Legendary gets Thorne on its side

Fledgling joint venture prodco Legendary Global has tapped the writer behind the TV adaptation of His Dark Materials to helm a retelling of A Tale of Two Cities.

Jack Thorne

Legendary Entertainment and Chris Albrecht’s Legendary Global will work with Jack Thorne on the latest adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel, with Thorne writing and executive producing the series.

The drama was inspired by Dickens’ original publication of the novel, which is set in London and Paris during the French Revolution, as weekly chapters in a newspaper.

As well as HBO and the BBC’s adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, multi-Bafta- and Tony-winning writer Thorne was behind the critically acclaimed play Harry Potter & the Cursed Child.

His forthcoming projects include The Eddy for director Damien Chazelle and Netflix, Radioactive for StudioCanal and Amazon and book adaptation The Secret Garden for StudioCanal.

Legendary Global, announced at the end of 2019, will focus on developing, financing and producing premium international scripted television.

The venture will leverage Legendary’s film and TV resources and operate independent of Legendary TV, focusing on creating partnerships with international platforms and buyers.

Albrecht, the former boss of Starz, left the premium US cablenet last year having joined the channel in 2010 to develop its pay TV operations and original programming.