With headquarters in London and Los Angeles, The Ink Factory was founded in 2010 by Stephen and Simon Cornwell as an independent film and television studio with global reach.
We pride ourselves on taking bold creative and financial decisions to deliver ambitious, genre-defining work.
At The Ink Factory, we work across television, film, games, theatre and immersive experiences, developing these from inception to release, through long-term relationships with authors and creators. A core pillar of our company is the adaptation of the work of author John le Carré.
Our recent productions include the acclaimed second series of ‘The Night Manager’ for the BBC and Prime Video, starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie alongside Diego Calva, Camila Morrone, Indira Varma, Paul Chahidi, Hayley Squires, and Olivia Colman.
Our current work includes ‘Legacy of Spies’, a landmark John le Carré series for the BBC and MGM+, directed by Michael Lennox and Claudia Llosa and starring Matthew Macfadyen as master-spy George Smiley, alongside Charlie Hunnam, Daniel Brühl, Hugh Laurie, Joe Alwyn, Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu, Agnes O’Casey and Felix Kammerer. The series is a collaboration with Academy Award® winning label Amusement Park Film in association with 127 Wall Productions and Paramount Television Studios. Together with Second Half Productions, The Ink Factory recently created a landmark theatre adaptation of ‘The Spy Who Came In From the Cold’, marking the first time a le Carré novel has been brought to life on stage in the West End – and embarked on a subsequent UK tour starring Ralf Little.
Our earlier le Carré adaptations include the award-winning first season of ‘The Night Manager’ directed by Susanne Bier; ‘The Little Drummer Girl’ starring Florence Pugh and Alexander Skarsgård directed by Park Chan-wook; ‘A Most Wanted Man’ starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rachel McAdams; and the Academy Award® Winner Errol Morris’ critically acclaimed le Carré documentary ‘The Pigeon Tunnel’ for Apple TV+.
On the film slate, we are the company behind Ang Lee’s upcoming adaptation of ‘Gold Mountain’, based on C. Pam Zhang’s acclaimed novel ‘How Much of These Hills Is Gold’ and starring Chedi Chang, Sophia Xu, Yao, Zine Tseng and Owen Teague. We also produced Lee’s 2016 adaptation of ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’, ‘Hotel Artemis’ (2018) directed by Drew Pearce and ‘Fighting with My Family’ (2019), written and directed by Stephen Merchant and starring Florence Pugh.
In 2021, we established an Asia slate and associated financing facility, with backing from 127 Wall Productions, to deliver fresh reimaginings of le Carré’s work into the major markets of Asia, as well as to create a platform for local talent and creators to launch original ideas from the region on the global stage. Under the venture, The Ink Factory, in partnership with 127 Wall Productions, brought to life a Chinese-language adaptation of ‘The Night Manager’ for Alibaba’s streaming platform Youku, starring Eddie Peng, Sean Lau, Isabella Leong and Carman Lee. We also created the Hindi-language version of ‘The Night Manager’ for Disney+ Hotstar starring Anil Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur, which was made with Banijay Asia. The Ink Factory is also developing an adaptation of espionage thriller ‘A Most Wanted Man’, in partnership with Korean company Vo Media.
In addition to our film and television work, in 2013 we partnered with multi-award-winning Matt Nava to found video game studio Giant Squid. The studio won a 2026 Grammy for the soundtrack to its latest game ‘Sword of the Sea’.
