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British Spy Hit ‘Spooks’ Coming to the Big Screen

By Jack Gattanella on Fri 8 Nov, 2013

75857574943625730VprR0bnucSpooks, which originated as a TV series that ran for ten years in the UK and became a cult hit with fans of dramatic spy stories, will see a cinematic adaptation very soon; Game of Thrones’ John Snow (Kit Harington) and Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty, Contagion, upcoming RoboCop) are set to star along with the original star of the TV show, Peter Firth, reprising his role as Harry Pearce.  The title of the film will be Spooks: The Greater Good.

The series, which was called MI-5 in the US (no relation to Mission: Impossible despite the title; think M:I 6 from the James Bond films as comparison), followed the exploits of the elite intelligence organization, and the film will follow a similar route with new characters.

Harington will play a young agent looking to a terrorist who escaped during a handover and a ticking-clock scenario as London is under threat; his character will also be a protege of Pearce at MI-5.

 

Ehle will be playing a character named Dame Geraldine Maltby, according to the show’s producer Ollie Madden, who along with collaborators Jane Featherstone and Stephen Garrett will move on to the film version.

While Madden praised the casting choices to THR – Harington will be an interesting choice for sure as his character, Jon Snow, is more of a struggling hero than a conventional terrorist fighter – Garrett talked up the new excitement this could build for the series as a film: “With Spooks: The Greater Good we’ve set out to make a gripping, cinematic, contemporary spy thriller — one that builds on the history of the show and its legacy of questioning the world around us, but which also delivers as a stand-alone film for a new, global audience.”

600full-jennifer-ehleWriters of the show, Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent, are also penning the script.  Thought it has no American distributor yet, it’s lined up with film sales company Altitude, with its managing director very enthusiastic about all the pieces coming together “…  for the international market as a gripping, high-concept espionage thriller with global stakes, a classy, award-winning cast and strong franchise potential.”  The film will be directed by Bharat Nalluri, who directed six episodes and also helmed Torchwood for BBC.

Lastly, Hot Fuzz fans shall be warned not to continually repeat in unison THE GREATER GOOD when/if it’s mentioned in the film.

Jack is a graduate of film studies from William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ, and is currently seeking his MFA in Screenwriting at the Academy of Art. He is a screen-writer, film critic, director, and editor, and has also done camera-work for web-series, doccumentaries and shorts. Currently Jack is seeking distribution for his feature film drama, “Green Eyes“, co-produced a sci-fi feature, Audrey Lorea‘s ‘Heaven is Now.‘, as well as a comedy pilot called ‘Losers’ which is being shopped around to networks. He is also a contributing writer for the sites FocusFilm.co.uk, Film Forward, and some of his other reviews can be found on his blogcinetarium.blogspot.com. Jack is a vociferous fan of films and will watch anything interesting, foreign and domestic. He survives by his wife, a political science professor, and currently resides in Little Ferry, New Jersey, USA.
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