Matt Smith is no stranger to television. After becoming household name with Doctor Who, Smith is adding another TV series to his credits, along with a new job title as executive producer of a Nick Cave adaptation.
Smith, who most recently starred in the Game of Thrones spinoff series House of the Dragon on Max, is set to star in and EP the series The Death of Bunny Munro, based on the novel by Nick Cave. The Australian artist is famous for his music with the band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds as well as his other novels, which include Faith, Hope, and Carnage and And the Ass Saw the Angel. Cave is also an executive producer on Bunny Munro, which is being scripted by Somewhere Boy writer Pete Jackson and directed by Isabella Eklöf, whose credits include the 2018 film Holiday and episodes of Industry.
“To work alongside Nick Cave feels like a great honor,” said Smith in the official press release. “It’s a brilliant exploration of love, grief, and chaos. At its heart a deep, difficult, and tender story about a father and son, coping with loss and change.”
Nick Cave said: “Finally, someone with the courage to take on this unholy tale. I am thrilled that Sky and Clerkenwell Films are bringing Bunny to life, in all his flawed glory, and I can think of nobody better than Matt Smith to play him.”
What is the series about?
According to Sky, the show is described as follows: “Following his wife Libby’s suicide, sex addict, door-to-door beauty product salesman and self-professed lothario Bunny Munro finds himself saddled with a young son and only a loose concept of parenting. Together with nine-year-old Bunny Junior he embarks on an epic and increasingly out-of-control road trip across Southern England as the two struggle to contain their grief in very different ways.”
The press release goes on to describe the series further: “As Bunny bounces from one sales pitch to the next, trying to seduce any woman he meets, Bunny Junior kills time talking to the ghost of his mother and distracting himself from the dawning realisation that his dad isn’t just fallible, he’s a fucking mess. As he starts to unravel, Bunny realises he must do something to rescue his son from his own outdated notions of what it is to be a man. The Death of Bunny Munro is a darkly comic and unflinching modern-day parable as well as a tender portrait of the relationship between father and son.”
Who is in the series?
So far, Smith is the only cast member who’s been announced. In the release, it states that the search for Bunny Junior is underway.
Waiting for The Death of Bunny Munro
Right now, the series is set to begin filming in 2024, and we don’t yet know when it will be released. All we know is that it will film in England in the spring. It’s worth noting that while the series will air on Sky in England, the international distribution is being handled by NBCUniversal, so The Death of Bunny Munro could very well wind up on Peacock.
Still, our excitement for what Matt Smith and Nick Cave have in store for us knows no bounds!
(featured image: Jeff Kravitz, FilmMagic for HBO)
