Vancouver author’s debut novel catches attention of Jacob Tierney, Netflix

The Golden Mean, Vancouver author Annabel Lyon's debut novel, is being adapted into a Netflix series by Canadian writer and director Jacob Tierney. (Source: Sachi Wickramasinghe, UBC Media Relations)

When Vancouver writer Annabel Lyon was first approached by a director looking to adapt her novel for the screen, she says her hopes weren’t high.

“I have a lot of colleagues who are screenwriters, so I had enough knowledge of the industry to not hold my breath. Only a tiny percentage of the things that get optioned get made,” explains Lyon, the director of UBC’s School of Creative Writing and author of six books.

It was her first novel, The Golden Mean—which explores the relationship between Aristotle and Alexander the Great in the latter’s youth—that caught the attention of writer and director Jacob Tierney.

Lyon says the pair have been in talks since 2014, five years after the novel’s debut, when Tierney came to her with two speculative scripts for a series dubbed Alexander.

Twelve years later, after Tierney became a household name as the creator of the wildly popular Canadian hockey romance Heated Rivalry, Netflix has given a straight-to-series order to Alexander.

“I am holding my breath now,” Lyon tells CTV News.

The team behind the series

In a statement announcing the series, Tierney said he’s been dreaming of telling the story of The Golden Mean since falling in love with it, years ago.

“I couldn’t be more excited…to bring this insanely compelling world to life.”

He’ll be doing so alongside Brendan Brady of Accent Aigu Entertainment, with Michael Costigan and Jason Bateman of Aggregate Films tapped as executive producers.

“This series reimagines the classic power struggle between mentor and protégé with a raw, modern energy that feels both epic and incredibly intimate,” Jinny Howe, head of U.S. and Canada scripted series at Netflix, said in a statement.

“This high-stakes drama is poised to deeply resonate with our global audience, and we look forward to bringing it to life.”

The project is expected to get underway in 2027, after Tierney finishes writing the second season of Heated Rivalry.

• Read more: How ‘Heated Rivalry,’ Crave’s ‘spicy, gay hockey show,’ became a global TV player

Lyons will be a consultant on Alexander, leaving the writing up to Tierney and his team. She says she has “zero fears” about putting her work in Tierney’s hands, as she trusts his talent, wit and pace.

“My book is always going to be my book; nothing can change that. What Jacob makes with that is going to be its own creature. He’s going to put his own spin on it, and that’s exciting,” Lyons said, adding “These characters don’t belong to me; they belong to history, they belong to all of us.”

A book born out of 9/11 anxiety

Lyons says the idea for The Golden Mean came to her in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks as she was struggling to read and write fiction and finding comfort in Aristotle’s ethics.

At the same time, she was also reading about the resulting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which ended up informing her understanding of the damage soldiers were experiencing in the world of her novel.

Seventeen years after the book’s release, Lyons acknowledges it may still resonate with modern readers, given the conflicts underway in the Middle East.

“Great historical fiction, for me, always has to have contemporary relevance,” she says. “But it’s a different political moment, and it will be up to the (Alexander) writers to decide how and if they explore that.”

Like Heated Rivalry, Alexander is expected to put the spotlight on relationships between men, which Lyons says were widely accepted in Alexander the Great’s world.

“In a time of resurgent anti-LGBTQ sentiment, telling stories that treat queer lives as ordinary and fully human feels important. It’s one reason I’m confident Jacob can make the adaptation resonate now.”

Next steps

With her hands full as the director of UBC’s Creative Writing Program, Lyons is not currently working on a writing project. She is, however, helping fellow writers become novelists through a non-credit, online course aptly called “How to Write a Novel,” with her colleague Nancy Lee.

As anticipation builds for Alexander, readers can check out the international best seller The Golden Mean, as well as its accompanying novel The Sweet Girl, told from the perspective of Aristotle’s daughter.

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