According to Deadline, Eddie Redmayne (The Good Nurse, Jupiter Ascending) will star in an upcoming series for Peacock and Sky, The Day of the Jackal. The Oscar-winning actor will play The Jackal, a professional assassin hired to kill French President Charles de Gaulle in 1962 by a French paramilitary dissident. In the U.S., it will air on Peacock and in the UK, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland on Sky. The international sales of the series will be handled by NBCUniversal Global Distribution.
The series is based on the novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth (Icon, The Odessa File) and the Universal Pictures 1973 film adaption. The story has been reimagined for a contemporary setting of the current geo-political landscape and will further explore the anti-hero main character.
It is directed by Brian Kirk (Great Expectations, Game of Thrones) and created and written by Ronan Bennett (Top Boy, Gunpowder), who will be serving as showrunner. Executive producing is Gareth Neame (Downton Abbey, The Woman in White) and Nigel Marchant (Seven Kings Must Die, Salting the Battlefield) for Universal International Studios’ Carnival Films, Sam Hoyle (Broadchurch, Doctor Who) for Sky Studios, Marianne Buckland (Britannia, My Mad Fat Diary), and Redmayne. Christopher Hall (Burn Up, Bugs) is a producer and Forsyth is a consulting producer.
“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,” Neame told Deadline. “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 recently starred opposite Jessica Chastain (Interstellar, The Help) in Netflix’s The Good Nurse. This will be his first TV series since The Pillars of the Earth 13 years ago. He is represented by Jackoway Austen, CAA, and United Agents.