The BBC and Stan have unveiled a cast of up-and-comers for Jack Thorne‘s Lord of the Flies adaptation, with Hans Zimmer set to do the score.
The networks said they cast following an open call with many actors who don’t have previous experience. David McKenna will play Piggy alongside Winston Sawyers as Ralph, Lox Pratt as Jack, Isaac Talbut as Simon, and Thomas Connor as Roger. Noah and Cassius Flemyng have been cast as the twins Sam and Eric, with Cornelius Brandreth as Maurice, and Tom Page-Turner as Bill, alongside an ensemble of more than 20 other boys playing the desert island camp’s “big ‘uns” and “little ‘uns”.
Zimmer, who has also scored upcoming BBC drama Virdee, will do the music with Kara Talve (Tattooist of Auschwitz, Prehistoric Planet) for Bleeding Fingers Music.
Lord of the Flies is an iconic 1950s story from William Golding of a group of young schoolchildren who find themselves stranded on a tropical island with no adults, following a deadly plane crash. In an attempt to remain civil, the boys organise themselves, led by Ralph and supported by the group’s intellectual, Piggy.
The adaptation is one of the BBC’s biggest upcoming dramas and Australia’s Stan is co-producing. Sex Education maker Eleven is producing with One Shoe Films.
Thorne said: “I still can’t believe we have been given the opportunity to film this beautiful book. The first few days shooting show that our cast are extraordinary and that Marc is finding a whole new visual language in capturing the wonders of them and the beauty of Malaysia. He is an incredible storyteller. It is all so exciting.”
Commissioned by the BBC, Lord of the Flies (4×60) is an Eleven and One Shoe Films production backed by Sony Pictures Television. The series is written by Thorne, directed by Marc Munden, and produced by Callum Devrell-Cameron (Sex Education, Hanna). The executive producers are Joel Wilson and Jamie Campbell for Eleven, Thorne for One Shoe Films, Marc Munden, Nawfal Faizullah for the BBC, and Cailah Scobie and Amanda Duthie for Stan. The series is filming now in Malaysia, ahead of further filming later this year in the UK.