The Night Manager executive producer Stephen Garrett is taking his latest run at the spy genre after his production house optioned a book on Russian espionage by the BBC’s long-time security correspondent.
Character 7 has taken the rights to Gordon Corera’s non-fiction book Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories And The Hunt for Putin’s Spies with a view to turning it into a television series.
Russians Among Us tells the story of Vladimir Putin’s espionage campaign in the West, the Russian ‘deep cover’ spies who penetrated America and the FBI campaign to capture them.
Garrett said: “I’ve always found spy stories to be compelling recipes for a thriller. Spies not only lie for a living, but they have to lie to their nearest and dearest, too. Gordon Corera has unearthed a jaw-dropping tale — and all the more jaw-dropping for being as zeitgeisty as it is true. It’s terrifying and hilarious in equal measure.”
Corera added: ‘I’m overjoyed that someone with Stephen’s track record, particularly for creating landmark shows in this area, has seen the potential of this story, and how timely it is.”
Garrett, who co-founded Broadchurch producer Kudos, is currently working on supernatural spy drama The Rook for Starz and is also adapting John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came In From the Cold for AMC and the BBC.
Russians Among Us will be published by William Morrow on February 18 in the U.S. and two days later in the UK by William Collins. The deal with Character 7 was brokered by Georgina Capel Associates, which represents Corera.