Satirist Chris Morris’s movie about wannabe suicide bombers will be filmed this summer after receiving backing from Film4.

With the working title Four Lions, the project about modern British jihadis has been compared with Spinal Tap and Dad’s Army.

Morris is known for lampooning celebrities and politicians in his series Brass Eye.

The show encouraged well-known personalities to warn against the fictitious drug “cake” - and to talk “nonce sense” in a much-complained about spoof of media coverage of paedophilia.

It is thought his latest project exploring the “farce” of terrorism will be the most controversial yet.

The film has been in the pipeline for a while, amid fears over the project being able to get off the ground because of its contentious subject matter.

“There is this Dad’s Army side of terrorism and that’s what this film is exploring,” Morris told the Sunday Times in January last year.

Speaking today, a Film4 spokeswoman said that it was backing the project and that it would be filmed over the summer.

The film is likely to be set for release at the end of the year, she said.

Morris, who is also known for The Day Today, Blue Jam and Nathan Barley, appears to have a “Marmite effect” on people, having been described both as a genius as well as TV’s most loathed man.

Deirdre Steed, who worked with Morris to secure funding for the film, said he has spoken to terrorism experts, imams, police, the secret services and Muslims.

“Even those who have trained and fought jihad report the frequency of farce,” she told the Independent.

Saying terrorist cells shared the same dynamics as stag parties and five-a-side football teams, she continued: “Terrorism is about ideology, but it’s also about berks.”

She said the film plunged people beyond seeing such young men as alien, adding: “As Spinal Tap understood heavy metal and Dr Strangelove the Cold War, Four Lions understands modern British jihadis.”

Explore Film

• Film Reviews

• Trailers

• DVD

• London Film Festival

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010