Pulse Films to Adapt ‘Meet Me In The Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock & Roll in NYC 2001-2011’

Global content studio Pulse Films today announces the acquisition of the rights to Lizzy Goodman’s Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock & Roll in NYC 2001-2011. The studio will adapt the best-selling book into a four-part (4x60) cinematic music documentary.

Set against the backdrop of 9/11, Meet Me In The Bathroom tells the story of the last great romantic age of Rock’n’Roll and how bands like The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol redefined a struggling metropolis and catalyzed a generation. It also engages in a broader exploration of youth culture and modernity; the transformation of New York City in the first decade of the 2000’s and the cultural forces that shaped it. From a pre-social media internet, the dot-com boom, the rise of Napster and the death of the traditional music industry, to gentrification, the explosion of Vice and the hipster as a global phenomenon. This is a series that throws focus on the ways in which the world has irrevocably changed in the decades since.

Meet Me in the Bathroom has been named as one of the Best Music Books of 2017 by the likes of Pitchfork and GQ.

Pulse Films’ Thomas Benski, Sam Bridger, and Brian Levy will Executive Produce along with writer Lizzy Goodman. Jaime Neely will Produce.

Directors Will Lovelace & Dylan Southern are attached to helm the new series. The duo behind the Grammy nominated No Distance Left to Run, as well as the seminal Sundance hit Shut Up and Play the Hits, began their career at Pulse Films and have a longstanding creative relationship with the studio. Their documentaries have been an integral part of Pulse’s history and as directors have garnered widespread critical acclaim for their intuitive ability capturing the zeitgeist.           

Combining first hand testimony, rare archive and an era-defining soundtrack from the musicians who lived and breathed the revolution – The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol among many others. The series does away with the expected tropes and conventions of music documentaries to create a work of true cinematic scale that will redefine the scope of the music documentary form.

Lizzie Goodman said: “At various points during the six long years it took to bring Meet Me in the Bathroom to life, it occurred to me what an incredible documentary this would make. At the time it seemed like a total fantasy but it now feels like fate that the team behind Shut Up and Play the Hits, the show that gave me the idea to write this book in the first place, would be the ones to bring Meet Me in the Bathroom to the screen. I couldn't be more excited to work with Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, as well as the entire Pulse Films team. It's time to share with everyone else the full view of this weird, beautiful, dirty time capsule I've been inhabiting.”

Will Lovelace & Dylan Southern commented: “We couldn’t be more excited to be part of telling this story. Lizzy’s visceral, evocative book is incredible source material that affords us the scope to go beyond simply documenting a vital and exciting period of creativity in one of the world’s greatest cities,  and also explore the seismic changes that have occurred in the culture since the turn of the century.”

Thomas Benski, CEO of Pulse Films adds: “Meet Me in the Bathroom is a brilliant property that we are thrilled to be bringing to life in this ambitious way. With the market clearly gravitating towards landmark non-fiction docu-series, we feel Lizzy’s brilliant book, combined with Will & Dylan’s cinematic vision, will create a series that global audiences will cherish. With music so ingrained in our studios DNA and with our proven ability to use music as a lens to tell amazing stories, Meet Me in the Bathroom felt like a natural project for us to truly get behind."

Pulse Films has a rich history of producing innovative music films, documentaries and TV programmes. The studio is behind such hits as the BAFTA nominated 20,000 Days on Earth, and One More Time with Feeling with Nick Cave, Take That’s Look Back, Don’t Stare, Arcade Fire’s The Reflektor Tapes, The Possibilities Are Endless and Beyoncé’s ground-breaking Peabody Award winning and Emmy nominated Lemonade film. In 2017 the studio produced an epic 10-part series about the history of Rock & Roll for broadcaster Sky.

Other notable studio credits include the Cannes Jury Prize winning film American Honey, Grierson Award winning Kingdom of Us, Sundance Award winners All These Sleepless Nights and The Witch as well as 2017’s acclaimed Trophy. The studio's recent TV credits also include Black is the New Black (BBC Two) and Billion Dollar Deals (BBC TWO).

Lizzy Goodman is represented by UTA and Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown. Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern are represented by WME and Pulse Films.