BBC One and AMC announced production has begun on The Little Drummer Girl based on John le Carré’s bestseller. Park Chan-wook (Old Boy, The Handmaiden) is making his television directorial debut with the six-part miniseries starring Alexander Skarsgard (Big Little Lies, True Blood), Michael Shannon (The Shape of Water, Nocturnal Animals), and Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth).
Mike Lesslie (Macbeth) and Claire Wilson (Partners in Crime) adapted John le Carré’s novel, with le Carré, Joe Tsai, Arthur Wang, Mike Lesslie, Wonjo Jeong, and Park Chan-wook executive producing. Laura Hastings-Smith (Howards End), Simon Cornwell, and Stephen Cornwell are producing.
The series is financed and produced by The Ink Factory in partnership with 127 Wall.
The cast of The Little Drummer Girl also includes Michael Moshonov (The City and the City) as Litvak, Charif Ghattas (After the Ashes) as Khalil, Amir Khoury (Fauda) as Michel, Katharina Schuttler (Dogs of Berlin) as Helga, Simona Brown (Kiss Me First) as Rachel, Max Irons (Condor, The Wife) as Al, and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) as Picton.
The behind the scenes team includes production designer Maria Djurkovic (The Imitation Game), cinematographer Woo-Hyung Kim (Assassination), and film editor Lucia Zucchetti (Game Change). Sheena Napier (Howards End, Enchanted April) and Nicole Stafford (The Death of Stalin) are collaborating on the costume, make-up and hair design.
The Plot: 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 orchestrated by Spymaster, Kurtz (Shannon). 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.
