The Assassin: Delivering a killer co-pro

While Athens, that pinnacle of ancient civilisation, is famous for its many magnificent classical buildings, just an hour south of the Greek capital lies a less celebrated structure. The Old Mill is a reinforced concrete bunker, rumoured to be a former observation post for NATO or the Greek military (no one seems entirely sure), 1,800ft above sea level. Unglamorous enough in the sunshine, it feels chilly and exposed as midnight approaches on a late October evening.

A makeshift bolthole has been set up with firepit, ad hoc wardrobe and camp bed, where we find Julie and Edward (Keeley Hawes and Freddie Highmore). She is a retired assassin who has cut herself off from the world on a remote Greek island; he is an investigative journalist and her son. Recently uneasily reconciled, they are forced on the run when her past catches up with her.

Alongside the marquee names on the callsheet (Gina Gershon, Jack Davenport and Shalom Brune-Franklin also star), there is a ‘poultry wrangler’ shivering in the bunker while managing two chickens, one of whom has been sleep-trained to fight its instinct and stay awake when night falls.

Such is life on the set of The Assassin, the latest comic thriller from Jack and Harry Williams’ Two Brothers Pictures. Its dysfunctional central relationship is emphatically not replicated off-set, with Hawes and Highmore both heavily involved as exec producers.

“They joined the show in its early stages,” confirms fellow exec producer Daisy Mount. “They were across the scripts through development and prep, involved in key HoD hires and across cuts, sharing and discussing notes in the edit.”

Filming through the summer – when temperatures sometimes reached 40°C – brought pros and cons for a production on which up to 85% was filmed on location. “We shot a car chase in Plaka, one of the oldest parts of Athens, in the city centre at the foot of the Acropolis,” Mount recalls.

“Architecturally, it feels almost like a village, with most of the streets closed to vehicles. It’s an incredibly popular tourist destination so you want to pick the quietest time to film and cause the least disruption. Unfortunately, that happens to be in August, when it gets so hot that a lot of the local residents leave for the coast. But everyone looked after each other so we came out unscathed.”

Fire on set

The heat also had very real consequences when wildfires broke out. “We’d finished filming on a Friday at the cottage we used for Julie’s home and it looked lush and green all around,” says Mount. “But when the crew went back on Monday, all the trees around the cottage had burned down. It was devastating – a lot of the crew have family outside Athens, or homes that were affected. It’s a really dark thing to have to contend with every summer, and only getting worse with global warming.”

With Athens and the surrounding area versatile enough to double for a Greek island, Albania, Libya, Bulgaria, Spain and the south of France, it is surprising to hear that a shift to Australia was considered. “The original script was set on a Greek island, but then the strikes happened and things became a bit uncertain,” explains Mount.

“The guys had really good memories of filming The Tourist in Australia. For Julie, living like a hermit [the show’s working title was the markedly less dynamic The Hermit], a Greek island or the Whitsundays [on the Queensland coast] would have worked equally well.

“When we got the green light, we’d recalibrated for Australia, which offers great value for money with a really established industry, but it’s a big commitment for a UK production so, given the creative wasn’t reliant on an Australian location, finding a base closer to the UK was a big factor.

“Production had picked up again in Greece, so we spoke to Faliro House Productions, our Greek service company, and had another look at the budget to make it work. They brought together a really experienced crew and we went for it.”

“The scripts immediately stood out. The writing was sharp and engaging, and effortlessly combined action, mystery and humour”
Hannah Blyth, Prime Video UK/IE

The Assassin was initially commissioned by Amazon Prime Video UK/IE and will premiere in the UK, before being rolled out to other territories.

“The scripts immediately stood out,” says Prime Video UK/IE head of TV Hannah Blyth. “The writing was sharp and engaging, and effortlessly combined action, mystery and humour – the kind of storytelling we know resonates with our audiences. What really set it apart was the emotional core of the story: the close and nuanced mother-son relationship, which brought a depth and unique perspective.

“By investing in high-quality productions like The Assassin, we aim to showcase the strength of UK talent – both in front of and behind the camera – while ensuring our productions meet the evolving expectations of audiences in an increasingly competitive landscape.”

All3Media International came on board soon afterwards. Chief executive Louise Pedersen says: “Our investment was based on our previous track record with Two Brothers Pictures dramas, which have all been very successful internationally. We brought two fantastic international co-production partners – Stan Australia and ZDF Germany – into the project at script stage.

“The show filmed in Greece, so there is a tax credit. We put the financing plan together at the tail end of the US strike and the timing wasn’t right for a US co-pro. But we have had a really encouraging level of interest from the US to our short trailer and I am confident that will result in a great broadcast partner.”

Mount adds: “Our budget was modest for the scale of show we were trying to achieve: actionpacked with challenging stunt sequences.”

As a result, she says, the production relied heavily on support from the Greek Cash Rebate and UK High-end Television Tax Relief to fully support the finance plan.

“The streamer model is shifting and becoming much more about licences and doing co-pros” 
Daisy Mount, executive producer

Having left Prime Video to become drama exec at Two Brothers in January 2024, Mount has a unique perspective on both sides of the equation. “Streamers don’t feel like some mythical beast to me. I don’t think there are any tricks [to working with them],” she says. “When I joined Prime Video in March 2020, a US exec said to me that the only constant at Amazon was change. The streamer model is shifting and becoming much more about licences and doing co-pros [see boxout].”

Nevertheless, she says: “Processes may change, but everybody ultimately always says the same thing: they want exciting, creative, original programming that captures audiences’ attention.”

For Mount, The Assassin was one of those shows. “When I joined Prime Video, the US [operation] was already set up so it was about establishing the international market. We were doing big global plays for shows that could be streamed, like The Rig or Wilderness. Another arm of the business takes just the UK licence, so it’s more of a traditional broadcaster model.

“The team doing that was looking for commercial thrillers, but only commissioning for, and taking the licence for, the UK. Jack and Harry submitted this when I was part of the commissioning team, so I was taking on a show I already knew really well.”

The Assassin could follow Liar, The Missing and The Tourist as a seemingly self-contained Williams brothers series that are able to return. “You want a satisfying end as a viewer,” says Mount. “But if you leave a couple of things open-ended then there is potential, especially given Keeley and Freddie are at the heart of such an incredible cast. There are definitely opportunities.”