Written by on Apr 7, 2014. Posted in On Location

Channel 4 and Xbox Entertainment Studios to film sci-fi drama Humans in UK

Channel 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox Entertainment Studios will film new sci-fi drama miniseries Humans on location in the UK. Set in a parallel present, the story focuses on a busy father who buys an artificial ‘Synth’ servant to help him in his family life, but the decision has chilling consequences.

Kudos will produce the eight-part drama, which is an adaptation of Swedish drama series Real Humans (left).

“I’m thrilled to be working once again with the team at Kudos and to be partnering with Xbox to bring this extraordinary and epic series to the screen,” said Channel 4 Head of Drama, Piers Wenger: “This is the first co-production commission to benefit from Channel 4’s increased investment in drama and reaffirms our commitment to ambitious, highly original drama series.”

Added President of Microsoft’s Xbox Entertainment Studios, Nancy Tellem: “This deal with Channel 4 and Kudos underscores Xbox Entertainment Studios' commitment to programming premium TV series with global partners and creating engaging interactive experiences – and sits alongside other original commissions including a Halo TV series [based on the iconic Xbox videogame series and] executive produced by Steven Spielberg.”

This is the first co-production commission to benefit from Channel 4’s increased investment in drama.

Piers Wenger, Head of Drama at Channel 4

Channel 4 recently announced plans to pursue TV drama co-productions both in the UK and internationally, in addition to its regular international acquisitions.

Television production in the UK has become much more attractive to international studios since the launch of a specialist TV tax credit in mid-2013. The UK’s film tax credit has also received an official boost, with big-budget productions now able to access a higher tax credit figure of 25% rather than the previous 20%.

(Photo: Sveriges Television and Matador Film AB)