1ST THE LONG SONG BBC 19TH CENTURY JAMAICA SET SERIES TRAILER WITH JACK LOWDEN, HAYLEY ATWELL! HERMAN MELVILLE'S BENITO CERENO SLAVERY NOVEL TO BECOME SF SERIES! BLACK JACOBINS HAITIAN 18TH CENTURY REVOLUTION NOVEL TO BECOME TV SERIES

 'THE LONG SONG' TRAILER 

 FOR BBC JAMAICA SET SERIES

We are all about colonial slavery today! BBC One has released a trailer for THE LONG SONG which will start airing in UK December 18 as the three part  adaptation of the novel by Andrea Levy, starring Jack Lowden and Hayley Atwell.

THE LONG SONG IS SET
during the final days of slavery in 19th century Jamaica and tells the story of the strong willed, young slave July (Tamara Lawrance) on a plantation

Hayley Atwell and Jack Lowden lead the cast of The Long Song

owned by her odious mistress Caroline Mortimer (Hayley Atwell). When a charming new arrival to the island, Robert Goodwin (Jack Lowden),

The three part mini series will start airing December 18th on BBC One

becomes the new overseer, July and Caroline are both intrigued by his seemingly revolutionary determination to improve the plantation for the

Our beloved Jack Lowden takes the male lead in the epic saga

slaves and mistress alike. Check out the trailer for the new three part historical mini series below and tell us what you think!:

 NEW BOOK ADAPTATIONS

MELVILLE'S BENITO CERENO

Benito Cereno will become a sf series

Meanwhile, Deadline reports that Herman Melville's novella about a fictionalized revolt of a Spanish slave ship BENITO CERENO will be adapted into a TV series but set in deep space! Steven Katz will write and produce the story, inspired by the novella about slavery, the nature of man and good versus evil, and turned into a science fiction thriller which will revolve around an accidental encounter between a human commercial ship and an alien slave freighter, where the human captain navigates a world of inter species slavery in a distant future with frightening parallels to our past.
THE BLACK JACOBINS
You can also expect a TV series on Haitian Revolution since Kwame Kwei Armah will turn C. L. R. James' book THE BLACK JACOBINS into a historical drama.  The ten part saga will chart the history of the Haitian

The story of Haitian revolution will be turned into a TV series

Revolution of 1791-1804 beginning with the first slave revolt of 1791 and ending with the Haitian declaration of independence in 1804, while also exploring the nature of leadership, its compromises, its glories and the range of personal cost it claims.

SEAN BEAN JOINS BBC'S WW2 SAGA WORLD ON FIRE! CLAES BANG TO LEAD BBC'S NEW DRACULA EPIC SERIES! GWILYM LEE JOINS RUSSIAN IMPERIAL COURT IN HULU'S CATHERINE THE GREAT EPIC SERIES!

 GWILYM LEE JOINS HULU'S 

CATHERINE THE GREAT SAGA

Gwilym Lee joins the series as Grigor

He was definitely our favourite guy in Sky's epic saga Jamestown and I bet you love him currently as Brian May in Bohemian Rhapsody, and now our dear Gwilym Lee is joining Hulu's THE GREAT mini series in which Elle Fanning is playing young Russian empress Catherine II. Gwilym will play Grigor, the best friend and confidant of Russian emperor Peter to be played by Nicholas Hoult in the series which is currently shooting in UK and will depict Catherine the Great’s rise to power and her explosive relationship with husband Peter whom she overthrew from the throne with the help of her lovers from the imperial guard only to become Russia's longest ruling tzarina who will widen its territory and population. Phoebe Fox, Sacha Dhawan and Charity Wakefield will also star in the mini series.

 CLAES BANG TO LEAD

BBC'S DRACULA MINI SERIES

Claes Bang will play famous Vlad Tepes

Over at BBC, they have found a lead actor for Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss written DRACULA series! Based partially on Bram Stoker's famous horror novel, it will see Danish actor Claes Bang putting on some fang as Lord Drac himself! The duo that brought you Sherlock series will also write and produce this one set in Transylvania in 1897, where the blood drinking Count Vlad is drawing his plans against Victorian London. As the producers say, hell has a new boss! Netflix will air the three 90 minute episode saga around the world with BBC airing it in UK and Ireland!

 SEAN BEAN JOINS

Blake Harrison has joined the cast

WORLD ON FIRE WW2 SERIES

BBC is also casting new faces for their ambitious new WW2 series WORLD ON FIRE which already has Lesley Manville, Jonah Hauer King, Helen Hunt and Julia Brown! Joining them now are Sean Bean, Last Kingdom's and Halcyon's Ewan Mitchell, Blake Harrison and Yrsa Daley Ward!

The ensemble series will follow different characters, from Harry, a young English translator in Warsaw caught up in negotiations with the Nazis and trying to smuggle his Polish lover Kasia out of the country, to Lois, the girl who is waiting for him at home, a young Mancunian factory worker who will come to take all the opportunities the war can offer to live a different kind of life. To Nancy, a female US war correspondent who can't find peace unless her life is at risk, to the Rossler family in Berlin, worried for their

Sean Bean has also joined the seven episode WW2 series

soldier son and willing to do anything to protect their disabled daughter from the attentions of the ruling Nazi regime.

