EXCLUSIVE: London and Belfast-based independent production company Finite Films & TV has optioned Jean-Noël Liaut’s The Many Lives of Miss K, based on the Dutch fashion model and secret agent Toto Koopman, for a TV adaptation.
The series will follow Koopman’s compelling professional and personal life. Born to a Dutch cavalry officer father and half Indonesian mother in 1908, Koopman’s mixed heritage exposed her to discrimination and prejudice that shaped her worldview.
Twenty years later, Koopman arrived in Paris in the 1930s and made history as the first model of mixed race to be featured on French Vogue. She continued to challenge cultural norms throughout her life; she was open about her bisexuality and her relationships with high profile socialites such as actress Tallulah Bankhead and media mogul Lord Beaverbrook.
When World War II engulfed Europe, she leveraged her social connections and multilingual abilities to gather intelligence for the Allied forces in Italy, using her glamorous personal to cover for clandestine work. But this dangerious double life led to her capture by the fascists in 1941. She was held in various detention camps and was set to be deported to Germany but escaped and rejoined the Resistance. In 1944, she was caught spying on high-ranking German officers and sent by the Nazis to the notorious women’s concentration camp at Ravensbrück, where she was one of the few who survived.
“As Jean-Noël Liaut details in his beautifully written biography, Toto Koopman lived a life that transcended the boundaries of gender, race, class and convention,” said Finite Films & TV founder and producer Amy Gardner. “The aim of this adaptation is to explore the character of this fearless, independent, complex, indestructible and life-loving woman. We’re delighted to have this project as part of our expanding portfolio and it’s a privilege bringing her story to the screen.”
