UK picks up Israeli developed TV show about Prisoner X
Company Pictures inks deal to create series based on Australian born Mossad agent Ben Zygier whose suicide rocked Israeli media in Feb 2013.
By JPOST.COM STAFFBen Zygier 370(photo credit: Courtesy ABC)
Company Pictures, based in the UK, is set to create a new television series to be “loosely” based on the infamous story of Prisoner X, Variety reported this week.Prisoner X is currently in development with Tedy Productions for Israeli television, with scribblers Ron Leshem and Amit Cohen working on a script for local cabler YES. The UK deal, which was signed by ADD’s Head of Content Hadas Mozes Lichtenstein, Tedy and YES, was brokered by CAA.Prisoner X is the tale of a real-life Mossad agent whose story rocked Israel and its allies last year. Ben Zygier was found hanging by a bed sheet in his cell in the notorious Ayalon prison in 2010.Details of his life and death only came to light in February 2013 and caused a great uproar around the world, especially in Australia where Zygier was originally from. The series will not be based on Zygier, rather two women left behind when the agent disappears into solitary confinement.According to foreign media reports, Zygier faced a 22-year prison sentence due to his unintentionally revealing a Lebanese operative assisting in a 30-year effort to exhume the remains of missing Israeli soldiers killed by Syrian forces in the First Lebanon War.In 2007, the Mossad reportedly recruited former Lebanese military leader Ziad Al Homsi through, what he claims were, operatives working for the intelligence organization in China and Thailand.In strides to get ahead and please the Mossad, Zygier apparently revealed Al Homsi’s name to a suspected Lebanese Hezbollah agent who subsequently turned him in to Lebanese authorities. Al Homsi faced a 15-year prison sentence, but was released after only three years.The Mossad wanted to utilize Al Homsi, who was well connected from his participation in operations against Israeli troops in the Bekka Valley where the remains of three soldiers killed in the Battle of Sultan Yocoub were believed to rest, ABC Australia reported.
