EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a New Year’s teaser for a comically gruesome Euro drama from Bad Sisters co-creator Malin-Sarah Gozin.
Dead End (Dood Spoor) is a six-part drama out of Belgium starring Peter Van den Begin and Elise Schaap about a man with a peculiar eating disorder that makes him a potentially tasty aid to police.
Gozin — who created Clan, the original Belgian drama on which Apple TV+’s Bad Sisters was based — is the writer, creator and director. Working with her as exec producers are Brett Baer, Dave Finkel, Bert Hamelinck and Dimitri Verbeeck. Hans Vercauter the co-director. Baer and Finkel teamed with Gozin and Sharon Horgan to adapt Clan as Bad Sisters with Apple and ABC Signature Studios out of Ireland.
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Caviar, a co-producer on Bad Sisters, is distributing the show, which is for Play Media and Streamz in Belgium. Lompvis is the producer. An early 2025 launch date has been set.
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The show focuses on Ed Bex (Van den Begin), a man who is able to see flashes of what happened to something in the past when he tastes it — be that tasting a toothbrush, sucking on a lipstick or, as it emerges, chomping down on human flesh. He initially uses the bizarre ‘gift’ he uses in his unconventional job, a one-man business called The Aftertaste that helps grieving families cope by reconstructing the final moments of their loved ones, but is called upon by a police inspector to help solve a murder by trying out his talent on a corpse in an airtight bag. He soon finds himself in a “whirlwind of bizarre events, family trouble and mid-life struggles,” according to the producers.
In the trailer, a serious-sounding Ed tells a confidante, “I’m trying to help catch a crazy killer. To be sure, I need to taste,” before getting ready to take a bite out of a decomposing toe while gagging. The camera then switches to a plate of beautifully-displayed steak, as Ed says with a smile, “I can’t remember the last time I had meat for dinner.”
Van de Begin starred in Gozin’s previous drama Tabula Rasa, a psychological thriller that went out on Netflix in several territories. Starring alongside him in Dead End are Schaap (Amsterdam Empire), Marjan De Schutter (Geldwolven), Emilie De Roo (Beau Séjour), Ward Kerremans (Soil) and Jesse Bo Gebruers (At Night We Fly).
Dead End, produced by Lompvis for Caviar, PlayMedia and Streamz, has support from the Media Fund of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) of the Flemish minister of Media, Screen Flanders, BNP Paribas Fortis Film Finance and Caviar Film Financing.
Gozin is best known for Clan, the dark comedy-thriller from Belgium who plot to murder their awful brother-in-law. Following local success, it was adapted as Bad Sisters for Apple.
Elsewhere, Gozin created comedy series Connie & Clyde, which followed a woman heading a matchmaking service despite her own catastrophic marriage and was also from Caviar. She also an exec producer and co-writer of Professor T‘s first season on ITV, BritBox and PBS — another series adapted from a Belgian scripted format — and was exec producer of Streamz and SBS streaming series F*** You Very Much.
Apple TV+ launched a second season of Bad Sisters in November. In the past week, Horgan — who stars and writes the Apple show — teased a third season, saying, “we will see” when questioned by Ireland’s Magic Radio. To date, the show has won three BAFTA Awards, a number of Irish Film and TV Awards and a Peabody, and garnered four Emmy nominations.
Baer and Finkel, who also helped adapt Bad Sisters, were showrunners on all seven seasons of Fox comedy New Girl and count the likes of Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs, 30 Rock and Brothers among their credits. They are currently developing a Paramount+ series based on Galaxy Quest.
Distributor Caviar has offices in Los Angeles, Brussels, London, Paris, and Amsterdam. Its credits include the Riz Ahmed-starring Sound of Metal; Sundance docu-feature Jawline; Chloé Zhao’s sophomore feature The Rider; and Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s directorial debut feature, War Pony and Netflix’s non-scripted cheerleader series for Netflix, Cheer; and was a co-producer on Bad Sisters alongside Horgan’s Merman Films and ABC Signature. It developed and produced Peacock series Paul T. Goldman alongside Point Grey, and recently launched Belgian series Moresnet.
Caviar has also wrapped shooting Jody Hills’ Famous, starring Zac Efron as well as Joey Powers’ Love Language, which stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Anthony Ramos and Manny Jacinto.