AMC, BBC revisit le Carré

Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Debicki in The Night Manager

US cablenet AMC is partnering with the BBC and The Ink Factory in adapting John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold for TV, following their success with The Night Manager.

The series, which has been in the works since last summer, is based on le Carré’s 1963 hit novel, which was made into a movie starring Richard Burton in 1965.

AMC, the BBC and Ink Factory last week scored a triple at the Golden Globes for The Night Manager, their 2016 small-screen version of another le Carré book, with stars Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman all picking up acting awards.

The Spy, which tells the story of a British intelligence operative who seeks revenge on the East German intelligence service’s deputy director who was responsible for the deaths of several of his agents, will now follow.

“John le Carré is one of the master storytellers of our time, and to have the opportunity once again to put his page to our screen is an absolute privilege,” said Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV.

BBC drama controller Piers Wenger said The Spy Who Came in From the Cold was “one of the best spy thrillers ever written” and was “utterly timely in its evocation of the Cold War period.”

Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) is adapting the novel and, along with Ink Factory, Kudos co-founder Stephen Garrett’s Character 7 is producing. Whereas WME-IMG acted as distributor on The Night Manager, Paramount Television is fulfilling this role on The Spy.

“We are thrilled to be teaming again with AMC and the BBC to adapt this extraordinary work for television,” said Ink Factory co-founder and co-CEO Simon Cornwell, the eldest of le Carré’s four sons.

The announcement came during AMC’s appearance at the Television Critics’ Association (TCA) Press Tour over the weekend during which the US cablenet also announced new drama series The Son, which sees former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan return to TV for the first time in 30 years.

Based on Philipp Meyer’s best-selling novel, The Son is a family saga spanning 150 years about a good-natured family man who loses everything on the wild frontier, setting him on the path to become a calculated killer who ruthlessly builds a ranching and oil dynasty.

The 10×60’ series will be produced by AMC Studios and Sonar Entertainment and is written and executive produced by Meyer, Lee Shipman, Brian McGreevy and showrunner Kevin Murphy. Tom Lesinski and Jenna Santoianni also serve as exec producers.

AMC is also teaming with Aliens and Avatar director James Cameron for a documentary series on the history of science fiction. James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction (6×60′) will air in 2018 produced by Left/Right.

To watch an in-depth C21TV interview with Simon Cornwell discussing The Night Manager and plans for The Spy, click here.