Nick Cave is set to appear as an animated version of himself alongside Swedish rocker Thåström in new TV series Before They Were Gods.

The show will be directed by Swedish director and writer Måns Mårlind (The Bridge) and is being developed by the Yellow Bird production company from Banijay.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Before They Were Gods is set “in an imaginary world, in which the two musicians were close friends as 14-year-olds, before they would turn into major rock gods.”

The report adds that “the series sees the two search for the ultimate truth, everlasting beauty, and cheap wine. Sometimes they find it, but mostly not. Always there, close to them both, is the promise of endless love in the form of the mysterious and beautiful Linnea who they have both deeply fallen for.”

Director Mårlind said: “This is a dream project that literally came to me in a dream. While asleep, I watched two of my musical heroes as young teenagers, drinking cheap beer while discussing love and the meaning of life. I woke up writing and have been trying to catch up with them ever since.”

Cave added: “Since I was never in Sweden in 1971 and haven’t ever met Thåström, I am obviously intrigued to find out what we never did,” while Thåström said: “I always wanted to be a cartoon hero.”

Last month, Nick Cave released new film This Much I Know To Be True, a documentary meets performance film that centres around the creative relationship between Cave and his Bad Seeds bandmate and longtime collaborator Warren Ellis, and looks at the creation of their most recent albums ‘Ghosteen’ and ‘CARNAGE’.

Andrew Dominik, director of the new film, recently spoke to NME about how the movie depicts how far Nick Cave has come in his journey of processing grief, saying that it presents “what Nick has learned over the past six years that he has to pass on to us”.

“Nick has survived and thrived,” said Dominik. “He’s been determined to take Arthur’s death in the most useful way that he can, and to be there for the other people. The Nick from One More Time With Feeling wouldn’t believe that the Nick from This Much I Know To Be True was possible. In that respect, this film is good for you.”

Reviewing This Much I Know To Be True, NME wrote: “At the core of This Much I Know To Be True are sumptuously-shot performances of choice tracks from the Bad Seeds’ ethereal ‘Ghosteen’ and Cave & Ellis’ lockdown revelation record ‘Carnage’, all filmed in breathtaking arthouse style in an abandoned factory in Bristol.”