Skinned Alive

It has been announced in the news today that Channel 4's flagship 'yooof' drama SKINS will be made into a film. Company Pictures, Stormdog Films, CinenamNX and Film4 are developing the feature and hope to have it in cinemas by next year. Jack Thorne will write the script with assistance from show creator Bryan Elsley. Filming will begin in Bristol and the Isle of Man later this year and characters from the past four series are expected to return. Both Nicholas Hoult and Dev Patel made names for themselves in the show and went on to star in some pretty successful films, that latter going on to star in his BAFTA nominated role in SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and will be seen this summer in THE LAST AIRBENDER (Ha ha! "Bender").

 SKINS never seemed to be anything more than a devised teen show designed to trick people into thinking it was 'cool'. The problem is anything that tries to be cool eventually comes across as pretty uncool and SKINS is no exception. It was watched by hordes of young wankers who desperately want to see quirky young characters do hip things most young kids aren't doing. It was wish fulfilment, much like the way SEX AND THE SHITTY 2 works for insipid bitches. The show started as a way to boost the ratings of E4 (Channel 4's cable sister station) and paid off really well. A producer's assistant told me in 2008 more than 60% of under 25 year old audiences were at one time tuning into the show, although I find that pretty hard to believe because less than a million viewers tuned into the last episode in March. The show's core audience is teenagers, but methinks a growing number of 30-plus tossers also tune into the show hoping to elongate their own perception of personal credibility. The idea is British youngsters are evidently supporting home-grown youth films like STREETDANCE 3D and any number of shit films Noel Clarke produces, therefore Film4 may get lucky with SKINS: THE MOTION PICTURE. I do wonder though if a movie version of SKINS will manage to entice its usual audiences to the cinema to watch the same shit they can easily watch on television. When Americans do movie treatments of TV fodder they increase the stakes and scope. The UK is absolutely inept at doing that. Just look at RISING DAMP: THE FILM or HOLIDAY ON THE BUSSES: THE MOVIE for validation.