David Tennant to Play Poisoned Russian Dissident Alexander Litvinenko – The Hollywood Reporter
David Tennant is ready to play Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian dissident who was murdered in London 2006, in a brand new drama from the NENT Group and ITV Studios.
Entitled Litvinenko, the four-part drama will premiere on NENT’s Viaplay streaming service and ITV, and has been scripted by George Kay, who co-created Netflix’s hit French drama Lupin.
Litvinenko was a former Russian Federal Safety Companies and KGB officer whose demise in London from polonium poisoning triggered one of the vital complicated and harmful investigations within the historical past of London’s Metropolitan Police. The drama will inform the story of the decided Scotland Yard officers who labored for 10 years to show who was accountable, having been advised by Litvinenko from his hospital mattress that he was poisoned on the direct orders of Vladimir Putin.
The drama will even deal with the story of Marina (performed by Margarita Levieva of The Deuce and The Blacklist), Litvinenko’s widow who fought tirelessly to steer the British authorities to call her husband’s killers publicly and acknowledge the function of the Russian state in his homicide.
“Dramatizing occasions of such magnitude requires a really distinctive lineup of abilities and companions – and that’s precisely what this challenge has introduced collectively,” stated Filippa Wallestam, chief content material officer at NENT Group. “Our hope is that Litvinenko can present a broad viewers with a fuller understanding of what occurred, the exceptional human tales concerned, and of the profound penalties that stay with us greater than 15 years afterwards.”
Added Kay: “In late 2006, Alexander Litvinenko was a residing witness to his personal homicide. He spent his dying days entrusting the Metropolitan Police with the small print of what occurred to him. It took these police and his exceptional widow Marina Litvinenko a decade to have these claims ratified. Their stamina, exhausting work and bravado are what make this not solely an important story of our occasions however a privilege to be requested to write down.”
Directed by Jim Discipline Smith (Prison, Fact Seekers), the drama shall be govt produced by Patrick Spence for ITV Studios (Grownup Materials), Josephine Zapata Genetay for NENT Group, Lucy Bedford for Tiger Side Productions, Kay, Smith and Tennant. The co-producer is Richard Kerbaj for Livedrop Media and the drama shall be produced by Chris Might. Litvinenko shall be distributed internationally by ITV Studios.
