INDIANAPOLIS — A 1971 cat-and-mouse thriller is getting a modern adaptation.
In this version of "The Day of the Jackal," based on Frederick Forsyth's book, Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne ("The Theory of Everything," "Les Misérables") stars as the titular assassin, making his living by carrying out hits for the highest fees. BAFTA winner Lashana Lynch ("The Woman King," "Captain Marvel") is a tenacious British intelligence officer set on tracking him down.
"It's a very wide scope. We shot in many locations. It's an original IP from the '70s, but this is it's own thing. It's no longer a film, it's no longer a book — it's a 10-part series, but it has its own flair and its own sophistication to it," Lynch said.
"What's interesting about it is these two people, Lashana's character is hunting me down, but both of them, you root for and yet have deeply flawed moral compasses," Redmayne said. "What I find intriguing about it, structurally, is hopefully you are behind both of these characters, but you know they're on a one-way collision toward each other."
Even as the villain of the story, it's nearly impossible not to root for Redmayne's character.
"I feel we live in a world of things aren't binary anymore, everything is on a spectrum, there's more ambiguity, and the idea of good vs. evil, there are so many inflections within that," Redmayne said. "What appealed to me about it is this man is kind of an actor. He changes the way he looks, he changes his languages. The idea of playing an actor and investing in all of those qualities that got us into this world, the things that we love doing, that was such an intoxicating prospect for me."
Filming "The Day of the Jackal" reportedly took place in four countries – Austria, Croatia, England and Hungary – evident of the chase involving the two lead characters.
"At different points in the series, you want to see if they collide at some point," Lynch said. "She has this really grizzly nature that helps her to push through a lot of the things that we don't see women represented on screen in general."
The first five episodes of "The Day of the Jackal" premiere Thursday, Nov 14 on Peacock, followed by weekly installments every Thursday until the double finale Thursday, Dec 12.