BBC’s McMafia gives the Russian mob a global reach.
Following the success of BBC’s hit adaptation of John Le Carre’s international crime drama The Night Manager, the English network will be spending millions per episode on McMafia.
Happy Valley star James Norton was booked for the lead in the upcoming big budget BBC mob series McMafia.
"James Norton is at the top of his game and I know he will do justice to the riveting McMafia,” Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s director of content, said in a statement.
Norton will play Alex Godman, the son of mobbed up Russian exiles, who was born in England. The series will follow Godman as he works his way through the exciting career of international crime. Alex will deal with the intelligence community, money launderers and corrupt politicians from London to Moscow to Mumbai to Mexico.
The eight-part crime drama will provide a look at the far-reaching influence of global crime. McMafia was created by Hossein Amini, (Drive, Le Carre’s Our Kind) and James Watkins (The Woman In Black). McMafia will be produced by Paul Ritchie and directed by James Watkins, who made Bastille Day (2016).
McMafia will be written by Amini and Watkins along with David Farr (The Night Manager), Peter Harness (Doctor Who, Wallander, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) and Laurence Coriat (Wonderland,Me Without You).
“This fast-paced thriller is epic and intimate, glamorous and gritty, global in scale and forensic in detail,” reads the official BBC statement said. "It delves into how, with the rise of globalization, the corporate has become criminal and the criminal corporate and how, driven by the global demand for cheap products, everyone is complicit in some way."
McMafia is based on the best-selling book by Misha Glenny. According to the Amazon story synopsis:
“With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the deregulation of international financial markets in 1989, governments and entrepreneurs alike became intoxicated by dreams of newly opened markets. But no one could have foreseen that the greatest success story to arise from these events would be the worldwide rise of organized crime. Today, it is estimated that illegal trade accounts for one-fifth of the global GDP.
In this fearless and wholly authoritative investigation of the seemingly insatiable demand for illegal wares, veteran reporter Misha Glenny travels across five continents to speak with participants from every level of the global underworld—police, victims, politicians, and even the criminals themselves. What follows is a groundbreaking, propulsive look at an unprecedented phenomenon from a savvy, street-wise guide.”
Further McMafia casting news and the broadcast date have not yet been revealed. BBC says the series should run in the 9 p.m. Sunday night slot.
SOURCE: DEADLINE
