Netflix has picked up Bad Boy, the Israeli series from original Euphoria creator Ron Leshem that marks North Road’s first international co-production.
The streamer, which has a big library of Israeli content, will launch Bad Boy globally after its first run on Israeli network Hot early next year. The show launched on Hot this week.
Unveiled in March 2023, Bad Boy tells the story of Dean, who is imprisoned in a cruel juvenile detention facility. While in jail, Dean bonds with Zoro, a grim and mysterious teenage prisoner serving time for murder. He also learns to harness his unique intelligence and creativity and, 20 years later, these traits define Dean as a star comedian, while his time in jail is a secret threatening to resurface and tear his life apart.
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The show stars Daniel Chen, Havtamo Farda and Guy Manster. Leshem is showrunner and Hagar Ben-Asher is writer-director.
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Bad Boy was the first international co-pro deal struck by Peter Chernin’s North Road, which is co-studio with Israeli outfit Sipur, while Hot and Tedy Productions are producers. When it was announced, Leshem, who created the original Israeli Euphoria, said Bad Boy could be “the next Euphoria.” He has since detailed to us the intriguing story behind the Toronto Film Festival-premiered series, which harkened back to his time as an investigative journalist when he was assigned to a story in a juvenile prison.
The show will be added to a beefed-up Netflix Israel library that includes the likes of Unorthodox, Shtisel and Bros.
Bad Boy is produced by Jan Frouman (North Road), Emilio Schenker, Michael Schmidt and Gideon Tadmor (Sipur); Guy Levy, Mirit Toovi and Ori Gal (Hot); Tmira Yardeni and Meital Cohen (Tedy); Kristin Jones, Leshem, Ben-Asher and Chen.
Leshem and Ben-Asher have written with Chen, Moshe Malka, Amit Cohen and Daniel Amsel.