According to Variety, Netflix has officially acquired the upcoming comedy thriller series How to Get to Heaven From Belfast, which hails from Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee. The project was originally set up at Channel 4, who ultimately decided to let series go for multiple reasons, including “rising costs.”
“We loved Lisa McGee’s ‘How to Get to Heaven From Belfast’ and offered a substantial license fee to be its U.K. home,” a Channel 4 spokesperson said in a statement. “Unfortunately due to changes in editorial direction as the development process progressed, coupled with rising costs and the recent cooling in the U.S. co-production market, it became impossible to get the right international partner and funding plan in place. We wish Lisa and Hat Trick Productions all the best and look forward to working together on future projects.”
What to expect in How to Get to Heaven From Belfast?
How to Get to Heaven From Belfast is created and executive produced by McGee, who is set to reunite with director Michael Lennox after collaborating together on Derry Girls. Caroline Leddy, Liz Lewin, Jimmy Mulville and Lennox are also serving as executive producers. Production on the eight-part series will begin sometime this year in Northern Ireland.
“The series follows longtime friends: clever, chaotic TV writer Saoirse; glamorous, stressed-out mother of three Robyn; and dependable, inhibited carer Dara have been a tight-knit group since school,” reads the synopsis. “Now in their late 30s, but still as close as ever, these three friends are about to embark on the most thrilling adventure of their lives. When an email arrives, telling them about the death of the estranged fourth member of their childhood gang, Greta, a series of eerie events at her wake set them on a dark, dangerous and hilarious odyssey through Ireland and beyond as each tries to piece together the truth of the past. A show about friendship, memory and what happens when life doesn’t turn out quite like you’d expected.”
