"This Is Birmingham" Indie Crime Film to Become TV Series
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- "This is Birmingham" is being developed into a TV series that "expands the world" of the film into "a bigger, character-driven crime drama," creator Kay S. Ubhi told Deadline in an interview
- The film peaked at No. 5 on Prime Video UK's top ten films earlier this week and currently sits at No. 10 in most-watched action movies, despite being made on a minimal budget
- Ubhi wrote, self-funded, and stars in the pic as AK, the inexperienced son of an imprisoned Birmingham crime boss who steps up to lead the family business against rival gangs
- Bafta-winning producer Michael L. Cowan, the UK film sales and production veteran, is among the film's producers and attached to the TV adaptation
- The film is now being distributed in the U.S. on transactional on-demand platforms, extending its reach beyond the UK Prime Video breakout
- Ubhi cited Birmingham's cultural moment via Peaky Blinders and This Town, pointing to "a real audience for authentic British crime dramas" as the reason the film resonated
Why it matters: For Ubhi, a self-financed indie cracking Prime Video UK's top five ahead of studio productions and now spawning a TV adaptation validates the creator-funded route — and gives streamers another proof-of-concept that demand for Birmingham-set crime stories remains live, riding the wave of Peaky Blinders and This Town.
