Paramount+ to visit Elizabeth Macneal’s Doll Factory with Buccaneer Media

US-based streamer Paramount+ has commissioned an adaptation of Elizabeth Macneal’s bestselling novel The Doll Factory from Marcella producer Buccaneer Media.

Elizabeth Macneal

The Doll Factory will join the line-up of Paramount+ Originals available on the streaming service for audiences in the UK and Ireland. The drama was ordered by Sebastian Cardwell, Paramount’s deputy chief content officer in the UK.

Public broadcasters SBS in Australia and TVNZ in New Zealand have also boarded the 6×60’ historical thriller, adapted from Macneal’s debut novel, with Cineflix Rights as international distributor.

Buccaneer Media is the London-headquartered TV production company behind returning scripted series Marcella (ITV/ Netflix), Crime (BritBox/ ITVX) and Whitstable Pearl (Acorn), plus new commissions The Burning Girls (Paramount+) and So Long, Marianne (NRK).

British screenwriter Charley Miles will adapt The Doll Factory for the screen. Sacha Polak (Hanna, Dirty God) is on board as director, Suzanne McAuley (Magpie Murders, Maigret) is producer and Julie Harkin (I May Destroy You, Becoming Elizabeth) is casting director.

Macneal and Miles exec produce alongside Buccaneer trio Tony Wood, Anna Burns and Richard Tulk-Hart.

The Doll Factory is the latest UK drama commission for Paramount+ following A Gentleman in Moscow, Sexy Beast, The Blue, The Ex-Wife, The Burning Girls and Flatshare.

Buccaneer recently announced it was developing two Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) novels for TV, The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins and The Blade Artist. The company is also in development on In Memoriam, an original drama series written by Miles. The series is a coproduction with Participant Media.