Lord of the Flies: BBC to adapt as a TV series and Hans Zimmer to score

The book is being adapted by Jack Thorne, who previously adapted Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials for the BBC.

Lord of the Flies

The BBC has revealed more information about its forthcoming adaptation of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, which will adapted for television by His Dark Materials’ Jack Thorne and directed by Marc Munden (The Sympathizer).

Lord of the Flies is the story of a group of young schoolchildren who find themselves stranded on a tropical island with no adults, following a deadly plane crash. In an attempt to remain civil, the boys organise themselves, led by Ralph and supported by the group’s intellectual, Piggy. But Jack, who is in charge of signal fire duty, is more interested in hunting and vying for leadership and soon begins to draw other boys away from the order of the group and, ultimately, from hope to tragedy.

“I still can’t believe we have been given the opportunity to film this beautiful book,” Thorne said. “The first few days shooting show that our cast are extraordinary and that Marc is finding a whole new visual language in capturing the wonders of them and the beauty of Malaysia. He is an incredible storyteller. It is all so exciting.”

The series has cast David McKenna as play Piggy alongside Winston Sawyers as Ralph, Lox Pratt as Jack, Ike Talbut as Simon, and Thomas Connor as Roger. Noah and Cassius Flemyng have been cast as the twins Sam and Eric, with Cornelius Brandreth as Maurice, and Tom Page-Turner as Bill, alongside an ensemble of more than 20 other boys playing the desert island camp’s “big ‘uns” and “little ‘uns”.

It has also been announced that multi-Oscar winning composer Hans Zimmer (Dune) will co-create the series’ original score with multi-Emmy nominated Kara Talve (Tattooist of Auschwitz).

Jack Thorne’s adaptation will be the first for television and is said to be ‘truthful’ to the original novel, which means the show will be set in the early 1950s on an unnamed Pacific island. The BBC has said that Thorne’s adaptation ‘delves further into the book’s emotive themes; human nature, the loss of innocence and boyhood masculinity. Each of the four episodes is titled after a character at the core of the story – Ralph, Piggy, Simon, and Jack – offering a subtly different perspective on the boys’ collective plight and manner in which they cope with their predicament’.

The series is being made with the support of Lord of the Flies author William Golding’s family.

“This iconic novel of class, conflict and tender male friendship has never been more relevant,” added Marc Munden. “It’s a real privilege to be working with Jack Thorne once again, the wonderful cast of young actors we’ve assembled and the brilliant team at Eleven on this beautifully fresh adaptation.”

The series is filming now in Malaysia, ahead of further filming later this year in the UK.

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