The Boys from Brazil series adaptation moves ahead at Netflix with Jeremy Strong in the lead role
Back in 1976, Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives author Ira Levin brought the world a conspiracy novel called The Boys from Brazil – and since Levin’s works had previously proven to be the makings of successful film adaptations, it’s no surprise that The Boys from Brazil was quickly turned into a movie. Released in 1978, that feature adaptation of the novel was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner from a screenplay by Heywood Gould and starred Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier (who received an Oscar nomination for his performance), Steve Guttenberg, and James Mason. That film isn’t quite as popular as Rosemary’s Baby or The Stepford Wives, but it has a strong following – and Deadline reports that the Netflix streaming service is set to build on that following with a series adaptation of Levin’s novel. We heard the first rumblings of this project nine months ago, when we heard that this new take on The Boys from Brazil is being written by Peter Morgan and is set to star Jeremy Strong of Succession. Now, it’s moving forward and Strong has been joined in the cast by Daniel Brühl (Captain America: Civil War) as Von Harteneck, August Diehl (A Hidden Life) as Johann-Friedrich Meinhardt, Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) as Frieda Steiner, Shira Haas (Captain America: Brave New World) as Anna Koehler, and Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) as Hannah Liebermann. Strong’s character is Yakov Liebermann.
Filming will begin next month and will take place in the UK, Germany, Bulgaria, and Spain.
Yakov Lieberman is a famous Nazi hunter who is drawn to investigate a conspiracy spun to him by a young Nazi hunter (played by Steve Guttenberg in the original film). Lieberman is highly skeptical of the young man’s claims that notorious Dr. Josef Mengele is in Paraguay, starting on a diabolical plan to reestablish the Third Reich through a cloning plan put in place after Germany lost World War II. When the young Nazi hunter is killed, Lieberman heads to Paraguay to uncover a truth that turns out to be horrific. Peck played Mengele in the film, and Lieberman is the role Olivier earned his Oscar nomination for. Here’s the description of the Netflix version: Part historical thriller part moral reckoning, The Boys from Brazil is a five-part limited series (hour-long episodes) about obsession, vengeance and the terrifying persistence of hatred. It asks: When the world chooses to forget its darkest history, who will fight to keep the memory and the justice alive? Set across three decades from the immediate aftermath of World War II through the political turbulence of the 1970s, the series follows Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Yakov Liebermann in his lifelong crusade to bring Nazi fugitives to justice, a crusade that has cost him nearly everything. When one of his young protégées, undercover in Brazil, learns of a shocking Nazi plan, Liebermann is in a race against time to expose an unimaginable truth: Meinhardt, a sadistic Nazi scientist he believed long dead, is alive and orchestrating a diabolical project to spark the rise of a Fourth Reich.
Morgan’s previous credits include the Oscar-nominated screenplays for The Queen and Frost/Nixon. He also created and served as showrunner on the Netflix series The Crown.
The Boys from Brazil is being executive produced by Suzanne Mackie for Orchid Pictures, Simon Heath for World Productions, and Alex Gabassi (The Crown, Black Doves) who will also direct. The Crown alumni Oona O Beirn and Andy Stebbing are on board as producers. Mackie provided the following statement: “Building on his extraordinary work with The Crown, Peter continues to examine the political and emotional forces which, through the 20th century, have molded the world we live in today. That he does so via the intimate human stories within the sweep of history makes his storytelling powerfully relatable.“
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