EXCLUSIVE: Irvine Welsh Discusses His HBO Comedy

Legendary Scottish author Irvine Welsh has discussed, for the first time, his in-development HBO comedy series with ShortList.com - and it is definitely happening.

Speaking to us ahead of the DVD release of the critically-acclaimed Filth, based on his book of the same name, Welsh confirmed that Jay Z, Will Smith and Calvin Harris were all involved, saying: "It is true, and it is exciting, but it's in the infancy stage. But actually I'm going to meet people this week - myself and some of the producers on the show - and just really look at what we want to do, and what we need to do to move it on."

He also revealed legendary producer and DJ Arthur Baker - who has worked with New Order, Diana Ross and Afrika Bambaataa, amongst many others - might be involved, saying that "I've been thinking about doing something around music for a while and particularly dance music. Arthur Baker and I have been involved on working on something" and that "I think the concept of this [show] probably came from Calvin [Harris]".

He refused to be drawn on further details however, saying "I think if you talk about a project too much when it's in its infancy, you jinx it...I'd much rather kind of get the script done, get the thing shot, then see how it looks."

The potential for comedy is clear though, as Welsh went on to discuss the current big names of EDM - Calvin, Tiesto and Deadmau5, saying: "...the money you have, the temptations you have, the hours, the travelling and all that, it would be so easy to fall off the rails...you're in the most hedonistic environment possible and you're the, kinda the god in that hedonistic environment so the opportunity to go absolutely fucking crazy is just beyond...it's probably unprecedented since the top guys in the Roman Empire basically!"

Check out our full interview with Irvine online next week.

Filth is released on Blu-ray, DVD & Steelbook from Monday Feb 10th

(Images: Getty)