‘Succession’ Star’s New WWII Drama Adds an ‘X-Files’ Icon and 2 ‘Inglorious Basterds’ Alums

The Boys From Brazil, Ira Levin‘s classic Nazi-hunting scientific thriller, is coming to Netflix. Previously made into a movie in 1978, the new series will star Jeremy Strong, Gillian Anderson, and Daniel Brühl. The production is set to begin filming next month, and will consist of five one-hour episodes.

According to reports, Strong will star as Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Yakov Liebermann as he hunts for his nemesis, Nazi doctor Johann-Friedrich Meinhardt (August Diehl, Inglourious Basterds), in the jungles of South America. Liebermann’s nemesis in the book and movie was the real-life Josef Mengele; ironically, Diehl stars as Mengele in the upcoming German drama The Disappearance of Josef Mengele. The series will also star Lizzy Caplan (Fatal Attraction) and Shira Haas (Captain America: Brave New World). The series was created and executive produced by Peter Morgan, the creator of Netflix’s historical hit The Crown. It is set to begin filming in the UK, Germany, Bulgaria, and Spain next month.

What is ‘The Boys From Brazil’ About?

Based on a novel by Levin, who also wrote Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives, The Boys From Brazil centers around Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier, playing a character based on real-life Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal), a Holocaust survivor who’s devoted his life to hunting down the surviving leaders of the Third Reich. He’s tipped off by Barry Koehler (Steve Guttenberg) that escaped Nazi doctor Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck, playing wildly against type) has ordered the assassinations of dozens of low-ranking, middle-aged civil servants all over the world. This seems puzzling until Lieberman and his allies discover that each doomed man has an adopted son…and those adopted sons are all clones of Adolf Hitler, in a scheme by Mengele to replicate Hitler’s childhood and grow a new leader for a Fourth Reich. Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet of the Apes), The Boys From Brazil was a critical and commercial success, earning three Oscar nominations, including Olivier for Best Actor and Jerry Goldsmith for Best Original Score.

Strong, fresh off his acclaimed performance as Kendall Roy on Succession and his Oscar-nominated role as Roy Cohn in The Apprentice, can currently be seen as manager Jon Landau in Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. He can next be seen as Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin‘s follow-up to The Social Network, The Social Reckoning.