Start the week with a film: The original ‘The Day of the Jackal’ is a nail-biting thriller

A new adaptation of Fredrick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal is being streamed on JioCinema. The series of the same name updates Forsyth’s 1971 novel to current times.

Forsyth’s bestseller is a fictionalised account of a plot to kill French President Charles de Gaulle by the terrorist group OAS. Outraged that France has given up its colony in Algeria, the OAS tries to assassinate de Gaulle in 1962 but fails. A second attempt is made in 1963 by hiring a British mercenary whose codename is Jackal. Even as the Jackal goes about preparing for his task, the French government launches a clandestine investigation to thwart him.

In the JioCinema series, the Jackal (Eddie Redmayne) is hired by a billionaire to kill a tech maven who is going to release a software that will expose dark money trails. Lashana Lynch plays Bianca, the British secret service agent who pursues the Jackal across Europe.

The show adds sub-plots to its source material, including families for the Jackal and Bianca that come in the way of their respective missions. Although an expanded and quite different version of Forsyth’s book, the series contains references to the previous successful film made in 1973 – from the names of certain characters to the...

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