Colin Callender’s Playground Nabs Alan Moore’s Fantasy Book ‘The Great When’ As Part Of Genre Expansion & Shift To Multi-Season Series →

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EXCLUSIVE: “For the first time in my career, I’m genuinely excited and enthusiastic about a work of mine…one that I own, and believe could work marvelously in a different medium…being adapted for the screen,” Watchmen author Alan Moore says in a rare quote about his new fantasy novel, The Great When, getting a TV adaptation. In a competitive bidding situation, Colin Callender‘s production company Playground has landed the rights to the book by the famous graphic novelist, which was published Oct. 1 by Bloomsbury. The Great When is the first in Moore’s planned five-volume Long London series of epic fantasy novels that Playground plans to adapt into a tentpole, multi-season event series.

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'The Hardacres' Sold To BritBox Ahead Of Channel 5 Launch →

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EXCLUSIVE: Banijay Rights has sold rags-to-riches series The Hardacres to a wealth of territories as the sales giant reveals one of its biggest pre-MIPCOM deal packages with the Cannes confab kicking off next week.

The Channel 5 show from All Creatures Great and Small producer Playground chronicles the loves and fortunes of the working-class Hardacre family as they move from a grimy fish dock to a vast country estate in 1890s Yorkshire, England. The show has sold to BritBox in Australia, TVNZ in New Zealand, TV4 Sweden, MTV in Finland, DR in Denmark, RTÉ in Ireland, BBC First in Benelux and, as previously announced, Movistar Plus+ in Spain. Dazzler Media has acquired home entertainment rights for the series in the UK. It is made in association with Screen Ireland, Red Berry Productions and Newgrange Pictures.

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Inspector Lynley Series In The Works At BritBox International & ‘Wolf Hall’ Producer Playground

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EXCLUSIVE: Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley mysteries are being given a new lease of life.

More than 15 years on from the closer of the BBC‘s mid-noughties adaptation, BritBox International, Wolf Hall producer Playground and Salt Films are developing Lynley, a new version, which is being penned by Sherlock writer Steve Thompson and directed by Ed Bazalgette.

Leo Suter (Vikings: Valhalla) and Sofia Barclay (Ted Lasso) are leading the adaptation, playing DI Thomas Lynley and DS Barbara Havers, an aristocratic police detective and maverick sergeant from a working class background. Together, the mismatched duo become a formidable team, bonded by their desire to see justice done, while the series tackles issues around personality, gender and class.

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Harriet Walter, Timothy Spall & Harry Melling Join BBC & Masterpiece’s ‘Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light’ →

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Wolf Hall is coming back and bringing Harriet Walter, Timothy Spall and Harry Melling along for the ride. The trio are joining the cast alongside the likes of Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis, Jonathan Pryce, Kate Phillips and Lilit Lesser in the period drama for the BBC and Masterpiece PBS. The six-part series is currently filming across the UK. Succession star Walter will play Lady Margaret Pole, while Mr Turner star Spall is the Duke of Norfolk and Melling (The Queen’s Gambit) plays Thomas Wriothesley.

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‘All Creatures Great And Small’: Masterpiece Drops New Teaser For Season 4 →

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EXCLUSIVE: Masterpiece has dropped the trailer for season 4 of All Creatures Great and Small, returning Jan. 7 to PBS.

Season 4 sees Nicholas Ralph reprise his role as young country vet James Herriot, now happily married to Helen Herriot, played by Rachel Shenton (For Her Sins). Samuel West (Slow Horses) returns as James’ erratic mentor Siegfried Farnon while Anna Madeley (Patrick Melrose) continues as Mrs. Hall, matriarch of Skeldale House. Patricia Hodge (A Very English Scandal) also reprises her role as the eccentric Mrs. Pumphrey, and Derek as her Pekingese Tricki. 

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‘Wolf Hall: The Mirror And the Light’: Masterpiece & BBC To Begin Production On Hilary Mantel Adaptation Starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis →

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Masterpiece PBS and the BBC are set to begin production on Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, an adaptation of the final novel in Hilary Mantel’s award-winning trilogy.

Mark Rylance will reprise his role as Thomas Cromwell, while Damian Lewis will return as King Henry VIII. Also returning are Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Wolsey, Kate Phillips as Henry VIII’s third wife Jane Seymour and Lilit Lesser as Princess Mary, the daughter of Henry and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light will trace the final four years of Cromwell’s life, completing his journey from self-made man to the most feared, influential figure of his time. Further returning and new cast members will be announced at a later date.

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Gloria Estefan Writing Music & Lyrics For New Stage Musical ‘Five Notes’ About Paraguay’s Recycled Orchestra →

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Eight-time Grammy winner Gloria Estefan is writing the music and lyrics for an original stage musical called Five Notes about Paraguay’s Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, the singer announced today.

In an Instagram post, Estefan said she’s collaborating with her daughter Emily Estefan for the music, with the book written by playwright Karen Zacarías. Dear Evan Hansen director Michael Grief will direct Five Notes, according to Estefan.

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Paramount’s Channel 5 Says Drama Fueling Ratings Growth & Record Profit As It Eyes New Series From ‘All Creatures Great & Small’ Producer →

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EXCLUSIVE: Channel 5 has said the success of drama series including All Creatures Great and Small has boosted its ratings and propelled the Paramount-owned UK broadcaster to record profits.

