@bespokeredmayne / bespokeredmayne.com
With a new trailer and a flurry of stills, Peacock-SkyTV have revealed the scope and intensity of their 10-part “The Day of the Jackal”series, based on the iconic 1971 novel by Frederick Forsyth, ahead of its debut next month.
This is my video using the new and previously released stills, shot by Marcell Piti. They show a shapeshifting Eddie Redmayne as the elusive assassin, a fierce Lashana Lynch on his trail, and a stellar supporting cast against international backdrops.
A few observations of our own:
•Filming has been seen largely in Hungary and Croatia, with a brief stop in London’s Camden Locks.
•Eddie has made references to learning some Spanish, and he was seen in Cadiz with members of the production team last April.
•Other prep apparently included him taking a course in stunt driving. Altogether, the stunt team is listed as having 14 members.
•The cast and crew, as unfolding on the Internet Movie Database, is vast. Among the other behind-the-scenes credits, we can see drone photography, prostheses (Jackal’s disguises?), dialect coaching, animal wrangling, an armorer (weaponry/ammo), military presence, and an intimacy coordinator (sexual content).
Share what you find interesting about the production, once you peruse these sources:
“The Jackal himself will be played by Eddie Redmayne, marking his first proper return to TV in over a decade. It's also the first time he'll be jumping into the spy world, which is surely a right of passage for any British actor of a certain age.
“Someone not making their debut in the spy caper, though, is Lashana Lynch– 007 herself. After starring in No Time to Die as the agent taking over James Bond's famous numerical moniker, she'll star in The Day of the Jackal as Bianca, the MI-6 agent tasked with taking Redmayne's Jackal down.
“Charles Dance will also lend his bassy timbre to the project, which will be a reunion of sorts with the show's director Brian Kirk, who helmed some of Game of Thrones which Dance starred in as Tywin Lannister.
“Elsewhere in the cast are The Crown's Khalid Abdalla and Money Heist's Úrsula Corberó, as well as Richard Dormer, Chukwudi Iwuji and Eleanor Matsuura. The show will be a joined venture between Sky and the US network Peacock…
“The 10-episode series will land on our screens sometime this year, but, like all good spy documents, any specificities right now are shrouded in secrecy. You'll be able to watch the series on Sky in the UK while it will premiere on Peacock across the pond.”
“This contemporary reimagining of the iconic thriller stars Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne as The Jackal, an unrivalled and highly elusive lone assassin, and No Time to Die’s Lashana Lynch as Bianca, a tenacious MI6 agent in a relentless, global pursuit to catch him. The 10-part thriller is based on Frederick Forsyth’s seminal novel and its 1973 film adaptation.
“While remaining true to the DNA of the original, this new drama will delve deeper into the chameleon like ‘anti-hero’ at the heart of the story, in a high octane, cinematic, globetrotting ‘cat and mouse’ thriller, set amidst the turbulent geo-political landscape of our time. The Day of the Jackal is written and adapted by Top Boy creator and writer Ronan Bennett, with award-winning Game of Thrones, Luther and Boardwalk Empire director Brian Kirk serving as lead director. The Day of the Jackal will premiere on Sky Atlantic.”
These photos, which appeared on Just Jared, show Eddie filming on location in Croatia.
