AMC joins C4 on Israeli format

Loaded is being adapted from Keshet’s Mesudarim (pictured)

US broadcaster AMC and the UK’s Channel 4, which partnered on hit drama Humans, have linked up again to adapt an Israeli comedy format.

Loaded (8×45’) is based on Keshet Broadcasting’s original Mesudarim, created by Muli Segev and Assaf Harel.

The UK version will follow four British tech entrepreneurs and childhood friends who become multi-millionaires overnight, and is being written and exec produced by Jon Brown (Fresh Meat, Peep Show).

C4, which ordered the show earlier this year, is coproducing with AMC, Hillbilly Television and Keshet UK on the English-language series.

Jim Howick, Samuel Anderson, Jonny Sweet, Nick Helm and Mary McCormack head the cast, with Ian Fitzgibbon (Moone Boy, Raised by Wolves) directing the first three episodes.

The series will go into production early next month and is slated to premiere on Channel 4 and AMC in 2017. Keshet International will hold worldwide distribution rights to the finished UK series. The deal was brokered by WME.

Executive producing alongside Brown are Kate Norrish and Polly Leys for Hillbilly and Segev, Harel, Howard Burch and Avi Nir for Keshet.

Charlie Leech (The Wrong Mans, The Aliens) is producer, with Roberto Troni and Lee Mason commissioning editor and commissioning executive respectively for C4.

Phil Clarke, head of scripted at C4, said: “After such a successful collaboration on Humans, we’re thrilled to be partnering once again with AMC.

“Jon Brown is one of the most talented young British writers around, demonstrated by his ability to turn the dream of instant riches into the worst nightmare imaginable.”

Joel Stillerman, president of programming for AMC and SundanceTV, added: “We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Channel 4 and Keshet International and to begin a new one with Hillbilly and the very talented writer Jon Brown, director Ian Fitzgibbon and this terrific cast.”

Stillerman said the show was a “smart and somewhat light-hearted look at all of the things that can go wrong when you’re suddenly very, very rich and very, very young” and that it “felt like a perfect show for our times.”

Two seasons of Mesudarim aired on Keshet Broadcasting in Israel, debuting in 2007.