Channel 4 commissions new drama-doc Cyber Bully (w/t)

18 September 2014

 

69% of young people in the UK have experienced some form of cyber bullying. In the most severe cases, victims can face webcam hacking, exploitation and ‘suicide trolling’. Anti-bullying campaigns urge teenagers to ‘walk away’ from online abuse, but for those caught in the grip of bullying, turning their backs on their tormentors is not easy.

In Cyber Bully (w/t) Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) is Casey Jacobs, a teenage girl battling with her anonymous cyber-stalker in a real-time thriller from the makers of Blackout. Casey is a teenager who experiences the worst the web has to offer – from peer-to-peer bullying to advanced computer hacking – and fights to overcome her ordeal.

The plot of Cyber Bully is inspired by dozens of real-life cases. What happens to Casey is extreme, and framed in a dramatic format, yet all the events depicted are possible and indeed have happened to victims individually. Channel 4 Head of Documentaries, Nick Mirsky said, “It is one of the most important purposes of Channel 4 to find new ways of engaging young audiences with the cyber world and the stories that play out on the internet. This film does exactly that in a way that is gripping, relevant and fiercely public service”

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In common with recent cinema releases, Locke and All Is Lost, this film takes place in a single location and is centred around one character. Director Ben Chanan said, “The audience will be trapped with Casey for a full screen hour and we need an exceptional actress to play her. I couldn’t imagine anyone else in the role. Maisie Williams is not only remarkably talented, she also has an immediately likeable, feisty screen presence which makes you root for her instinctively”.

Maisie Williams was born on April 15, 1997. She is best known for her role as Arya Stark in HBO’s Game of Thrones, which is now filming its fifth season. The role earned her two Portal awards in 2012 for best supporting actress and best young actor in television - the youngest actor to achieve this – and was followed in 2013, by the Radio 1 Teen Award for Best British Actor. This year as well as being named as one of the UK’s international screen stars of tomorrow, Maisie also won The Entertainment Weekly’s award for best Supporting actress.

Cyber Bully is produced by multi-award winning Raw TV (The Imposter) with Exec Producer Richard Bond (Blackout) and BAFTA award-winning director Ben Chanan (Blackout, Plot to Bring Down Britain’s Planes) and with an exciting supporting cast of young British talent including Ella Purnell (Maleficent) and Jake Davies (X + Y). TX early 2015