‘Mum’ Producer Big Talk & ‘Ray Donovan’ Writer Sean Conway To Adapt Tade Thompson’s African Noir Novel ‘Making Wolf’ For TV

Peter White

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EXCLUSIVE: Mum producer Big Talk and Ray Donovan writer Sean Conway are to adapt Tade Thompson’s African noir novel Making Wolf for television.

The ITV-owned producer and the British writer are working on a drama adaptation of the book, which will be published by Constable in paperback in May 2020.

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The book, from Rosewater author Thompson, tells the story of Weston Kogi, a London security guard, who returns to his West African home country and thinks telling people he works as a homicide detective is harmless hyperbole. However, he is kidnapped and forced by two separate rebel factions to investigate the murder of a local hero, Papa Busi. Solving the crime may tip a country on the brink into civil war and cost Weston his life.

Conway is to write the adaptation of the darkly comic, Kafkaesque story. He wrote all six episodes of Chloe Sevigny-fronted Sky drama Hit & Miss, which is set for its own U.S. remake, and acted as writer and producer on a number of seasons of Showtime’s Ray Donovan. He also recently co-created HBO’s We Are Who We Are with Luca Guadagnino.

Conway said that Making Wolf “gripped” him from the outset. “It’s Chinatown set in West Africa, Weston Kogi is a Jake Gittes for the modern age, set in a world of gritty surrealism.”

Big Talk acquired the television rights from agent Luke Speed of Curtis Brown Group, on behalf of Alexander Cochran of C&W Agency. Big Talk’s Faye Dorn, who previously worked on the latest season of Netflix’s Top Boy, will develop and executive produce with Thompson and Conway. The company is currently working on a U.S. adaptation of its hit British comedy Mum with Scott Rudin and August: Osage County writer Tracy Letts and a sixth season of Channel 4 comedy Friday Night Dinner as well as a second season of BBC Two legal comedy Defending The Guilty.

Thompson said, “This is amazing news. I am a big fan of Sean Conway’s work from Hit & Miss all the way to Ray Donovan and to have him and Faye Dorn on board for Making Wolf is outstanding. Big Talk have a great track record and I can’t wait for audiences to see this book and these characters on the screen.”

Big Talk Chief Executive Kenton Allen added, ‘It’s rare to discover such compelling material with authentic African characters wrapped up in an incredibly taut, blackly comic thriller. The combination of Tade’s extraordinary debut novel and Sean’s whip smart writing makes for a scintillating package we think will entertain audiences all over the world.’

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