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And let’s just say it did not disappoint.
If you haven’t watched that episode already, stop what you’re doing andwatch it now.
We also discussed some of the finer details of the show, including its killer soundtrack and score.
But it wasn’t just anyone that I got to chat with over Zoom.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Spoilers for season 1 of “The Day of the Jackal” should be expected beyond this point.
You’d think that this adaptation was merely a play to cash in again on a successful intellectual property.
But according to Neame, if that was the case, they wouldn’t have done it.
“For about a year we decided we didn’t want to pursue this because we love the book.
We admire the movie enormously,” Neame said.
“We didn’t really have any interest in doing a kind of straight remake.”
That said, they didn’t abandon the 1971 book or the 1973 movie entirely.
When I asked him about his favorite, he immediately had an answer.
“I’d say the watermelon that we put in there that feels absolutely so iconic.
Anthony [Philipson] who directs that, [did a] shot-for-shot remake of it.”
“‘You’ll need a code name.
Why not The Jackal?
You know, those are all direct dialog lifts from the novel.”
However, the show wasn’t originally sold with Redmayne or Lynch attached.
“He [Redmayne] is so meticulous as an actor,” Marchant said.
Lynch too was clearly a natural fit if Marchant’s praise is any indication.
“She’s a brilliant actress, but she has a physicality.
She could do the action sequences.
So it felt very natural for the pair of them [to be cast].”
And a conclusive ending at that.
Obviously, the two headlines are the people who double-crossed him and the wife who got away.
“There’s a finite ending to the novel and the movie.
So we didn’t really want to give any indication about that.
And there is a plan for season 2, though it’s not fully mapped out.
As Neame says, “You never know whether you’re getting the second season or not.
“Can he have his cake and eat it?
A home life and being an assassin.
We get to the end of those [in season 1], that’s fallen apart.
So the question in the second [season] is, can you make that work?
Or are they fundamentally opposed?
Or certainly, that’s the question that we ask at the end of the first season.”
When in doubt, get an Academy Award winner.
Credit to her indeed.
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