BAFTA award-winning screenwriter Jack Thorne is set to pen a new four-episode event series adaptation of William Golding’s iconic 1954 novel “Lord of the Flies” for BBC One.
The original book concerns a group of British schoolboys who are stranded on an uninhabited Pacific island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves.
The previously well-educated boys regress to a primitive state – paranoid about an imaginary monster on the island and turning to tribalism and cruelty with several of the more innocent boys of the story killed.
This would mark the first time the tale has been adapted directly for television and follows on from two notable film adaptations in 1963 and 1990. Luca Guadagnino was linked to a potential adaptation in development a few years ago, whilst an abandoned all-female version from 2017 was a direct inspiration for the Showtime series “Yellowjackets”.
Thorne is known for his work on the “Enola Holmes” films and plenty of acclaimed British series, including the “This is England” saga along with “National Treasure,” “The Last Panthers,” “The Fades,” “The Eddy” and as showrunner of HBO’s “His Dark Materials”. He also wrote the “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” stage show.
Joel Wilson and Jamie Campbell will executive produce and obtained the rights from Judy Golding Carver, William Golding’s daughter, who said in a press release there’s a “freshness and vigor” with which Thorne and Wilson are undertaking the project.
Source: BBC
