As if Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda wasn’t busy enough already, the actor-composer-writer has scored a major new role. Off the back of his turn in the forthcoming Mary Poppins Returns, Miranda will be venturing off to a parallel Earth and heading skywards as balloonist Lee Scoresby in the BBC’s TV adaptation of His Dark Materials.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Miranda is “close to signing a deal” to play the part of the grizzled Texan aëronaut in an eight-episode series from Welsh production company Bad Wolf. If he does sign on the dotted line, it could be a markedly different portrayal of the character as seen in the ill-fated Golden Compass film adaptation of Northern Lights, in which Scoresby was played by Sam Elliot.
Logan’s Dafne Keen is set to take the lead role of Lyra Belacqua, a girl raised by the scholars of Oxford in a parallel universe who ventures to the Arctic to rescue her kidnapped friend Roger. She’s soon embroiled in a theological war that ripples through the parallel worlds.
The adaptation comes from writer Jack Thorne, with Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl) on to direct. Shooting is due to take place this summer, with a view to a late 2019 or early 2020 release.
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