LOS ANGELES:
Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle are developing a film adaptation of a best-selling memoir about a British military mission in Afghanistan, Netflix said on Thursday.
The project is based on ‘No Way Out: The Searing True Story of Men Under Siege’, written by British Major Adam Jowett, which chronicles his leadership of a unit of paratroopers and Royal Irish Rangers during operations in July 2006.
The film will be produced by the couple alongside Archewell Productions’ scripted content head Tracy Ryerson, Netflix told AFP. Matt Charman, an Oscar nominee for ‘Bridge of Spies’ (2015), will write the screenplay.
Harry and Meghan, who stepped back from royal duties and relocated to the United States, have worked with Netflix since 2020 as part of their efforts to build independent media ventures outside the British royal framework.
The streaming platform previously scored a major success with their documentary series ‘Harry & Meghan’, but subsequent projects under their reported $20 million deal have received a more muted response.
These included the lifestyle series ‘With Love, Meghan’, in which the former actress hosted guests in a stylised California setting featuring arts-and-crafts segments. Critics described the show as lacking originality, and it was cancelled after two seasons.
Last year, the couple signed a revised first-look agreement with Netflix, signalling a shift in the scope of their partnership. Prince Harry, the youngest son of King Charles III, completed two combat tours in Afghanistan as a member of the British Army and rose to the rank of captain before leaving military service.
The memoir’s setting includes fierce fighting in Musa Qala in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, then an opium-producing region and Taliban stronghold, where Jowett led a small British force tasked with holding the town.
