Lee Daniels is moving into the spy genre, according to The Hollywood Reporter, as he’ll executive produce a series adaptation of the Sam Greenlee novel “The Spook Who Sat By Door” with “The First Purge” director Gerard McMurray handling the show’s pilot. Leigh Dana Jackson will be the series showrunner, writer, and executive producer on the CIA project. Jackson previously worked on “24: Legacy” and Apple TV+‘s ambitious sci-fi series “Foundation,” an adaptation of the beloved literary universe created by visionary author Isaac Asimov.
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Daniels is best known for “Precious,” “The Bulter,” the Fox series “Empire,” and his upcoming directorial effort “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” debuting on Hulu February 26. He’s also working on a reboot of the classic series “The Wonder Years” for ABC to focus on a black family.
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Its fictional story follows the CIA’s first black agent, Dan Freeman, as he navigates the agency during the late 1960s. Freeman is recruited as part of the affirmative action program, which was controversial as it started to break down segregation in workplaces that were predominantly white in that era.
The Greenlee novel published in 1969 previously inspired the 1973 film of the same name that starred Lawrence Cooke and was directed by Ivan Dixon. It was added to the National Film Registry back in 2012 by the Library of Congress.
FX and Hulu projects being part of the Disney umbrella post-merger are now prime to be added to Disney+’s new mature addition Star, which launches later this month in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. This could allow shows like “The Spook Who Sat By The Door” to grow a rather large international audience as the streaming service adds Star to more markets and regions.