‘Night Manager’ prodco Character 7 to adapt Casey Benedict thrillers

Stephen Garrett

Stephen Garrett’s London-based production outfit Character 7 has won the rights to adapt novelist Holly Watt’s thrillers To The Lions and The Dead Line for the screen.

Watt’s books follow the adventures of globetrotting reporter Casey Benedict, with To The Lions charting her investigation into a series of mysterious incidents in a Moroccan refugee camps, while The Dead Line sees the journalist facing down wealthy and powerful families after following a disturbing trail to Bangladesh.

Character 7 is best known for the BBC-AMC adaptation of John le Carré’s The Night Manager, on which Garrett served as lead executive producer, and for supernatural thriller The Rook on Starz.

The company is also behind The Undoing, which is currently airing on HBO and Sky and an adaptation of John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came In From The Cold for AMC and Paramount.

Before launching Character 7, Garrett founded Kudos, producing series including Spooks, Life on Mars, and Hustle.

Garrett described Casey Benedict is “an utterly compelling new hero” and said she will be “an iconic addition to the canon.”

He added: “Holly’s characters flit effortlessly from the heady and clandestine world of the super-rich to the desolation of refugee camps, a crisis forgotten by a COVID-distracted world. She has created stories which are eerily prescient. They will make thrilling and provocative television.”