BBC, HBO Team for 'Wolf Hall' Miniseries

6:05 AM PST 11/18/2011 by Mimi Turner

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The drama is based on Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novel about Thomas Cromwell's rise to power in the court of Henry VIII.

LONDON - HBO and the BBC are teaming up for a miniseries adaptation of Wolf Hall, the Booker Prize-winning historical novel by British author Hilary Mantel.

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The drama is being developed by Company Pictures - creator of Shameless and Mansfield Park - and Playground Entertainment, headed by Colin Callender.

It will be adapted for the screen by Peter Straughan, who worked on the big-screen adaptation of John Le Carre'sTinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

The story charts the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, a blacksmith's son who become one of the most powerful men in 16th Century England, eventually orchestrating Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon.

So far the miniseries will just focus on the events covered by Wolf Hall, but historian and author Mantel said recently that she was working on a trilogy.

Bring Up The Bodies is the second in the series and is expected to be published next May.

It will continue the story of Cromwell and focus on the fall of Anne Boleyn.

A third instalment, The Mirror And The Light is expected to follow, covering Cromwell's eventual downfall and execution.