Chris Morris reveals terrorism film plan

Sunday 13th January 2008, 6:01am

In an interview with The Sunday Times, the controversial comedian and satirist Chris Morris has unveiled his latest project. It is a fictional comedy film making fun of terrorism.

Morris, who is unusually very secretive about his projects, said that he wanted to do to terrorism what Dad's Army did to the Nazis, by showing both as "scary but also ridiculous". He said, "I don't plan for this film to be offensive, but I do want it to be very funny. I accept, though, that some may find poking fun at terrorists is offensive. There is this Dad's Army side of terrorism and that's what this film is exploring. This film will hopefully get over that terrorists do what we all do. They discuss the mundane, and plan things that sometimes then go wrong. People, that is viewers, are longing to laugh at terrorism."

Morris has been researching the film for two years. During this time, he has visited places that have had suffered terrorism in the UK, such as Leeds, Bradford and Luton. The film, co-written by two script-writers working on satirical sitcom The Thick of It, uses some strange but true real-life examples of documented incidents in the film. For example, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a 9/11 ringleader, after giving an interview with a journalist in a secret location in Pakistan, spent two hours trying to select clothes that would not make him look fat. The film also references arguments over honey, medical emergencies, and terrorists having a fondness for reading the views of Jeremy Clarkson, but not those of Richard Littlejohn.

This project will be Morris' first feature length film, although he has made short films in the past, such as My Wrongs #8245-8249 & 117. It is being made with a £4m budget with Channel 4 and Wrap Films. Morris will be directing the film, but will not star in it.

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