HBO Hands ‘Kids’-Meets-‘Trainspotting’ Teen Drama ‘Euphoria’ Pilot Order Based On Israeli Thriller

HBO has handed Euphoria, a “Kids-meets-Trainspotting” teen drama based on an Israeli format, a pilot greenlight. The announcement was made by HBO Programming President Casey Bloys at the INTV conference in Jerusalem.

The series will be written by Sam Levinson, who wrote Wizard of Lies for the Time Warner-owned premium broadcaster, who will exec produce alongside Ron Leshem, Daphna Levin and Tmira Yardeni, who created the Israeli original, Hadas Mozes Lichtenstein, Mirit Toovi, Yoram Mokadi and Gary Lennon. A24 Television is producing.

Euphoria, which was produced by Teddy Productions and for cable network HOT3, follows a group of high school students as they attempt to cope through drugs, sex and violence in an effort to make sense of an uncertain future. It follows the true story of a teenager who was murdered outside a club. It chronicles the lives of the teens from the club a year after the tragedy and the paths they take to cope and escape reality.

Bloys was speaking at the conference alongside David Levine and Francesca Orsi, who are both EVPs and Co-Heads of Drama at HBO and WME agent Marc Korman.

It is the latest Israeli series adapted by HBO. One of the channels first break through dramas was In Treatment and it has partnered with Keshet on another series, written by In Treatment and The Affair creator Hagai Levi, on a series about Israel’s 2014 war with Gaza.

Levine said that the scripted format world is “still very relevant.”

“It’s done really well for us, we got In Treatment. We’re always looking for things from Israel because of the innovation and the way things are filmed,” he added.