Ira Levin's The Boys from Brazil Gets a Netflix Series Adaptation
Levin's wild novel about an attempt to grow Hitler clones is headed to television.
Ira Levin is responsible for some of the greatest dark-satire/vaguely sci-fi social commentary novels of the 20th century. The Stepford Wives! Rosemary’s Baby! And The Boys from Brazil! Among others, but those are the big three.
They all have very successful film adaptations from the 1960s and 70s. Rosemary’s Baby was adapted into Roman Polanski’s landmark 1968 film starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, and Ruth Gordon. The Stepford Wives was adapted into the 1972 film staring Katharine Ross and Paula Prentiss, with a script from William Goldman. And The Boys From Brazil became a 1978 film starring Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, and James Mason.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Boys from Brazil is getting a limited-series remake for Netflix, helmed by Peter Morgan of The Crown. Jeremy Strong, Gillian Anderson, Daniel Bruhl, August Diehl, Shira Haas and Lizzy Caplan are set to star.
The story concerns a renowned Nazi hunter who finds himself on the trail of a psychopathic former concentration camp doctor who is building a group of Hitler clones, trying to recreate for them the conditions of Hitler’s early life, to start a new Third Reich movement. This plot feels interesting and relevant for today.
I’m interested to see how this version will go. Filming is scheduled to begin this winter, though, so I’ll be waiting a bit to watch.
Olivia Rutigliano
Olivia Rutigliano is an Editor at Lit Hub and CrimeReads. Her other work appears in Vanity Fair, Vulture, Lapham's Quarterly, AirMail, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, The Baffler, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Politics/Letters, The Toast, Truly Adventurous, and elsewhere. She has a PhD from the departments of English/comparative literature and theatre at Columbia University, where she was the Marion E. Ponsford fellow. She hosts the podcasst "Culture Schlock" at Lit Hub Radio. She is on instagram at @oldebean, twitter at @oldrutigliano, and bluesky at @oliviarutigliano.bsky.social.
