“Brass Eye” vet and satirist extraordinaire Chris Morris is supposedly preparing “the comedy version of ‘United 93′” writes the Independent’s Cahal Milmo.  I suppose the musical is still a ways off. (link courtesy Brian Turner)

Channel 4 has confirmed that it is working on a film with Morris (above), variously seen as the genius and villain behind the Brass Eye series, which will examine what a casting sheet describes as “a bunch of Pakistani lads living in Britain now”.

The leaked casting note for the project, due to start filming this summer and directed by Morris, describes one of the characters as being “the sort of guy who’d protest against cartoons in a bomb belt”. Another source said the film would look at “suicide [attacks] with at least some of the dark humour that Chris excels at”.

News of the project comes after Morris, who famously parodied the mainstream media’s attitude to paedophilia in a Brass Eye special in 2001, told an audience last week that he wanted to make “the comedy version of United 93” – the award-winning film about the airliner destined for the White House on 9/11 which crashed in a field after a passenger revolt. Members of the audience at Bournemouth University said that the remark was laden with irony, but it is the latest evidence that the comedian, who has kept a low profile since the height of Brass Eye’s popularity, is looking to explore Islamic extremism.

The casting note, obtained by a fan website, Cookd and Bombd, states: “A TV film about a bunch of Pakistani lads living in Britain now. It’s about what they do for work, for play, what they believe, how they relate to their parents, families, the culture around them, their sense of heritage.” The document describes seven characters aged from 17 to 38 who are variously described as not good with people, fearless, mouthy and mad and brooding. The youngest character is “insanely intense, bright, very focused, blind to anything he’s not focused on, small seething boffin”.