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Say this for industry giant Lee Daniels: He’s got good taste. The Hollywood Reporter broke the story yesterday that Daniels (The Butler, Precious) is in the process of translating the classic Sam Greenlee spy novel The Spook Who Sat by the Door to the FX Network.
The Spook Who Sat by the Door is a fictional tale about the first African American CIA officer and how the super-top secret agency trained both individuals and political groups only to have that training turned around on them by the very people they took under their wings.
“The Spook Who Sat by the Door was my dad’s favorite book,” Daniels revealed in a press release announcing the upcoming FX adaptation. “He’d be so proud that I’m doing this…”
FX is a Disney sponsored network and they were impressed enough with Daniels and his fellow gremlin’s pitch (by way of Leigh Dana Jackson) of the Greenlee book that they issued a vaunted pilot order for this new undertaking. Previously, the novel received a feature film adaptation in 1973 from actor turned director Ivan Dixon (memorable in a Serling penned episode of The Twilight Zone and perhaps best remembered today for the sitcom Hogan’s Heroes).
Daniels is set as an executive producer on the project; scribe Leigh Dana Jackson (24: Legacy, Scream: The TV Series) authored the pilot script and will pull double-duty as the series showrunner. Fellow mensch Gerard McMurray of Fruitvale Station fame will also serve as an executive producer and the director of the pilot episode. Daniels will be spearheading the adaptation through his overall deal with Disney and its 20th Television (digression: It sounded so much better when 20th Television was referred to as 20th Century Fox. Jus’ sayin.’) Also on board the producing train is Lee Daniels Entertainment president Marc Velez.
This story is still developing; no word as of yet on a drop date for this latest adaptation. Ditto any news on casting. Keep your eyes on the stars – and this column- for any future updates on The Spook Who Sat by the Door!
