'Sexy Beast' TV Series Not So Sexy Anymore As Paramount Network Nixes The Idea

Bad news: the Sexy Beast TV series isn't so sexy anymore. The series, which was meant to be a prequel to the 2000 film of the same name, was given a 10-episode straight-to-series order by the Paramount Network last year, but now it looks like Paramount is giving up on the idea due to budget cuts. The show hadn't started filming yet and was still in the scripting phase, so it was easier to kill it now rather than later.

Sexy Beast was a delightfully twisted 2000 dark comedy/crime thriller from director Jonathan Glazer, starring Ben Kingsley (in an Oscar-nominated performance) as a volatile gangster who shows up out of the blue one day to recruit retired crook Ray Winstone for a big job. It could've been a straightforward crime drama, but in Glazer's hands, it turned into a strange, almost surreal experience, with Kingsley chewing the scenery with aplomb. It also didn't exactly cry out for a TV series prequel, but Paramount Network was willing to give it a go – at first.

However, Variety reports the Sexy Beast TV series has now been scrapped over at Paramount due to budget cuts in the wake of the Viacom-CBS merger. The show hadn't started filming yet, and there are no plans to shop it to another network. R.I.P., Sexy Beast TV series. We hardly knew ye. But we'll always have the memories. The sexy, sexy, beastly memories.

Had the series gone ahead, it would've told "the story of up-and-coming criminal Gal Dove as he forms a partnership with Don Logan, starts working for criminal mastermind Teddy Bass and meets and falls in love with adult film star DeeDee — his future wife. Gal is a brilliant thief and Don is a vicious gangster, and the series will explore the pair's complicated relationship as Gal finds himself descending into the seductive madness of the London criminal world during the vibrant and volatile 1990s." Winstone played Gal in the original film, while Kingsley played Don Logan. Teddy Bass was played by Ian McShane, and Amanda Redman was DeeDee. There was also a weird rabbit-human hybrid with a machine gun, but I don't know if that character was supposed to be in the TV show. And I guess now I'll never know.