A Cold War–era spy miniseries by Canadian author and filmmaker Martyn Burke is in development with HBO. Burke is slated to write the pilot, adapted from his 1984 title The Commissar’s Report (Houghton Mifflin). 

The Commissar’s Report tells the story of Dimitri, a young Kremlin spy and hero of the Russian Revolution who is stationed at the Soviet consulate in New York. Dimitri becomes swept up in his new capitalist home, as his wife pines for a Bergdorf charge account and he plays the stock market in secret.

Burke, who divides his time between Toronto and Los Angeles, has writer and director credits on films such as Top Secret (1984) and Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999). In 2015, Cormorant Books will publish his new novel, Music for Love or War.