The Day of the Triffids: Johan Renck to direct mini-series for Amazon

Earlier today, we shared the news that Johan Renck, who executive produced and directed all five episodes of the HBO limited series Chernobyl, had walked away from the HBO Max series Dune: The Sisterhood, a show he was supposed to direct the first two episodes of, due to creative differences. Now The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Renck has already lined up another project. Renck will be directing a mini-series based on the 1951 science fiction novel The Day of the Triffids, written by John Wyndham, for Amazon Studios.

The Day of the Triffids is a post-apocalyptic tale of an alien invasion of Earth by a cloud of seeds which sprout sentient plants. A large portion of the population is blinded by a meteor shower in preparation for the invasion and small groups of sighted survivors of different social strata in England vie to survive. 

The story has previously served as the basis of a 1962 feature film, a 1981 TV series, a 2009 TV series, and three radio dramas. It was also a source of inspiration for the 2002 film 28 Days Later. There have been other attempts to bring the story to the screen again in recent years. At one point, Sam Raimi was going to produce a new adaptation, with Luther creator Neil Cross writing the script and Four Weddings and Funeral director Mike Newell attached to direct. But that adaptation didn’t make it into production.

The search is on for a writer to script the Renck-directed mini-series. This version of The Day of the Triffids is being executive produced by Don Murphy and Susan Montford through their company Angryfilms, Renck and Michael Parets through their company Sinestra, and Jillian and Dennis DeFrehn of Preger Entertainment, who are the novel’s media rights holders.

Now that Amazon is working with the Day of the Triffids rights holders, Deadline hears they’re planning to “adapt the book as a string of mini-series, detailing the invasion from multiple points of view in multiple cities.”

What do you think of The Day of the Triffids getting multiple new mini-series adaptations, starting with one directed by Johan Renck? Share your thoughts on this news by leaving a comment below.