The iconic 1973 political thriller The Day of the Jackal and its new TV remake, starring Eddie Redmayne, have an unexpected connection.
, starring Edward Fox, and its present-day remake, starring Eddie Redmayne, are in many ways siblings in name only. The new television series is not a remake in the strictest sense – more on that later – and they are set in wildly different political landscapes.
“It was one of my father’s favourite movies, we had this very battered old VHS video copy of it,” Redmayne says. “We watched it consistently. And so when this script arrived in my inbox, there was quite a serious amount of trepidation because you don’t want to butcher the things you savour.” . The idea of a Jackal remake had been on the cards for some time, as Carnival’s American studio partner, NBC Universal, held the rights to the film in their library.“My first instinct was, no way, I revere the film too much. It cannot be bettered, so there’s no point even going there,” says Carnival’s executive chairman, producer Gareth Neame. “So, I was quite stubborn for a while about that, thinking I’m just not going to pursue this.
“And yet structurally, they’re on this kind of one-way collision course with each other,” Redmayne adds. “What I loved about the writing was the challenge of making someone who’s doing these horrific things someone who the audience also feels for? That moral ambiguity was really compelling to me. Do I think he’s good? No. Did I fight for my character? Yes.
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