Amazon has snapped up North American rights to an Emily Blunt-fronted western from the BBC, Variety has learned.
The streaming giant is understood to have boarded “The English,” which has attached the “Quiet Place” actor as its lead. The multi-part series is produced by “Doctor Foster” firm Drama Republic, whose credits include BBC Two and SundanceTV spy thriller “The Honorable Woman,” as well as Netflix and BBC Two co-production “Black Earth Rising.”
The series is the latest from writer-director Hugo Blick, who broke out with “Honorable Woman” in 2014. The Golden Globe and Peabody-winning drama was one of the first high-end shows to feature actors traditionally seen in film crossing over into the TV space, and featured Maggie Gyllenhaal as a woman who inherits her family’s arms business and becomes mired in a volatile political situation in the Middle East.
Blick’s follow-up, “Black Earth Rising,” aired in 2018, and starred “Chewing Gum” and “Been So Long” actor Michaela Coel as a survivor of the Rwandan genocide who confronts her past.
While plot points around “The English” remain sparse, a western will be new territory for Blunt, who will soon be seen in next month’s highly anticipated sense thriller “A Quiet Place 2,” written and directed by her partner John Krasinski.
