AMC & BBC to Adapt John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

LOS ANGELES: Following on their successful collaboration with The Night Manager, AMC and the BBC are partnering with The Ink Factory for a TV adaptation of John le Carré’s best-selling novel The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.

Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) is adapting the piece for television. The novel was originally written in 1963 and in 1965 it was made into a film directed by Martin Ritt and starring Richard Burton, Claire Bloom and Oskar Werner. The story is set in 1962, at the height of the Cold War and only months after the building of the Berlin Wall. It follows Alex Leamas, a hard-working, hard-drinking British intelligence officer whose East Berlin network is in tatters. Leamas is called to London, where, to his surprise, he’s offered a chance at revenge. But to get it, he may have to stay out in the cold a little longer.

The Spy is being distributed internationally by Paramount and will be produced in association with Character 7. The news comes on the heels of three Golden Globe wins for The Night Manager, a le Carré adaptation that AMC and the BBC worked on together.

Additionally, AMC has greenlit a new documentary series, James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction (working title), from James Cameron, the filmmaker behind legendary sci-fi films The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Avatar. The series explores the evolution of sci-fi, from its origins as a small genre with a cult following to the blockbuster pop-cultural phenomenon it is today. The doc series will consist of six one-hour episodes and will debut on AMC in 2018.