The Ink Factory, BBC ONE and AMC have announced that Academy Award-nominated Michael Shannon (The Shape of Water, Nocturnal Animals) will join BAFTA Award-nominated Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth) and Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Alexander Skarsgård (Big Little Lies, True Blood) in Park Chan-wook’s television debut The Little Drummer Girl, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by John le Carré. Park’s feature film credits include fan favorites Old Boy, The Handmaiden, and Stoker.
In The Little Drummer Girl, 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 Israeli 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.
The series will be financed and produced by The Ink Factory in partnership with 127 Wall and co-producers the BBC and AMC. Laura Hastings-Smith (Howards End, Macbeth and Hunger) will work as Producer with Simon and Stephen Cornwell serving as Executive Producers alongside John le Carré, Mona Qureshi for the BBC, Joe Tsai and Arthur Wang for 127 Wall, Wonjo Jeong, and Park Chan-wook.
Michael Shannon can currently be seen in Academy Award-nominated The Shape of Water, from Guillermo del Toro, and Nicolai Fuglsig’s 12 Strong. His upcoming projects include Paramount Television’s Waco, HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 as well as Elizabeth Chomko’s What They Had.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
