‘Poldark’ and ‘Endeavour’ Producer Set to Adapt Iain Banks Thriller ‘The Business’ For TV

Tom Mullens, who served as executive producer on Poldark and Endeavour, is teaming up with Yesterday producer Matthew James Wilkinson on a television adaption of Iain Banks’ thriller novel The Business.

The book has been described as a science fiction novel set in the present day, and revolves around Kate Telman, a working-class Glaswegian who climbed the ladder to become an executive in a vast, secretive organization known as the Business.

While the company presents itself as benevolent and democratic, Telman begins to uncover a sinister conspiracy. After investigating a possible case of someone stealing from the company, Telman discovers that the Business is planning to purchase a small country to secure a seat on the UN and will stop at nothing to increase its influence on the world.

This shocking discovery sends Telman on a dangerous adventure across the globe, from Scotland to Nebraska, to the Swiss Alps to the Himalayas. She is determined to find out the uncomfortable truth behind the organization she works for.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to adapt Iain Banks’ wickedly satirical The Business for television,” said Mullens and Wilkinson in a joint statement. “As relevant today as when it was first published, we look forward to honouring Iain’s work with a powerful, entertaining thriller.”

According to Deadline, the idea is to shoot the series on location in several international cities. However, there is no word as of yet on when filming is expected to begin, casting information, or what network the series will land at.

Mullens is currently producing another thriller series, Our House, for the British broadcaster ITV. Meanwhile, Wilkinson is currently working on a Sky Original production, CURS>R, which was recently acquired by Netflix.

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This is the second attempt in recent memory to adapt a novel from the prolific Scottish author Banks, who passed in 2013. Amazon Prime Video had previously acquired the global rights to a TV version of Consider Phlebas, the first novel in Banks’ Culture series. However, in August 2020, the author’s estate backed out of the project, stating the “timing wasn’t quite right.”