Colin Farrell has signed on to star as a nasty harpooner in The North Water, a four-part period thriller, which Andrew Haigh (Lean on Pete, 45 Years) will direct for the BBC.
See-Saw Films (The King’s Speech, Top of the Lake) will produce the mini-series, based on Ian McGuire’s best-selling novel about a disastrous 19th-century whaling expedition.
The plot follows Patrick Sumner, a disgraced ex-army surgeon who signs up as ship’s doctor on the expedition. On board he meets Henry Drax (Farrell), the harpooner, a brutish amoral killer. Instead of escaping the horrors of his past, Sumner is forced into a brutal struggle for survival in the Arctic wasteland.
Jamie Laurenson and Hakan Kousetta will executive produce The North Water, together with Iain Canning and Emile Sherman for See-Saw Films alongside Niv Fichman for co-producers Rhombus Media and Lucy Richer for the BBC. Kate Ogborn will produce for See-Saw.
The series, planned as three one-hour and one 90-minute episodes, will begin shooting this fall. BBC Studios will distribute The North Water internationally.
Farrell recently featured in See-Saw Film’s Widows, the Steve McQueen-directed crime drama starring Viola Davis. He also stars in Tim Burton’s upcoming live-action take on Disney’s Dumbo. Haigh, who had his international breakthrough with the Oscar-nominated drama 45 Years, starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, has won acclaim for the U.S.-set drama Lean on Pete and the HBO series Looking.
