Miramax TV lands Daisy Ridley to star in and exec produce The Christie Affair

Daisy Ridley is to star in and exec produce The Christie Affair

CONTENT LONDON: Star Wars’ Daisy Ridley is to star in and executive produce the TV series adaptation of Nina de Gramont’s best-selling novel The Christie Affair, Miramax TV announced here tonight.

As Content London drew to a close, the company confirmed to C21 that Ridley will play the mistress of crime novelist Agatha Christie’s husband in the series, as well as exec produce the show.

British writer Juliette Towhidi (Calendar Girls, Death Comes to Pemberley, The Essex Serpent, Testament of Youth) is adapting the script from the novel published by St Martin’s Press in February this year.

The murder mystery series is a reimagining of Christie’s 11-day disappearance in 1926, following the news of her husband’s affair. Told through the eyes of Ridley’s character, it follows how the mistress and the celebrated crime author become entwined in each other’s lives in ways neither expected.

Miramax TV, the television arm of the movie studio owned by beIN Media Group and Paramount, will produce with the Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Rich Green, Jeremy Bell and DJ Goldberg exec producing alongside Ridley. Marina Niel is supervising the project for Miramax UK.

The Christie Affair is part of Miramax TV’s push into creating premium content for the international marketplace by not only producing television content based on its film library but also acquiring new IP and pairing with premiere talent to bring projects to life, the company said.

Other Miramax TV projects include the recently announced series adaptation of Chocolat as a coproduction with France’s Mediawan; and Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, a limited series coproduction with Germany’s X-Filme.

The UK office is also working on The Turkish Detective, a series set in Istanbul for Paramount+; a series based on the company’s action comedy The Gentlemen from Guy Ritchie with Netflix; a series adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient at the BBC; and a series adaptation of Jim Cartwright’s play The Rise & Fall of Little Voice, which inspired the 1998 Miramax film Little Voice.

Ridley is currently starring in and producing the indie drama Sometimes I Think About Dying, based on the play Killers by Kevin Armento, as well as starring in Neil Burger’s The Marsh King’s Daughter, an adaptation of the thriller novel of the same name.

She will also star as the titular character in Joachim Rønning’s movie Young Woman & the Sea, based on Glenn Stout’s novel of Gertrude ‘Trudy’ Ederle, the first woman to ever swim across the English Channel. It will be released on Disney+ in 2023.

“We couldn’t be more grateful to be joined by Daisy on this incredible project – as both the star as well as our producing partner,” said Marc Helwig, head of worldwide television at Miramax TV. “Daisy is one of the most captivating and talented actors working today.”