A ‘suicide bomber comedy’ pitched by Brass Eye satirist Chris Morris will be in cinemas by the end of the year.
The comedy was considered to controversial for TV stations like the BBC and will now be released as a movie.
The film, called Four Lions, will be funded by FilmFour and will go into production this summer.
Production company Warp Films says Four Lions “understands how terrorism relates to testosterone. It understands jihadis as human beings. And it understands human beings as innately ridiculous.”
Morris is said to have spent three years researching the movie, during which time he spoke to terrorism experts, hundreds of Muslims, imams, secret services and police.
Deirdre Steed, who helped Morris secure funding for the movie, says: “Even those who have trained and fought jihad report the frequency of farce.”
“At training camps, young jihadis argue about honey, cry for their mums, shoot each other’s feet off, chase snakes and get thrown out for smoking. A minute into his martyrdom video, a would-be bomber looks puzzled and says ‘what was the question again?’ On Millennium eve, five jihadis set out to ram a US warship. They slipped their boat into the water and carefully stacked it with explosives. It sank.”
She adds: “Terrorism is about ideology, but it’s also about berks.”