‘The Day Of The Jackal’ EPs On Bringing Frederick Forsyth’s Novel Into The 21st Century & Swapping Politics For Cat-And-Mouse Entertainment

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It was only when the team at Carnival Films decided they would fast forward The Day of the Jackal to the present day that things started getting interesting.

Carnival bosses Gareth Neame and Nigel Marchant had toyed with the idea of remaking Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 historical novel about the fictional assassination of Charles de Gaulle for a few years but had always concluded that the 1973 movie version starring Edward Fox “cannot be bettered so why would you want to remake it,” according to Neame. “We revere the film enormously but kept talking about [a remake],” he added. “It was such an intriguing, interesting idea and we couldn’t quite let it go.” So in the midst of the pandemic, Neame and Marchant decided they would instil two obvious points of difference by making The Day of the Jackal into a 10-episode series and setting it in a 21st century milieu, with no mention of the iconic former French President. “That was the breakthrough for us,” added Downton Abbey exec Neame. “When we thought we could do it as a contemporary series we realized we could unlock something that was really quite different from the original.

It made it worth doing.” Fast forward some years and The Day of the Jackal, which launches tomorrow on Sky and Peacock, stars Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne and No Time to Die star Lashana Lynch as the chameleonic assassin and the talented agent chasing him across the continent.

The series is set amid a turbulent geo-political landscape and kicks off with the assassination of a fictitious German politician.