Eddie Redmayne, fresh from The Good Nurse, is set to play another killer.
The Oscar-winning actor will star in The Day of the Jackal series for Peacock and Sky. He will play The Jackal, a professional assassin hired by a French paramilitary dissident to kill French President Charles de Gaulle in 1962.
The series is based on the Frederick Forsyth novel and 1973 film adaptation from Universal Pictures. However, it has been reimagined as a contemporary story set amidst the current turbulent geo-political landscape and will delve deeper into the chameleon like ‘anti-hero’.
Top Boy creator and writer Ronan Bennett writes and serves as showrunner. Brian Kirk, who has directed episodes of Game of Thrones and Luther, will direct. It is produced by Universal International Studios’ Carnival Films, which is best known for producing Downton Abbey.
Redmayne will also exec produce alongside Carnival Films’ Gareth Neame and Nigel Marchant, Sky Studios’ Sam Hoyle. Marianne Buckland serves as co-exec producer, Frederick Forsyth is consulting producer and Christopher Hall is a producer.
It will air on Peacock in the U.S. and Sky in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. NBCUniversal Global Distribution will handle international sales of the series.
Redmayne is coming off the back of Netflix’s The Good Nurse, starring opposite Jessica Chastain. He won the Oscar for The Theory of Everything. It marks his first television series in 13 years when he starred in The Pillars of the Earth.
“We are excited to bring to life Ronan Bennett’s re-imagining of Forsyth’s revered thriller in the complex world in which we live today,” said Gareth Neame. “And are incredibly fortunate to have an actor of Eddie’s caliber as our Jackal. Paired with Ronan’s screenplay and Brian Kirk’s direction this is a first class creative team.”
Redmayne is repped by CAA, United Agents, and Jackoway Austen. [Source]
