Acclaimed Scottish Scribe Jenni Fagan Signs Development Deal With ‘Marcella’ Producer Buccaneer To Adapt Two Novels

EXCLUSIVE: Acclaimed Scottish writer Jenni Fagan has struck a two-project development deal with UK drama indie Buccaneer Scotland, which is also producing Fagan’s adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s The Blade Artist starring Robert Carlyle.

Buccaneer Scotland, a division of ITV’s Marcella producer Buccaneer Media, has taken options on Fagan’s The Panopticon and Luckenbooth, and she will adapt both for TV.

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Fagan is an award-winning Scottish novelist, poet, screenwriter and artist who has published several books and poetry collections and is well known for a distinctive style. She was called “the patron saint of literary street urchins” by The New York Times and has achieved popularity Stateside.

Deadline revealed last year that Trainspotting star Carlyle would be reprizing his role as the iconic Francis Begbie in a TV version of Trainspotting sequel The Blade Artist from Buccaneer, which Fagan is also penning separate to the deal. Buccaneer was also behind BritBox’s adaptation of Welsh’s Crime, which starred its co-founder Dougray Scott.

“Jenni’s writing takes me to places I’d never expect” said Buccaneer Scotland Co-Founder Tony Wood. “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.”

Fagan described herself as “thrilled” and said it is an “honor and a joy” to be penning The Blade Artist, which will “continue to push boundaries and create the kind of work that shakes everything up.”

Meanwhile, Buccaneer Scotland, which is run by Wood and Richard Tulk-Hart and was co-founded by Mission: Impossible 2 star Scott, has signed former Channel 4 Drama Commissioner Catriona McKenzie as Fagan’s Script Producer and Kathleen Isaac (Gangs of London) as Script Editor for the next season of Crime.

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