Production on the Park Chan-wook directed six-part le Carré adaptation begins in early 2018
London and Los Angeles, 21 November 2017 – The Ink Factory, BBC ONE and AMC announced today that Emmy® Award-Winner Alexander Skarsgård (“Big Little Lies”, “True Blood”, Tarzan) will join Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth), in Park Chan-wook’s (Old Boy, The Handmaiden, Stoker) television debut “The Little Drummer Girl”, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by John le Carré. Production on the six-part mini-series begins early next year with global sales handled by Endeavor Content/IMG.
In “The Little Drummer Girl” brilliant young actress Charlie (Pugh) strikes up an acquaintance with an intriguing stranger while on holiday in Greece, but it rapidly becomes apparent that his intentions are far from romantic. The man is Becker (Skarsgård), an Israeli intelligence officer, who entangles her in a complex and high stakes plot which unfolds as she takes on the role of a lifetime in the ‘theatre of the real’. Set in the late 1970s, yet sharply contemporary, “The Little Drummer Girl” weaves a dynamic and exciting story of espionage and international intrigue; of love and betrayal.
Simon and Stephen Cornwell, Co-CEOs and Founders of The Ink Factory said: “The level of expertise and creativity behind this series is unmatched, and we are excited to be gathering a cast of incredible talent to inhabit the brilliant world le Carré has created. Alexander Skarsgård is a captivating actor with great depth and we are delighted to have him join the project.”
Park Chan-wook added: “To play an enigmatic man who hides his true feelings deep inside, I couldn’t think of a more fitting actor. I believe Skarsgård’s growing depth as a great character actor and his soaring energy will elevate “The Little Drummer Girl” to a higher place.”
The series will be financed and produced by The Ink Factory in partnership with 127 Wall and co-producers the BBC and AMC. Laura Hastings-Smith (“Howards End”, Macbeth and Hunger) will work as Producer with Simon and Stephen Cornwell serving as Executive Producers alongside John le Carré, Mona Qureshi for the BBC, Joe Tsai and Arthur Wang for 127 Wall, and Wonjo Jeong.
Skarsgård will next be seen starring in Duncan Jones’ Mute opposite Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux and The Aftermath, starring opposite Keira Knightley. He will also be seen in Hold the Dark, Netflix’s adventure thriller from director Jeremy Saulnier. Skarsgård is currently shooting Hummingbird in Montreal, which he is co-starring in opposite Jesse Eisenberg, with Kim Nguyen directing. Skarsgård was most recently in Jean-Marc Vallée’s award-winning HBO series “Big Little Lies,” for which he won the Emmy® for best supporting actor in a limited series.
Skarsgård is represented by CAA and lawyers Steve Warren and Gretchen Rush; Park is represented by Industry Entertainment and WME; and Pugh is represented by Julian Belfrage Associates and WME.
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About The Ink Factory
The Ink Factory is an independent studio with global reach, founded in 2010 by Stephen and Simon Cornwell. The company tells compelling stories across television, film, games and immersive experiences, developing these from inception to release, through long-term relationships with authors and creators. They take bold creative and financial decisions, and seek out opportunities for ambitious and genre-defining work.
A core pillar of the company is the adaptation of the work of author John le Carré for film, television and other media.
The Ink Factory is currently in post-production on Drew Pearce’s Hotel Artemis, starring Jodie Foster and Sterling K Brown and is behind the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning drama series The Night Manager, based on a le Carré novel of the same name for the BBC and AMC. The company is working on a television adaptation of le Carré’s The Little Drummer Girl directed by Park Chan-wook as well as a series based on The Spy Who Came in From the Cold produced in association with Paramount TV, both for the BBC and AMC.
The company’s first film, A Most Wanted Man, based on the novel by John le Carré, was released in 2014. Other past projects include Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, directed by Ang Lee and based on the award-winning novel by Ben Fountain, and Netflix Original Message from the King, a noir thriller by Stephen Cornwell and Oliver Butcher which premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
The Ink Factory has also partnered with one of the games industry’s top talents, Matt Nava, to found digital studio Giant Squid. Giant Squid’s first game, the twice BAFTA nominated ABZÛ, was released in August 2016.
The company is headquartered in London and Los Angeles.
About AMC
AMC is home to some of the most popular and acclaimed programs on television. AMC was the first basic cable network to ever win the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Drama Series with “Mad Men” in 2008, which then went on to win the coveted award four years in a row, before “Breaking Bad” won it in 2013 and 2014. The network’s series “The Walking Dead” is the highest-rated series in cable history and the number one show on television among adults 18-49 for the last five years. AMC’s other current original drama series include “Better Call Saul,” “Fear the Walking Dead,” “Into the Badlands,” “Humans,” “Preacher,” “The Son” and the forthcoming “Dietland,” “The Terror,” “Lodge 49,” and “McMafia.” AMC also explores authentic worlds and discussion with original shows like “Talking Dead,” “Talking With Chris Hardwick,” “Comic Book Men” and “Ride with Norman Reedus.” AMC is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc. and its sister networks include IFC, SundanceTV, BBC America and WE tv. AMC is available across all platforms, including on-air, online, on demand and mobile.
About Endeavor Content :
Endeavor Content is a division of Endeavor, a global entertainment leader operating in more than 30 countries. Endeavor Content specializes in scripted television and feature film financing, development and sales on behalf of many of the world’s leading artists and content creators.
About Park Chan-wook
Park Chan-wook is a Korean film director, screenwriter, producer and former film critic who has emerged as one of the most significant talents in cinema in recent years. He is best known for his films Joint Security Area, Thirst, The Handmaiden and what has become known as The Vengeance Trilogy consisting of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance.
Park’s incredibly diverse body of work has garnered recognition in his homeland as well as from a number of leading international film festivals. In 2011, the short film Night Fishing, which he co-directed with his brother, Park Chan-Kyong, and shot entirely with Apple’s iPhone, won the Golden Bear (Short Film) at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2009 Park received worldwide attention for his vampire thriller Thirst, which earned him the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. This monumental film was the first Korean film ever to secure North American distribution and Hollywood studio investment at the production stage. Lady Vengeance was awarded the Cinema Avvenire and Il Leoncino d’oro awards in competition at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. This was preceded by Oldboy, which won the prestigious Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
Park’s interest in film began in college as a philosophy student at Sogang University where he founded a film club and developed a strong interest in film theory and criticism. His film Joint Security Area became the biggest box office hit in the history of Korean cinema at the time of its release (since then, the record has been passed on to other films).
In 2013, Park’s ninth feature and his first English language film Stoker starring Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode and Nicole Kidman was released worldwide by Twentieth Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures to critical acclaim world over.
He is also the producer of the feature film, Snowpiercer (2013), directed by Bong Joon-ho, with an international cast including Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner and Alison Pill, with John Hurt and Ed Harris.
In 2016, he was once again invited to Cannes with The Handmaiden which went on to win the Vulcan Prize. The film, which was inspired by Sarah Waters’ historical crime novel Fingersmith (2002), has proven to be a critical and box office success.