‘Euphoria’ Creator Ron Leshem Details Intriguing Story Behind North Road-Backed Juvenile Prison Series ‘Bad Boy’
06.09.2023 - 13:31
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Euphoria creator Ron Leshem has shared the intriguing story behind buzzy Israeli drama Bad Boy, the first international co-production backed by Peter Chernin’s North Road.
Unveiled in March for Israeli network Hot, at which point it was described by Leshem as “the next Euphoria,” Bad Boy follows Dean, who is imprisoned in a cruel juvenile detention facility and bonds with Zoro, a grim and mysterious teenage prisoner serving time for murder. Dean learns to harness his unique intelligence and, 20 years later, these traits define him as a star comedian, while his time in jail is a secret threatening to resurface and tear his life apart.
Only six months passed between the show’s announcement and today’s TIFF premiere but Leshem said Bad Boy has been two decades in the making, harking back to his time as an investigative journalist when he was assigned to a story in a juvenile prison.
Leshem’s reporting found that the vast majority of babies born in prison were returning to jail after commiting crimes as teenagers. Israeli law requires that babies spend just their first two years with their mothers in the facility before they are removed by the state, and this can have drastic effects in later life, Leshem found.
“I felt like these babies were never given a chance,” he told Deadline on the eve of TIFF. “They are born into a fate and not given a chance for an alternative fate. I spent time as a journalist covering wars and battle zones but it was this story that touched me the most.”
Leshem was shocked by the way in which pre-pubescent 12-year-olds were being locked up in the same facilities as adult 18-year-olds and an idea for a TV series began to form in his mind. “I remember stepping into this place and one
The website celebfans.org is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can
send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.