A man’s dream of becoming a filmmaker may only be a few weeks from reality after being shortlisted in a national talent search overseen by Netflix.

Peter King, originally from Brafferton, near Darlington, is putting the finishing touches to his zombie-themed comedy screenplay after it was selected from 800 entrants among the six finalists in a competition to find untapped filmmaking talent.

The six chosen filmmaking teams have earned their shortlisting for their “daring and ambitious” offerings in the Breakout competition, run by Creative UK in partnership with Netflix.

Breakout is offering aspiring filmmakers in different genres the opportunity and funding to advance a debut feature with the support of a massive world-wide mover and shaker in the form of Netflix.

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The shortlisted six have each received £30,000 of development funding to take part in the programme and hone their entries through a series of labs and workshops to help them explore essential production and business elements to enable them to bring their projects to the screen.

Mr King, as writer and director, with project partner Chloe Fernandes, the producer, hope to make the successful move from the world of advertising to feature film production.

Creative UK described their film, Mortal, as providing, “a unique take on the classic zombie apocalypse genre.”

The attached logline states: “During a zombie apocalypse, an unlikely group of misfits discover the only way to survive is to keep drinking alcohol.”

Mr King, a former student of Woodham School, in Newton Aycliffe, and the QE College in Darlington, has worked in advertising in the London area for 16 years, but he now hopes his breakthrough in the film industry could only be a few weeks from fruition.

“We got an email saying we were shortlisted and then interviewed about a year ago, but we were told we have to keep it quiet until late last week when it was announced.

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“The incentive of having someone like Netflix behind us with a budget of about £1.5m is unbelievable. It would be massive for us, but it’s small change for them.

“We’ve had a couple of boot camp sessions where we sit with other producers, a music supervisor and a cinemaphotographer.

“They’ve talked us through the process and given us feedback and advice.”

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Mr King has been perfecting his final script for submission today (Tuesday April 11), with the winning filmmaking team expected to be revealed in mid-May.

But he has pledged if he and Ms Fernandes get the nod, Mortal will be filmed in County Durham, with a cast largely locally selected.

The prospect of zombies roaming around the County Durham countryside may yet move from the script sheet to the film set.