Culture
28 Oct 16

The Young Offenders to get their own TV series

The Young Offenders writer-director Peter Foott has said that he is planning to turn his hit Irish film into a TV series, having just agreed a deal for a cinema release for the hit comedy in the UK and the US.

Speaking with RTE Entertainment, Foott said: "We want to keep it in the world that we have, and that's why we like the idea of doing a big budget TV show. The current idea is it picks up where the film leaves off. I've got different outlines for it."

The Young Offenders has taken over €1m at the Irish box office since its release last month. It has just been picked up by UK company Vertigo Releasing, which will put the comedy on the big screen in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand before Christmas.

The film received its international premiere at the world famous Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas last month, where it was among the winners, picking up the Special Mention for Best Comedy Debut.

With the movie reaching to international heights, Foott told RTÉ Entertainment that he, his cast and crew all had "a very strong feeling" about the film's potential while making it, even though stars Alex Murphy and Chris Walley were initially sceptical.

"At the auditions I told them, 'You'll be seeing it in festivals, and I'd have pretty high hopes we'd get it into the cinema'," recalled the director.

"They left the auditions talking about it and Alex was saying to Chris, 'Do you know, he said it might get into the cinema?' And Chris was being level-headed and he goes, 'Ah yeah, but you know they all say that - it'll probably end up on YouTube or something!'"

You can red our interview with The Young Offenders stars here .

RTE Entertainment also caught up with the lads: