Back in March, we reported that Skydance was developing a modern adaptation of the 1975 conspiracy film, Three Days of the Condor. For those who haven’t seen it, the movie follows a CIA researcher (played by Robert Redford) on the run after everyone else in his department is murdered. It sizzles with paranoia as Redford’s character doesn’t know who he can trust, and even the audience isn’t sure how much he can do to make a difference. It’s a bleak movie that’s a true product of its time.

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Skydance CEO David Ellison and CCO Dana Goldberg believe that time has come again. Steve interviewed the two in Berlin at the press day for Terminator Genisys, and learned more about what they’re planning. Unsurprisingly, they’ll be tapping into today’s modern era of digital surveillance:

When you were talking about TV, I was really interested in Three Days of the Condor, being a 70s film fanatic. Was it the story which attracted you to that to make that into a series?

 

DANA GOLDBERG: Yeah, I mean we started talking about the idea of Condor in general, and for all of the CIA thriller type movies that have been made, that just that word, you say Condor, and everybody immediately knows what you’re talking about. You don’t even have to say Three Days of. When you say Condor people go ‘oh, that was great’. And we just thought it’s a great title and the inherent setup of that movie would be so great for a television show in this day and age, when between technology and the lack of privacy and the international landscape of what goes on, how rich is that gonna be? We hired Jason Smilovic, who is an incredible writer, and he’s worked hand in hand with Marcy Ross, who runs our television division, and has created a script and bible that we think is just incredible.

 

DAVID ELLISON: Just to add to that, one of the things that I love and Jason talks about it a lot, is the original Condor very much predicted what happened…the original movie ends with the prediction of the war in the Middle East over oil, and there are writers like Tom Clancy who when you read his books you always felt like you were getting a peek behind the curtain as to what was going to happen next. That doesn’t really exist today, so one of the things we very much hope that Condor is able to do is very much be the Condor for this generation and very much be predictive in regards to what’s going to be happening with future events.

What will be interesting about a Three Days of the Condor TV series is that it will exist alongside the shows and movies it influenced. Our cynicism hasn’t vanished, and our fears have deepened with privacy violations, although I wonder if the show will delve into how much we willingly divulge about our lives and how much that is collected not by the government, but by corporations.

For more on what’s coming up from Skydance, click on the links below. Terminator Genisys opens July 1st.

three days of the condor tv series