NOTE: This article is a republication- Source: Kirkus Reviews (by Michael Schaub).
John le Carré’s The Constant Gardener is headed to the screen again, Deadline reports.
Le Carré’s novel, published in 2001 by Scribner, tells the story of a man trying to get to the bottom of his wife’s murder in Kenya. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Under all the sumptuous detail, sensitive psychology, and incisive condemnation of industrial cartels, this is still at its core the old, familiar story of a decent man driven to avenge the wife he never really knew.”
The Ink Factory, an independent studio, is developing a limited series adaptation of the novel, which will be written by Lydia Adetunji. The studio has previously developed le Carré’s A Most Wanted Man as a film and The Little Drummer Girland The Night Manager as television series; it is now working on a TV adaptation of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.
The Constant Gardener was previously adapted into a film in 2005, directed by Fernando Meirelles and starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz, who won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her performance.
Simon Cornwell and Stephen Cornwell, two of le Carré’s sons and the co-founders and CEOs of The Ink Factory, 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.”