Sky has officially announced a six-part television adaptation of The Death of Bunny Munro, with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis set to compose the original score. The announcement, made today (August 5), confirms the long-standing collaboration between the two Bad Seeds bandmates will continue with this darkly comic and emotionally charged series, based on Cave’s 2009 novel of the same name.
The series stars Matt Smith (Doctor Who, The Crown) in the lead role as Bunny Munro – a deeply flawed, sex-addicted door-to-door salesman who embarks on a chaotic road trip along the Sussex coast with his son Junior following the suicide of his wife, Libby. As Bunny desperately attempts to maintain a grip on his fractured life – peddling beauty products while pursuing a series of disastrous romantic escapades – his son Junior wrestles with grief, often communicating with the ghost of his mother. The road trip becomes a reckoning for Bunny as he is ultimately forced to confront the kind of man, and father, he truly is.
The adaptation has been written by Pete Jackson, the BAFTA-winning screenwriter behind Somewhere Boy, and directed by Isabella Eklöf, known for her critically acclaimed work on Holiday. While a release date for the series has yet to be announced, a special preview screening will take place at Southbank Centre’s London Literature Festival on October 30 at the Royal Festival Hall. The evening will feature a screening of the first two episodes followed by an exclusive live Q&A with Nick Cave and Matt Smith.
Nick Cave – the mind behind the story of The Death Of Bunny Munro is also set to create the musical score for the series alongside long-time collaborator Warren Ellis. The duo previously collaborated on soundtracks for The Proposition (2005), The Road (2009), Wind River (2017), Blonde (2022), Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022), and most recently Back to Black (2024), the Amy Winehouse biopic.
According to Sky, the score for The Death of Bunny Munro was recorded at Soundtree Music in East London and engineered by Juis Almau. The music is said to reflect the raw and unruly energy of the narrative, capturing the emotional volatility, dark humour, and surreal undertones that characterise both the novel and the screen adaptation.
Tickets for the October 30 preview event at Southbank Centre go on general sale at 10am BST on Thursday, August 7. More information can be found via the Southbank Centre website.
