Yahoo News ‘Man on Fire’ TV Adaptation Set at Netflix (Exclusive)
Fresh off its debut of The Night Agent, Netflix has ordered another action thriller series.
The streaming giant has handed out a straight-to-series, eight-episode order for a TV adaptation of Man on Fire. The show is based on the first two of the five-book run in A.J. Quinnell’s series and follows a pair of features that similarly adapted the works of the author also known as Philip Nicholson.
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The Netflix series tells the story of John Creasy, a broken ex-mercenary on a mission to avenge the death of his only friend, while protecting his fallen comrade’s daughter from the forces that destroyed her family.
The character was previously played by Denzel Washington in director Tony Scott’s 2004 film and a 1987 Italian feature with Scott Glenn.
Kyle Killen (Fear Street) is on board as writer, exec producer and showrunner. The series hails from New Regency Productions, whose film studio produced the Washington pic, and Chernin Entertainment. Killen was previously a showrunner of Showtime-turned-Paramount+ series Halo but departed the video game adaptation rather than be uprooted to Budapest for the lengthy production.
Killen will exec produce alongside Chernin’s Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, former USA/Syfy/Peacock originals president Bill McGoldrick and Juan Alfonso. Chernin has had a first-look deal with Netflix.
New Regency, which controls the rights to the property and financed Scott’s feature, counts Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer as exec producers.
Killen’s Chapter 11 colleague Scott Pennington will oversee for the company.
Man on Fire was first published in 1980, with four additional novels — 1992’s The Perfect Kill, 1993’s The Blue Ring, 1994’s Black Horn and 1996’s Message From Hell — all featuring the Creasy character. The Netflix series is based on Man on Fire and The Perfect Kill.
The Man on Fire series has been quietly in the works for the past few months as Netflix and New Regency sought out a writer and showrunner for the project. The 2004 film grossed $130 million worldwide, more than doubling its $60 million budget.
Streamers have found success in character-driven thrillers with the likes of Shawn Ryan’s The Night Agent (which spent the weekend at No. 1 on Netflix after debuting Thursday) and Amazon’s Jack Ryan and Reacher.
Killen is repped by Syndicate Entertainment and Black Bear Management.
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