EXCLUSIVE: The Looming Tower has found a second UK home. BBC Two has acquired the linear rights to Hulu’s 9/11 event series starring Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom). Legendary Television, who produced the series for Hulu, handle international distribution.
The Looming Tower examines the chain of events that led to the September 11th terrorist attacks. Of particular focus is the rising threat of Bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda network throughout the 1990s and how the rivalry between the CIA and FBI may have inadvertently set the stage for the tragedy of 9/11 and the war in Iraq.
The series, which is based on Lawrence Wright’s book of the same name, was written by Oscar nominee Dan Futterman (Capote, Judging Amy) and Alex Gibney (The New Yorker Presents) and stars Jeff Daniels, Tahar Rahim, Peter Sarsgaard, Bill Camp, Michael Stuhlbarg, Virginia Kull, Sullivan Jones, Wrenn Schmidt and Alec Baldwin. Futterman, Gibney and original author Lawrence Wright serve as the executive producers. While nothing has been commissioned there has been talk of a follow up series that would tell the story of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Legendary previously licensed UK rights to The Looming Tower to Amazon Prime Video UK in 2018, who made episodes available to subscribers within 24 hours of their U.S. broadcast. That deal came after the series emerged as something of a hot title out of the 2017 LA Screenings. TVWise reported at the time that The Looming Tower had caught the attention of BBC executives, who said they would “look at” it, despite having aired the similarly themed – though admittedly controversial – ABC mini The Path To 9/11 back in 2006.
“Brilliantly weaving archive footage with tense and compelling drama, The Looming Tower is a fascinating and illuminating deconstruction of the personalities and events that ultimately led to the horror of 9/11”, said the BBC’s Head of Programme Acquisition Sue Deeks, who brokered the deal with Legendary Television.
