What began as a creative fantasy story unintentionally became hyper-realistic in Burt Marling and Zil Batmangle’s hit limited series. A murder at the end of the world.
The writing duo, who also serve as co-creators, directors and EPs of the FX series, sat down on Deadline’s Contenders TV program on Sunday to discuss the inspiration behind the mystery.
Marling explained that the idea for the tech retreat came to him back in 2019, when several of his own friends had gone through similar experiences, describing how interesting it was to see “everyone in front of a bunch of billionaires.” All too ready to surrender, but what are the billionaire’s intentions?”
At the time, artificial intelligence was nowhere near where it is today, with many of his own friends trying to discourage him from making it so central to the plot that “AI is too far away.” Yes, Mars, do this, but don’t do that, AI.” They didn’t let that stop them, both confirming that they wanted it from the start. The two also had access to a beta version of ChatGPT that was laughably corrupted when prompted, leading them to agree that the story was just sci-fi.
Then, while he was writing it, chat GPT broke, and “it just became real life”.
As for the possibility of a second season, the duo didn’t give any concrete details but said, “It’s possible… but we have to wait for the good ending”.
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A murder at the end of the world It is set in a remote and isolated compound of a billionaire and stars Emma Curran as amateur sleuth Darby Hart, a Gen Z tech-savvy hacker. Darby and eight other guests are invited by a reclusive billionaire (Clive Owen) to attend a retreat in a remote and spectacular location. When one of the other guests is found dead, Darby must use all his skills to prove it was a murder against competing interests before the killer takes another life.
Marling and Batmanledge have been writing partners for more than a decade. They wrote and produced two films together, including The sound of my voice And East, which was also directed by Batmanglij and starred Marling. He also headlined the duo’s Netflix series oh ohwhich ran for two seasons.
A murder at the end of the world Produced by FX Productions. Marling and Batmangh executive produce with Andrea Sperling (transparent)Melanie Marnich and Nikki Paluga.
Check back Monday for the panel video.