Our story
Our story
The Ink Factory is an independent studio with global reach, founded in 2010 by Stephen and Simon Cornwell.
We believe in telling original and exciting stories reaching a wide audience, partnering with talent who inspire, challenge and innovate.
We work across television, film, games and immersive experiences, developing these from inception to release, through long-term relationships with authors and creators. We take bold creative and financial decisions and seek out opportunities for ambitious and genre-defining work.
A core pillar of the company is the adaptation of the work of author John le Carré for film, television and other media.
The Ink Factory’s le Carré adaptations include “The Little Drummer Girl”, directed by Park Chan-wook; the Emmy® and Golden Globe® award-winning drama series “The Night Manager”, directed by Susanne Bier; and the Anton Corbijn-directed A Most Wanted Man starring Philip Seymour Hoffmann (in partnership with Amusement Park). Most recently, company’s ground-breaking Hindi-language adaptation of “The Night Manager” has become Disney+ Hotstar’s most watched drama in history. The company is also developing a series based on le Carré’s iconic novel “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold”, and contemporary series adaptations of The Constant Gardener (in English) and A Most Wanted Man (in German).
Beyond its le Carré adaptations, the company has worked with filmmakers ranging from Ang Lee, with Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, to Stephen Merchant, on his feature directorial debut Fighting with My Family. Chadwick Boseman starred in the company’s Message From The King, co-written by Ink Factory founder Stephen Cornwell, and Jodie Foster led a remarkable ensemble cast in The Ink Factory’s dystopian action feature Hotel Artemis.
In 2020, The Ink Factory partnered with Endeavor Content, now Fifth Season, to build a slate of aspirational projects targeting the US market. Projects announced to date include the adaptations of some recent high profile literary debuts, including C Pam Zhang’s novel How Much Of These Hills is Gold with Executive Producer Anita Gou and writer Hansol Jung, of Her Name is Knight based on the high profile novel by Yasmin Angoe, and The Secrets We Kept, adapted by Dana Stevens from the best-selling novel by Lara Prescott.
The Ink Factory has a long-standing commitment to Asian creators. In 2021, in partnership with 127 Wall and with support from the British Film Institute, the company began developing its Asia slate to bring le Carré’s work to life in Asia, and to bring the voices of Asian creators to a global audience.
In addition to its work in film and television, The Ink Factory has partnered with one of the games industry’s top talents, multi-award-winning Matt Nava, to found digital studio Giant Squid.
The company is headquartered in London and Los Angeles.