Hugh Laurie is returning to TV, and he's bringing Tom Hiddleston with him. AMC has signed a deal to enter into a co-production with the BBC in adapting John Le Carre's novel The Night Manager as a six or eight episode mini-series. The 1993 espionage thriller follows a familiar Le Carre pattern, with former British soldier Jonathan Pine becoming embroiled with an exotic woman, Sophie, and English weapons black marketeer Richard Onslow Rope. British intelligence eventually becomes involved as Pine's situation worsens.
There is no word on which role the actors will take, or on any additional casting. The series will be overseen by Royal Shakespeare Company associate director and Spooks writer David Farr, so he's at least got the credentials to pull off the spy stuff. And Hiddleston and Laurie both have the proof in their CV's that they'll be able to deftly handle the high drama and tension of Le Carre's material. I imagine that which ever role Laurie ends up playing, it'll be a form of wish-fulfillment for him, as he has previously stated that his career goal was to play a spy, but he got sidetracked into comedy. He even wrote a spy novel in the mid-nineties, which he's been trying to get adapted pretty much since it hit the shelves. Maybe, if the Night Manager works out for him, the Gun Seller might be in his future.
Via Uproxx.