Buccaneer Scotland Inks Development Deal with Jenni Fagan

Buccaneer Scotland, dedicated to creating original international series with Scottish literary talent, has signed a development agreement with author and poet Jenni Fagan.

Fagan is currently writing the adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s The Blade Artist, which will see the Trainspotting franchise hit TV screens for the first time. Under the deal, she will also adapt her novels The Panopticon and Luckenbooth for TV.

Freelance script producer Catriona McKenzie (Good Omens 2), former deputy head of drama for Granada TV and Channel 4, will work alongside Fagan on the three projects.

Buccaneer Scotland also continued its commitment to Scottish talent by hiring Glasgow-based Kathleen Isaac (Gangs of London), who will join the production team working on the second season of Irvine Welsh’s Crime as script editor.

“I am absolutely thrilled to be working with a team of innovative, forward-thinking, talented individuals at Buccaneer Media on adapting my novels The Panopticon and Luckenbooth for television,” Fagan said.

She continued, “Writing the adaptation of The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh is an honor and a joy; the TV series will continue to push boundaries and create the kind of work that shakes everything up. Begbie is a man who has served an extraordinary amount of time in prison by the time we meet him again, and he is quite unexpectedly working as a successful commercial artist in L.A. The television adaptation of The Blade Artist is a vital homage to the confines and restriction of circumstance, legacy and institutionalization. It is underpinned by the dual energies of creation and destruction, showing how both can manifest equally powerfully. I can’t wait to work with the exceptionally talented team behind this, not least Robert Carlyle.”

“Jenni’s writing takes me places I never expect,” said Tony Wood, co-founder and co-CEO of Buccaneer Scotland. “It’s so completely the right time for a woman to take on the Trainspotting world, and Jenni is precisely the right person for the job; already a colossus in the literary world, Jenni Fagan will be a star of TV and film drama writing for years to come. She’s a dazzling talent you can’t look away from.”

Dougray Scott, co-founder of Buccaneer Scotland and star of Irvine Welsh’s Crime, added, “I haven’t been more enthralled or blown away by a writer since I read Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting. Jenni Fagan has a unique and blistering voice which resonates infinitely. Her characters give voice to the dispossessed and unheard. Luckenbooth is an adult fairy tale of sorts that captivated me right from the start. I am so excited and thrilled to be part of the team that will bring her novels to the screen. Scotland has another extraordinary literary talent!”