Studiocanal’s Red Production Company has secured the rights to Irish novelist John Boyne’s latest critically-acclaimed novel “The Echo Chamber,” after a competitive auction.
The novel will become a 10-part returnable series, which Boyne will adapt for screen. Boyne is the author of 2006 novel “The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas,” which has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and has been adapted for cinema, theatre, ballet and opera.
“The Echo Chamber” follows five days in the gilded lives of the Cleverley family as their respective worlds come crashing down. The novel topped the bestseller charts in Ireland on publication earlier this year.
The deal was negotiated by Emily Hayward Whitlock and Robert Taylor at the Artists Partnership in association with Simon Trewin.
Sarah Doole, CEO Red Production Company said: “I have always loved John Boyne’s beautiful writing, but ‘The Echo Chamber’ was the most brilliant surprise. It is hilariously funny – a gasp-inducingly caustic and biting satire about cancel culture and modern Britain. It is a story that is absolutely for now and it takes a writer of John’s skill and confidence to pull it off. The wildly outrageous and vivid Cleverleys are a family begging to be brought to screen and their fall from grace is full of the most unexpected twists and surprises. It was described as a ‘British Schitt’s Creek on Acid’ – and it is. We are so excited to be aiding John in bringing his highly acclaimed novel to the small screen. It is exactly the kind of distinct and bold drama that I want Red to be making.”
Boyne added: “I’m delighted to be working with Red Production Company on bringing ‘The Echo Chamber’ to television. Having produced so many of my favourite dramas over recent years, I know my novel is in safe and talented hands. I’m excited to enter the world of scriptwriting too, a new departure for me and one I hope to build on over the years ahead. ‘The Echo Chamber’ was written after I received a particularly brutal mauling at the hands of Twitter trolls and I chose to turn that experience into a comedy. To that end, my plan is to fill every episode with as many laughs as I can.”
Boyne’s international bestsellers also include “The Heart’s Invisible Furies,” which is currently in development with Element, and “A Ladder to the Sky,” which is to be made into a film adapted by Andres Heinz (“Black Swan”) and is currently at the casting stage. He has won three Irish Book Awards, and his novels are published in over fifty languages.