A TV series described as an action-packed, sci-fi road trip adventure is to be made in Bristol by some of the industry’s top emerging talent after being commissioned by Netflix for worldwide broadcast.
Pre-production of The Last Bus started this month, with filming beginning in the autumn at the city’s acclaimed Bottle Yard Studios. 
Netflix has commissioned the 10-part series from Bristol-based Wildseed Studios, the multi award-winning scripted entertainment production company which specialises in nurturing exciting new talent.
Wildseed, which was founded in 2013 by former head of broadcast at Bristol-based Aardman Animations, Miles Bullough, and former BBC creative executive Jesse Cleverly, has pioneered a unique approach to nurturing new talent by identifying promising creatives, working intensively with them in development, piloting their ideas and pitching the resulting work into premium platforms.
As a result, The Last Bus features an array of rising production talent identified and mentored by Wildseed over several years as well as a cast that combines proven talent with some kids who have never acted before, cast from a trawl of thousands of young people.
They will play a group of mismatched school students who band together to face a fearsome new machine intelligence.
Jesse, Wildseed Studios’ creative director and co-founder, pictured, left, with Miles Bullough, said: “Although at the top level The Last Bus is a shamelessly entertaining sci-fi romp, at another level it is a powerful eco-fable about how the younger generation must be empowered to make very different choices from the generation which preceded it when it comes to the two big challenges of the age – environmental breakdown and hugely sophisticated artificial intelligence.
“We hope that by producing The Last Bus, and releasing it simultaneously to a global audience, we will have made a small contribution to the pool of courage young people will need to draw upon in the years ahead.”
Wildseed managing director Miles Bullough added: “When we established Wildseed, our vision was to become the leading destination for promising talent looking to get their break into scripted prime time - plugging the gap between platforms and financiers looking for new talent and the ‘bedroom creators’ with the ideas.
“We are proud and delighted that Netflix has championed the production of this ambitious, entertaining and important show and we look forward to working with the excellent team we have assembled in order to execute this to the highest possible standard.”
The series has been created and written by Paul Neafcy, pictured right, whose bedroom-made mobile-phone films on YouTube were spotted by Wildseed.
The studio then worked with Paul to develop two series - Philip Human and PrankMe - for subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) service Fullscreen before developing a premium scripted sci-fi drama concept and a 10-minute pilot that convinced Netflix this new creator was worth a full commission for its Original strand.
Paul will work with new directors 25-year-old Drew Casson and Nour Wazzi, the first Arab director of a premium drama in the UK.
Drew, pictured below, met Wildseed when he was just 18. He produced low-budget 80-minute multi award-winning feature film Hungerford with the studio. Hungerford and its sequel The Darkest Dawn were picked up by Netflix. 
Wildseed worked with rising young director Nour Wazzi on proof of concept film The Moderators before asking her to direct two episodes of The Last Bus.
These rising stars will be supported by some of the UK’s leading creative talents including directors Lawrence Gough (Misfits, Endeavour, Dr Who, Bancroft and Vera) and Steve Hughes (Doctor Who, Land Girls, Midsomer Murders, Treadstone) and production designer James North (Discovery of Witches, His Dark Materials, Dr Who and Line of Duty).
Wildseed has firmly established itself as the UK’s leading destination for promising talent looking to get their break into scripted prime time, plugging the gap between platforms and financiers looking for new talent and the next generation of talent looking for their first break.
As well as getting The Last Bus commissioned by Netflix, it has worked with Disney (Counterfeit Cat), BBC3 (Tales from the Serengeti), Sky (Dodo), Shaw Communications (Startoon) and Fullscreen (PrankMe).
It won a BAFTA in 2016, as well as numerous other international awards, for its work with rising young talent. Wildseed Studios has continued to hire during the pandemic – with staff numbers set to rise from 30 to 100 later this year for production of The Last Bus and other shows yet to be announced.
