big success. The original show is one of the best programs to hit English TV in years.
Most are too broad for USA brainwaves
xo90210 keep hope alive.
I’ll be amazed as a Brit if it has the same cringeness as the original. I don’t think the office quite carried the same spirit in the remake. At the end of the day American’s are not uncool enough.
Great show! Hope the remake is even half as good, which would make it one of the best on tv.
Fabulous point JRSpears and one as a Brit that I thoroughly agree with.
Aaron Kaplan is KILLING it right now. he’s a smart guy with the moxsie to get things sold.
Nelli, why are you posting a comment as anonymous. Just use your actual account. Everyone already knows you’re Kaplan’s publicist.
@JR Spears
The originals, such as “Life on Mars”, are so much superior to the American retreads. Thanks for your post.
It’s Always Sunny… is the closest US comedy to The Inbetweeners – if MTV can use that as their benchmark rather than any UK/US network adaptations in recent years, they won’t go too far wrong.
very very good show.
won’t translate, at all.
did you ever see what they did when they adapted peep show? oy…
‘I don’t understand why british series don’t directly translate to american audiences.’ – JRSpears
The truth is the fact that most British comedy series have a huge amount of sarcasm and ‘piss’ taking in them, which is what makes them so funny. American comedy has to announce the fact that they are being sarcastic, this doesn’t happen with British comedy so most American’s won’t understand if they are being serious or joking. In the end it just comes down to the different cultures, American’s are straight to the point people, who don’t like the idea of deviating from the point and the Brits like to poke fun… constantly.
I’m not saying all American’s don’t understand sarcasm but the vast majority don’t, and that’s usually why British comedy has to be remade, plus the inbetweeners is full of swearing which is ace, but American TV and the public hate the idea of swearing, its OK to carry a gun on the street, but if you swear on tv… that’s horrendous and a crime against humanity. Plus they might use the dreaded ‘G’ word, and we all know how uptight people can get with that word… gay
It’s a rant but that’s what I reckon happens.
Alexander – i’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you are British and feel rejected by the American entertainment industry. Blame the game, not the American people.
Americans are indeed very funny and sarcastic. But we have our own cultural references, humor, and use lots of different words. We don’t have bangers and mash, don’t know about the royals and the Empire, and drive on the other side of the road.
Having lived in both England and the US I can safely say the british are funnier, hands down. American’s don’t take the piss/wind each other up, leads to boring and phony interactions. When the benchmark for comedy in the US is everyone loves raymond and two and a half men, theres a lot to be asked for. However, there have been some hilarious shows like Chappelle’s show and scrubs, these are, however, rare
I disagree. I’m American, and it’s most likely a cultural thing, but the only British show I’ve ever found funny is The Inbetweeners (and I really do think it’s the best comedy ever.)(It’s Always Sunny… is second, Futurama third.)
The only Brit comedy you ever found funny was The Inbetweeners? Hmm…Never saw the original Brit verion of The Office? Or how about Shameless?
Scrubs? You’re using Scrubs as an example? I am ashamed to be American right now.
you pretty much write down everything i’ve thought about american humor/comedy since i moved here 3 years ago. I seriously can’t find anything in the states on tv that has me cracking up at every joke, ari gold from entourage is the exception though.
the inbertweeners is the funniest program ever! im devestated to see it go apparently the actors look to old to be in school still.
no matter where your from if you have any sence of humor this will hit the spot! its all people talk about in my school also sixth form isnt what we (in england) call all of high school(like it says on the previous page) just the last two years, where in most schools you dont need a uniform!
It’s an absolute shame MTV is going to air a remake of The Inbetweeners. MTV is a bunch of uptight prudes who will never do the show justice. The only way the show could possibly be a shadow of the original is that if it were on HBO/Showtime/STARS/etc… Do you really think MTV will show a scrotum on TV?
I think it sounds like a bad idea. Its gonna be typically American like Superbad. D**k and fart jokes, weed references and all the same. Also think Showtime’s efforts to remake Shameless also seems like a bad idea. Its weird how many English shows America tries to re-create, does anyone know how many American shows England re-creates?
I’ll let you in on a little secret… the producers of British TV shows make very little money off their programs (because BBC and other UK TV channels are tax-payer subsidized) but the producers make a ton of money when they sell the rights to American studios. Its not a matter of American producers stealing UK ideas, its that UK producers are actively courting American producers to remake their shows.
On the flip side, the UK has little interest in recreating American programs because they don’t have the money to match the American production values. For instance, I’m sure a UK producer would love to remake ‘Glee’ for a UK audience, but the cost of the music rights for just one episode of Glee is higher than the budget for an entire season of your average UK series.
Hope this clarifies things.
I’m pissed, and very sad that it’s over. I will not watch the remake, it ruins the whole point of it. They shouldn’t even do a remake. Why the fucks sake would I watch the American version of it?? I’m saying that, and I AM an American!! It won’t have the same humor…besides I love the old characters
The Brit Inbetweeners was outstanding and part of that derives from the honesty of topic and language…something that MTV will not bring to the series. Can you imagine a testicle dangling out of a bathing suit on the runway on MTV? Look what they did to a show like The Hard Times of R.J. Berger. The concept is “R” but the realization is “PG”. I have more faith in the manner that Showtime may be able to reproduce the quality of Shameless. At least on Showtime, they won’t have to get bogged down with censorship of those elements that made the Brit Shameless entertaining and funny.
We started filming recently, Yesterday all of the extras came on location to film the school scenes. It went great. (:
They’re going to screw it up, just as MTV has done with Skins.
I’m a teenager and I can watch BBC America and understand the humor and jokes perfectly.
The Inbetweeners worked because it was real. The humor, the jokes, it was stuff that happens. The MTV version of Skins was watered down and I bet they’ll do the same thing. The Brit Inbetweeners and Skins also never glamorized anything, or if they did there was a consequence, and I’m sure MTV is going to glam it up.
I know why people want to avoid the subject and water it down, because they don’t want to encourage it. But has anyone considered that kids are going to do it because their parents won’t talk to them about it? If someone actually has a show with consequences that kids can truly relate to on TV, they’ll be so much better off. I’m lucky my mom talks to me about drinking, drugs, and sex, but my best friend’s mom doesn’t and she’s learned a lot of it watching television. It’s best to have a frank show that you’ll learn something from than a watered down show that you’ll learn nothing from.
The Inbetweeners shouldn’t be remade. :/ Once again a failure for MTV.
Chiming in as another American who loves the British series and thinks American teenagers should be less lazy and use their brains so they can comprehend foreign television.
It’s funny but the Inbetweeners is subtly anti-delinquent. Like the old after-school specials, it shows kids trying to be cool and hard and facing the consequences, only in a hilarious way instead of a preachy way so you actually want to watch. But somehow it’s hard to see the average MTV viewer accepting that. Americans seem to like living vicariously through exciting characters rather than empathizing with normal ones.
What a terrible, terrible idea. The only British show remade in America even halfway decent is “The Office”. Maybe if it was on premium cable.
Wow, don’t make an American version it would be terrible. Also i agree only good British remake was “The Office”. The inbetweeners is also like 40% funny because of their acsent