"The Lehman Trilogy" by Italian playwright Stefano Massini, which recently won five Tony Awards, including best play, is set to become a high-end TV series produced by Italy's Fandango and The Apartment, the same companies behind HBO's Elena Ferrante adaptation "My Brilliant Friend."
The epic drama written by Massini that charts the history of one of the financial institutions that helped spark the 2008 recession has now been picked up for a series by producer Lorenzo Mieli's shingle The Apartment, the Fremantle-owned company behind Paolo Sorrentino Oscar-nominated "The Hand of God" and his "The Young Pope" and "The New Pope" shows.
Fandango and Mieli previously worked together on HBO's "My Brilliant Friend" and RAI in Italy.
With Fremantle-backed The Apartment on board, the TV series adaptation of "The Lehman Trilogy" gains significantly more clout, though a commissioning broadcaster or streamer has yet to be found.
Mieli called "Lehman Trilogy" – which, in addition to best play, won Tony Awards for Sam Mendes' direction and Simon Russell Beale's lead performance, among other honours – "a marvellous and contemporary text" on the "intrinsic failures of a certain form of capitalism."
The Apartment's executive producer also noted that it is unusual for an Italian play to be celebrated beyond its borders. "That's why adapting such a beloved family saga – which is an archetype of a country's as well as much of the West's social and financial transformation – into a series will be an incredible challenge," Mieli continued.
In an interview with Variety last November, Procacci praised Massini for "telling so effectively a story that doesn't have any Italian elements, because the majority of it takes place in the United States."
The world premiere of "Lehman Brothers" at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan in 2015 was directed by the late great Italian theatre innovator Luca Ronconi.
This performance inspired Mendes to stage a condensed English-language version of Massini's five-hour play, adapted by Ben Power, who was the deputy artistic director of London's National Theatre at the time. The Mendes-directed production had several sold-out runs in London before touring to New York and other cities around the world.
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