Ben Wheatley To Tackle Zombies With GENERATION Z
Ben Wheatley is making his return to television with Generation Z, an upcoming satire series that uses zombies to comment on modern U.K. politics. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wheatley is writing and directing the six-part series for the U.K.'s Channel 4 – which unfortunately means it might be some time before we have a chance to check it out in the U.S. A combination of drama and dark comedic satire (but of course), Generation Z pits millennials against baby boomers, the latter of whom become flesh-eating zombies when they come into contact with a toxic chemical. THR has a fairly detailed summary of the series, which reads in part:
Generation Z takes a swipe at the current state of Brexit Britain, where seemingly endless austerity, astronomical house prices, insurmountable student debt and a political system that appears intent on destroying itself is making the future look bleak for today's youth. Adding insult to injury, their hard-earned taxes are being eaten up by the old — smug, self-satisfied, small-minded "Little Englander" pensioners whose remaining sole purpose in life is to make it a misery for everyone else.
In a small British town, tensions come to a head when a mysterious military convoy crashes outside the Sunnywise Retirement Home. The vehicles were carrying a toxic substance, which, as a result of the crash, leaks into the local environment and infects the residents of the retirement community. The symptoms of this infection quickly manifest — an overwhelming appetite for raw flesh.
The filmmaker is not unfamiliar with television, having worked on a few British series prior to making his feature directorial debut, Down Terrace. Wheatley is well-known for crafting brilliant, darkly comedic thrillers that interrogate social constructs and concepts (a recurring theme is the indictment of masculinity) – films like Kill List, High-Rise, and A Field in England have made him one of our favorite modern filmmakers, so to say we're stoked for Generation Z is a bit of an understatement. Wheatley is also working on a new adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca for Netflix, starring LilyJames, Armie Hammer, and Kristin Scott Thomas.
