Netflix wants to stay in the Jack Thorne business. Variety reports (via Deadline) that the streamer acquired the US rights for Thorne’s latest limited series “Lord Of The Flies,” an adaptation of William Golding‘s novel of the same name. It’ll be the third series of Thorne’s Netflix gets the rights to, after last year’s “Toxic Towns” and the Emmy-winning “Adolescence.”
Sony Pictures Television announced the deal today ahead of the four-episode series screening at the Berlinale; the entire series already premiered on BBC iPlayer in the UK on February 8, with the show’s first episode airing on BBC One the same day. Others have already swooped in on the rights to other worldwide territories for “Lord Of The Flies.” BBC handles the show’s distribution in the UK, where novelist Golding hailed from. “Lord Of The Flies” was Golding’s debut novel, and it remained the author’s most famous book, despite winning the Booker Prize for 1980’s “Rites Of Passage.”
Thorne’s series is the first television adaptation of the novel, about a group of boys stranded on a tropical island, forced to learn how to survive. Lox Pratt leads the ensemble cast, alongside newcomers Winston Sawyers, David McKenna, Ike Talbut, Thomas Connor, and others. Marc Munden directs the entire series, with Thorne adapting Golding’s novel for the small screen.
It’s not surprise that Netflix swooped in on “Lord Of The Flies” after the Emmy success of “Adolescence.” That limited series won eight award out of its fourteen nominations at the ceremony last year, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Lead Actor in a Limited Series for Stephen Graham, and Supporting Actor for Breakout Star for Owen Cooper. Netflix wants a follow-up to “Adolescence,” but Graham teased it’s still a ways off: 3-4 years or so.
Stay tuned for the premiere date of “Lord Of The Flies” on Netflix; it’s likely to be soon. Also of note: Thorne has another TV series on the way this year: “Falling” starring Paapa Essiedu and Keeley Hawes, about a nun who falls in love with a Catholic priest. Will Netflix pick up that one, too?
