Apple TV+ and Tom Winchester's Pure Fiction have acquired the rights to Barry Eisler's bestselling espionage series featuring "ex-CIA operative John Rain. He is a half-Japanese, half-American assassin who specializes in making his kills look like natural causes," Deadline reported. The option covers 18 novels and four short stories.
The adaptation as a TV series will be produced by Pure Fiction in association with See-Saw Films, with Winchester (ShÅgun) and Gillis (Slow Horses) both expected to be executive producers alongside Eisler, Deadline noted.
"With features like F1 The Movie and shows like Dark Matter and The Studio, Apple's quality and range has become the best in the business," Eisler said. "And as Slow Horses has proven over the course of four glorious seasons so far, Apple's executives have a particular feel for the dangers, intricacies, and absurdities of espionage. Add Tom Winchester and Simon Gillis... and you have all the makings of a dream team for a show about a contract killer living in the Tokyo demimonde."
"This was an exceptionally competitive process," said literary agent Laura Rennert, who was involved in the negotiations. "There were numerous impressive parties vying not just for the rights to John Rain, but for the rights to Barry's other series, too. But in the end the opportunity to work with Apple, Pure Fiction, and See-Saw was indisputable. They all recognize the promise not just of a fantastic Rain show, but of building out and connecting all Barry's thrillers into a Killer Collective Universe."