Revolution considering second UK series and American version of The Trip

Revolution Films co-founder and producer Andrew Eaton says the outfit is considering a second series of popular foodie road-trip comedy The Trip.

The first series, directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as versions of themselves on a gourmet tour of Northern England, was made as a six-part TV series on BBC2 and also a feature film version that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (IFC released in the US).

Eaton told Screen: “We’re talking to the BBC about the second series which we want to do in Italy, so we’re trying to figure that out. And also we’re curious of the idea of an American version of The Trip, which we’re talking to a few people about that for American TV. The way to do it if you wanted to open it up for a wider audience in America is to do it with American comedians. It could be fun. If you got the right people it’s an interesting format, you could try it anywhere really.”

Revolution has previously done films for TV including the lauded Red Riding Trilogy, adapted from David Peace’s books. The company is now working on a Channel 4 adaptation of Peace’s GB84. “Paul Viragh has just delivered the scripts and Mat Whitecross will direct. We’re just submitting the new scripts to Channel 4 and we hope that will be made in 2012.” That story is a conspiracy drama against the miner’s strike of 1984-1985.

Revolution co-founder and director Michael Winterbottom is also continuing to work on his long-in-the-works 7 Days project, which is about a prison inmate (John Simm) and his family over a five-year period. “We were shooting some of that last week. The idea is to deliver that to Channel 4 early next year,” Eaton told Screen.

Eaton said the company is energised by working in both film and TV. “[The whole film industry] is having to come to terms with the fact that TV always had more regular money than we have. But it’s not just an economic thing, it’s the way the world is going in terms of content, the overlaps are going to happen really quickly and it would be good to be in the right place.”

See full interview with Andrew Eaton here.