May 2025

Lighting The Day of the Jackal's Twisty Opening Scene

When Brian Kirk, director of the first three episodes of The Day of the Jackal, signed on to the project, one core idea drew him in: that the series’ world would be built entirely on deception. Writer Ronan Bennett had described the show as being about liars and the lies they tell — liars that lie about everything, all the time. Brian took this concept further, envisioning we the filmmakers as the most trusted con artists. The audience would be fed carefully constructed information from unreliable narrators, their intentions hidden behind charm, precision and cinematic allure. The ultimate goal: to make viewers complicit in the duplicity of the show’s protagonist, the elite international assassin Alex “The Jackal” Duggan (Eddie...more