Sony Pictures Television and Eleventh Hour Films have released the first trailer online for their ‘Alex Rider‘ tv series.
For those of you unfamiliar with the books, it follows the story of a teenager, Alex, who is blackmailed into joining MI6 after his secret agent uncle (who is also his adopted parent), is killed in a car crash. The government threatens to deport his housekeeper, Jack Starbright, back to America, and sell off his house and belongings unless he agrees to help complete his uncle’s last mission. Reluctantly agreeing, and armed with a bunch of cool gadgets, Alex sets out to take down the bad guys… It’s basically James Bond junior with some teenage Batman sprinkled on top.
Otto Farrant (Mrs Wilson’, ‘The White Queen’) takes the lead role of Alex, with Brenock O’Connor (‘Game Of Thrones’) as Alex’s best friend Tom, and Stephen Dillane (aka Stannis Baratheon to GoT fans) as Alan Blunt, the shadowy agent for MI6 off-shoot The Department, who coerces Alex into becoming an undercover agent at the Point Blanc Academy. Vicky McClure (‘Line Of Duty’, ‘This Is England’) takes the role of Mrs Jones, Blunt’s second-in-command, who is trying to keep Alex safe (or as safe as you can be working for a shadowy government organisation!), along with ‘Broadchurch’s Andrew Buchan as Ian Rider, Alex’s uncle and guardian, and Ronke Adékoluejo (‘Christopher Robin’, ‘Doctor Who’) who portrays housekeeper, Jack Starbright.
The series was originally in development with ITV, but they walked away and Sony swooped in to continue developing the show with Eleventh Hour, who optioned the rights. BAFTA-winning writer Guy Burt (‘The Borgias’, ‘The Bletchley Circle’) penned the script, based on Anthony Horowitz’s hugely popular young adult novels. The plan is to have each season of the show based around one novel in the bestselling series, starting with ‘Point Blanc’, the second book. This is presumably to avoid covering the same ground as the (less than successful) 2006 movie ‘Stormbreaker’, which followed the first novel.
The show has been filmed in both London and The French Alps, which is where Point Blanc Academy is based. The story follows Alex undercover with the troubled teenagers of Point Blanc to uncover a sinister truth behind the school. The other students include Kyra (Marli Siu), who hacked the Tokyo stock exchange costing millions of dollars; James (Earl Cave) who shot his private tutor with an air rifle; And the mysterious Laura (Katrin Vankova), Arrash (Nathan Clarke) and Sasha (Talitha Wing).
Although the 8-episode ‘Alex Rider‘ series is being made by Sony, it doesn’t yet have a network on either side of the Atlantic, but it will be taken out to international buyers later this year. We’ll let you know when we hear more.
