‘The Constant Gardener’ Limited TV Series In The Works

Max Goldbart
·2 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: A limited TV series adaptation of John le Carré’s The Constant Gardener set in a “post-pandemic context” is being developed by The Ink Factory, coming almost two decades after the Oscar-winning movie.

His Dark Materials and Noughts + Crosses scribe Lydia Adetunji is penning the TV adaptation, Deadline can reveal, with no network or cast attached as of yet.

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Lydia Adetunji
Lydia Adetunji

The TV version is described as a “post-pandemic” contemporary retelling of one of The Night Manager author’s most popular novels. The Constant Gardener follows Justin Quayle, a British diplomat and avid horticulturalist who meets an Amnesty International activist in London called Tessa. After striking up a romance, they head on a journey that weaves together a brutal murder, government corruption and corporate malfeasance in a plot which unravels across Kenya, the UK and mainland Europe.

Directed by City of God‘s Fernando Meirelles, the 2005 movie starred Ralph Fiennes as Quayle and Rachel Weisz as Tessa, with Weisz winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and the movie earning another three nominations.

The Ink Factory Co-CEOs Simon Cornwell and Stephen Cornwell said: “It’s thrilling to be reinterpreting The Constant Gardener in a contemporary, post-pandemic context, and to be rooting the story in an authentic, modern Kenya with all of its richness, politics and energy. Lydia’s bold, exciting but also lyrical approach to the adaptation tells a story that keeps the audience on the edge of its seat – intensely relevant in the modern world, and simply beautiful.”

Adetunji said she “adores the passionate love story and gripping thriller” element of the novel, which was published in 2001.

The Ink Factory is also in the process of giving the TV treatment to another former le Carré movie adaptation, A Most Wanted Man, while it is making a second season of Tom Hiddleston-starrer The Night Manager for the BBC and Amazon Prime Video. Beyond le Carré, the Cornwell’s outfit is producing a Korean-language series adaptation of Un Su Kim’s The Plotters, a show based on Lara Prescott’s The Secrets We Kept and a further project based on C Pam Zhang’s How Much of These Hills is Gold.

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