\n<\/p>\n
Leo Woodall is the first to admit that he doesn\u2019t know a lot about math.<\/p>\n
In the new mini-series \u201cPrime Target,\u201d streaming on Apple TV+, the 28-year-old British actor stars as Edward Brooks, a graduate student in mathematics at Cambridge whose visionary work places him in the cross hairs of a shadowy government agency. When he isn\u2019t on the run, Brooks spends much of his time jotting down arcane equations and scrawling algebra on chalkboards \u2014 \u201cnot a single lick of which did I understand,\u201d Woodall admitted with a laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had some maths lessons, but it was unsuccessful,\u201d he added. \u201cSo I just decided to memorize it all and write it as quickly as I could. It was a deeply stressful process.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPrime Target\u201d is a math thriller in the vein of \u201cA Beautiful Mind<\/a>,\u201d Ron Howard\u2019s Oscar best picture winner about the mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. and his work in Cold War-era cryptography. Brooks\u2019s work is purely hypothetical and concerns patterns in prime numbers, but as he goes deeper, he finds himself within reach of a key that can unlock every digital password in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, math nerds are probably the most dangerous people on the planet,\u201d Taylah, a National Security Agency agent played by Quintessa Swindell, explains to a colleague.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The series creator Steve Thompson should know. A playwright and screenwriter best known for his work on \u201cDoctor Who<\/a>\u201d and <\/span>\u201cSherlock\u201d for the BBC, Thompson is a self-described math nerd who taught mathematics at a London high school in the 1980s and \u201990s. \u201cPrime Target,\u201d he said, was a longtime passion project that he had been thinking about since those days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In 1999, the writer Simon Singh gave a lecture at Thompson\u2019s school on \u201cThe Code Book,\u201d his study of the history of cryptography. Thompson was fascinated. \u201cHe had explained that in modern cryptography, everything is based on prime numbers, and that if anybody ever solved it, we\u2019d all be in terrible trouble,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cAt the back of the classroom, listening to him talk, was where the idea started to percolate.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearly 20 years later, in 2017, the producer Ed Rubin asked Thompson what topic he would most like to write about if given a blank slate. \u201cI want to write a thriller with a mathematical angle,\u201d Thompson recalled saying. Rubin was intrigued, and they began to develop what eventually became \u201cPrime Target.\u201d<\/p>\n The series is directed by Brady Hood, who previously helmed Steven Knight\u2019s 2023 adaptation of \u201cGreat Expectations<\/a>\u201d for the BBC and Hulu. Hood said that he wanted to avoid the clich\u00e9s of the traditional math movie, \u201clike the token superimposition of numbers on the screen,\u201d and instead leaned into a thriller angle as Brooks becomes an enemy of the deep state and has to evade a dragnet of surveillance. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Hood added that he was inspired by the acclaimed \u201cparanoid thrillers\u201d of the 1970s, such as Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s \u201cThe Conversation\u201d and Alan Pakula\u2019s \u201cThe Parallax View,\u201d and used long lenses and distorted sound to suggest an air of unease.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of the reason I wanted to do this job was my love of the Pakula films and those \u201970s thrillers,\u201d Hood said. \u201cWe\u2019re contemporizing the world of the conspiracy thriller, but it\u2019s also harking back to that as a homage just a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n