Back to work

As the heat wave passes, accompanied by thunderstorms, it feels like autumn has come, and with it the start of the new working year. Perhaps this is a hangover from the school year pattern, but I always associate autumn with new beginnings. I’m currently at work on several projects, among them, with producer PJ van Sandwijk (‘Thirteen Lives’) and director Tom Hooper, ‘True Believers’, the story of the Turkish-German couple who dreamed of curing cancer and along the way created the world’s first Covid vaccine. Now, $100 billion richer, they’re back to curing cancer. I’m also at work on ‘A Little Madness’, for Netflix, with director Tim Wardle (‘Three Identical Strangers’), a dramatisation of Horatio Clare’s account of his own descent into madness. My screenplay about Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, ‘The Big Three’, is with director Tom Harper and Skydance. And I’m looking ahead, when time permits, to ‘Cryptoqueen’, a 6-part TV series, and - a glimmer on the horizon - a crazily ambitious attempt to dramatise climate catastrophe. Nothing is ever certain in my world, and it’s possible none of these will make it to the screen; but I’m working with good people, and I live in hope.