'The Day of the Jackal' Trailer Introduces a Cat-and-Mouse Game

It took four years, but streaming service Peacock is finally pulling off its first win since launching in 2020. NBC Universal's streaming service was initially planned to launch on the back of the 2020 Olympics, but the pandemic nixed that, possibly for the better, as when the games rolled out a year later, Peacock turned out to be not ready for prime-time. However, with Comcast money behind it, the streaming service held out and retooled, and has come correct for the 2024 Games, which has turned the fourth-place streamer into a contender to survive the sea change in how we consume entertainment. However, as many streaming services have learned, it's not good enough to bring them in once; you have to keep them there. To that end, Peacock is taking advantage of its mass viewership moment to roll out the trailer for its buzziest series, The Day of the Jackal, starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch.

The new TV series, which arrives in November 2024, is based on the 1971 Frederick Forsyth novel of the same name, which itself is based on the 1962 real-life assassination attempt of then-French President Charles De Gaulle. Though the novel is a fictionalized attempt to get in the head of would-be assassin Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry (a French Air Force lieutenant colonel who created the Nord SS.10/SS.11 missiles), the details of the assassination are accurate, as at the time, Forsyth was a journalist who happened to be on the ground in France reporting on De Gaulle when the attempt took place. The novel then delves into complete fiction, with a second attempt made on De Gaulle's life by a British assassin known only as "The Jackal."

The book was an instant best-seller and quickly adapted for the big screen in 1973 with French actor Jean Sorel as Bastien-Thiry, Michel Lonsdale as DC Claude Lebel, who is assigned to the case, and Edward Fox (father of Freddie Fox) in the title role. A runaway critical hit, the film was nominated for Golden Globes, Oscars, and took home a BAFTA. Peacock's reimagining of the story as a limited series puts Redmayne in the role of The Jackal and Lynch in the role of Lebel, now renamed Bianca.

Here's the series synopsis:

The series is based on the Frederick Forsyth novel and 1973 film adaptation from Universal. It follows an unrivaled and highly elusive lone assassin, the Jackal, who makes his living carrying out hits for the highest fee. 

But following his latest kill, he meets his match in a tenacious British intelligence officer who starts to track down the Jackal in a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase across Europe, leaving destruction in its wake. The new version has been reimagined as a contemporary story set amidst the current turbulent geo-political landscape and will delve deeper into the chameleon-like anti-hero.

And here is the trailer:

Redmayne and Lynch co-star alongside a who’s who of British talent, including Charles Dance (And Then There Were None), Richard Dormer (COBRA), Lia Williams (The Capture), Úrsula Corberó (La Casa De Papel aka Money Heist), Chukwudi Iwuji (The Split), Khalid Abdalla (The Crown), Eleanor Matsuura (The Walking Dead), Jonjo O’Neill (Andor), and Sule Rimi (Classified). 

Ronan Bennett (Top Boy) is adapting the series and wrote all ten episodes, with director Brian Kirk (Luther) helming. Christopher Hall and Emily Shapland are Producing with Forsyth as Consulting Producer. Redmayne and Lynch are credited as executive producers, along with Sue Naegle, Marianne Buckland, Gareth Neame, and Nigel Marchant for Carnival Films and Sam Hoyle for Sky Studios.

The Day of the Jackal will premiere on Peacock on Thursday, November 7, 2024.