Channel 5 is looking to double down on its scripted purple patch with another major adaptation from Playground Entertainment, producer of All Creatures. The company is in talks to turn international bestseller Hardacre into a sweeping rags-to-riches series set in Yorkshire, Deadline can reveal.

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Richard Shepard To Adapt ‘The Wicked Girls’ For Playground →

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All Creatures Great and Small producer Playground has optioned Alex Marwood’s The Wicked Girls and Girls director Richard Shepard will write, direct and exec produce. The psychological thriller will be developed as a limited TV series, with no network attached as yet. Published a decade ago, The Wicked Girls tells of struggling journalist Kirsty Lindsay who is reporting on a series of attacks on young female tourists in a seaside vacation town. When her investigation leads her to interview carnival cleaner Amber Gordon, both of their lives are turned upside down. Colin Callender, Scott Huff and David Stern will oversee development and executive produce for Playground. They said: “Alex Marwood wrote a novel filled with complex female characters and page turning thrills. We were hooked from page one by the story of Kirsty and Amber and how their past secrets unravel to form a fascinating relationship that upends both their lives.”

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Laura Shin’s ‘The Cryptopians’ In The Works As Drama Series From ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ Producer Playground →

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EXCLUSIVE: Crypto page-turner The Cryptopians, written by Laura Shin, is in the works for the small screen.

Playground Entertainment, the company behind series such as Starz’s Dangerous Liaisons and Peacock/Channel 4’s Undeclared War, has optioned the rights to the non-fiction book with plans to turn it into a television drama series.

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'Dangerous Liaisons’: Lesley Manville, Carice Van Houten, Paloma Faith, Michael McElhatton, Kosar Ali, 9 More Cast In Starz Prequel Series →

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Oscar nominee Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Emmy nominee Carice van Houten (Game of Thrones), Paloma Faith (Youth) and Michael McElhatton (Game of Thrones) and BAFTA nominee Kosar Ali (Rocks) are among 14 cast in Starz’s original series Dangerous Liaisons, a reimagining of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ classic 18th century novel. Also joining leads Alice Englert and Nicholas Denton in the prequel series are Nathanael Saleh (Mary Poppins Returns), Hakeem Kae-Kazim (Godzilla vs. Kong), Hilton Pelser (Moffie), Mia Threapleton (A Little Chaos), Colette Dalal Tchantcho (The Witcher), Lucy Cohu (The Queen’s Sister), Fisayo Akinade (The Personal History of David Copperfield), Maria Friedman (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) and Clare Higgins (Ready Player One). The series hails from Lionsgate TV, Colin Callender’s Playground Entertainment and Tony Krantz’ Flame Ventures.

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‘Dangerous Liaisons’: Alice Englert & Nicholas Denton To Star As Merteuil & Valmont In Starz Prequel Series →

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Alice Englert (Ratched) and Nicholas Denton (Glitch) have been cast as the notorious lovers Merteuil and Valmont in Starz’s original series Dangerous Liaisons, a reimagining of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ classic 18th century novel, from Lionsgate TV, Colin Callender’s Playground Entertainment and Tony Krantz’ Flame Ventures.

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Starz Developing Eleanor Of Aquitaine Series With Susie Conklin & Playground Entertainment →

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Starz is developing a slate of series inspired by “extraordinary women of history” and has set a drama about Eleanor of Aquitaine from A Discovery Of Witches writer Susie Conklin and Playground Entertainment as the first in the strand.

The network has optioned the rights to historian Alison Weir’s biography Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life and its companion novel Captive Queen for the first series.

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Playground Options Documentary ‘The Dog’ For TV Series Development →

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EXCLUSIVE: Colin Callender’s Playground (Wolf Hall, Howards End) has acquired the television rights to award-winning documentary The Dog to develop as a drama series.

Directed by Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren, The Dog tells the extraordinary back-story of the late John Wojtowicz, the bank robber whose antics inspired Al Pacino’s character in Sidney Lumet’s 1975 classic Dog Day Afternoon.

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Lionsgate & ‘Little Women’ Producer Playground Plot Fantasy World With Tamora Pierce’s ‘Tortall Universe’ Series →

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EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate and Little Women and King Lear producer Playground Entertainment have teamed on a major fantasy project – a television adaptation of Tamora Pierce’s expansive Tortall Universe series.

The Orange Is the New Black studio and Colin Callender’s production company, which was also behind Jodie Comer’s The White Princess, have optioned the rights to the 22 book series from Donald Laventhall of Folio on behalf of Pierce.

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‘Dangerous Liaisons’ Series Lands At Starz; Harriet Warner To Write, Colin Callender’s Playground Entertainment & Tony Krantz’s Flame Ventures To Produce →

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EXCLUSIVE: Starz has ordered a reboot of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ classic 18th Century novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons). The premium network has handed the series, from Colin Callender’s Playground Entertainment and Tony Krantz’ Flame Ventures, an eight-part order.

The tale of seduction, betrayal and revenge is being written and showrun by Harriet Warner, the showrunner of TNT’s forthcoming drama Tell Me Your Secrets, who has also worked on The Alienist and long-running BBC drama Call The Midwife.

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