‘The Warlock Effect’ Optioned For TV By ‘Sherlock’ Producer Hartswood After Hotly-Contested Auction
12.04.2023 - 15:23
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Sherlock producer Hartswood Films has won the rights to adapt Cold War magic thriller The Warlock Effect into a TV series.
The debut novel, about a magician who flees Nazi Germany and is lured into espionage, was written by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, creators of the Ghost Stories theatre production.
Hartswood optioned The Warlock Effect from publisher Hodder & Stoughton, fending off rival bids from seven other production companies.
The book, released on Thursday, centers on Ludvik Weinschenk, a boy who escapes tyranny in Germany to become the most famous magician in 1950s Britain under the stage name Louis Warlock.
His talent for deception attracts the attention of the British secret service and he is thrown into the world of espionage on a mission across Europe.
Sue Vertue, Steven Moffat, and Brian Minchin will Executive Produce for Hartswood Films with Dyson and Nyman writing and acting as showrunners on the series.
Vertue said: “This book is a rollercoaster. A gorgeous period setting in the ‘50s with a very different kind of hero – plus magic and espionage and cliffhanger after cliffhanger. We couldn’t put it down – and when we make it, audiences won’t be able to switch it off.”
Dyson is known for his work on BBC comedy The League of Gentlemen, on which he collaborated with Sherlock star Mark Gatiss. He has also written on Killing Eve. Nyman has frequently worked with Derren Brown and has starred in shows including Peaky Blinders.
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