1ST TRAILERS REVEALED FOR DISNEY'S MAGICAL ADVENTURE ARTEMIS FOWL WITH JUDI DENCH & KENNETH BRANAGH AND THE VANISHING ISOLATED ISLE THRILLER WITH GERARD BUTLER

  'THE VANISHING'

TRAILER PUTS GERARD BUTLER IN A LIGHTHOUSE

Two trailers for you today, starting with the first one for Gerard Butler's latest action thriller THE VANISHING which is actually based on a real

Previously known as Keepers, it is out January

event, the Flannan Isle mystery. A small relief boat approaches the Isle, a tiny isolated island no bigger than a football pitch, 20 miles off a rugged coast. Its aim is to routinely replace the three lighthouse keepers, after 6 weeks alone manning the light. It nears the dock and none of the men greet them. The winch is broken. A call. Nothing. Experienced keepers Thomas (Peter Mullan), James (Gerard Butler) and Donald (Connor Swindells) have vanished. The lamps are clean and refilled; the table is laid for dinner. There is an upturned chair. Two sets of yellow oilskins are missing... The men were never found.

 1ST 'ARTEMIS FOWL' TRAILER

JUDI DENCH AS A COMMANDER

Artemis Fowl is out next August

Disney has, meanwhile, released the first trailer for Kennet Branagh directed adaptation of ARTEMIS FOWL young adult novel by Eoin Colfer. Ready to hit cinemas August next year it sees young Ferdia Shaw playing 12 year old genius Artemis Fowl, a descendant of a long line of criminal masterminds, who finds himself in a battle of strength and cunning against a powerful, hidden race of fairies who may be behind his father's disappearance. A rather unexpected name in the cast is Judi Dench as Commander Root, but maybe not so surprising given that Branagh is directing. 

THE SPANISH PRINCESS EPIC TV SERIES TEASER IS HERE WITH YOUNG CATHERINE OF ARAGON! MISS SCARLET AND THE DUKE TV SERIES ON LONDON'S FIRST 19TH CENTURY FEMALE DETECTIVE!

 1ST 'THE SPANISH PRINCESS'

TEASER HAS BEEN REVEALED

A special treat comes from Starz today, they gave us a trailer Royals on Starz, which does not just show us their old series White Queen and White

The Spanish Princess will air sometime next year on Starz

 Princess, but also tease the upcoming THE SPANISH PRINCESS with a few exciting glimpses into the 2019 series which is, technically speaking, a sort of a prequel to famous The Tudors!

THE SPANISH PRINCESS
will see Charlotte Hope playing the young princess of Spain who was promised the English throne since she was a child. She arrives in rain lashed England with her glorious court. She is Princess of Wales now, but when her husband

First look at Charlotte Hope as The Spanish Princess

Prince Arthur (Angus Imrie) dies suddenly, the throne seems lost to Catherine. Until she claims her marriage was never consummated and that as a virgin she may set her sights on the new heir, the charismatic and

The series is based on Philippa Gregory book!

headstrong Prince Harry (Ruairi O'Connor) who will one day rule as King Henry VIII. The cast will also include Elliot Cowan as Henry VII of England, Alexandra Moen as his wife Elizabeth of York, Olly Rix, Laura Carmichael, Philip Cumbus and others.

  'MISS SCARLET AND THE DUKE'

NEW 19TH CENTURY TV SERIES

A+E Networks will produce a series on the first ever female detective in 19th century London. MISS SCARLET AND THE DUKE will star Kate Phillips as Eliza Scarlet whose father dies and leaves her penniless in a time where marriage is her only option for financial security. But the headstrong

First look at Kate Phillips in Miss Scarlett and the Duke

Eliza is determined to find another way and takes over his private detective agency. But she needs a partner, so she hires detective Inspector William Wellington of Scotland Yard, who is also known as The Duke, a drinker, gambler and womanizer. Eliza and Duke strike up a mismatched, fiery relationship and team up to solve crime in 1880’s London.

PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON LAVISH RUSSIAN EPIC TV SAGA ON FAMOUS 16TH CENTURY TSAR BORIS GODUNOV WITH SERGEI BEZRUKOV AND SVETLANA KHODCHENKOVA

  'GODUNOV'

NEW RUSSIAN EPIC TV SAGA

The series is currently airing in Russia

We are continuing, and also finishing in grand style, our Russian Weekend today with a short spotlight on lavish Russian television saga GODUNOV which is, if the spy is right and when was he not, currently airing on Russian national broadcaster Rossiya 1! This sixteen episode series depicts the struggle for the throne, unrequited love, betrayal, intrigues, passions and trials of the 16th century rule of famous Boris Godunov (the first non Rurikid tsar of Russia) during which the future of the Russian state was being decided. Sadly, the end of his reign has pushed Russia into the

The series is based on Konstantin Badigin's novel Shipwreck near the island of hope

infamous Time of Troubles during which a third of population died from famine and which will end, after many years of turmoil, uprisings and usurpations, with the rise of the Romanov dynasty.

  THE STORY OF GODUNOV
set in the late 16th century,  revolves around tsar Boris Godunov and his family, covering the period from the reign of Ivan the Terrible to the accession of Mikhail Romanov to the throne. In the centre of the plot is the fate of the

Sergei Bezrukov is portraying tsar Boris Godunov in the series

Godunov family, from tsar Boris Godunov (Sergei Bezrukov), his wife tsarina Maria Godunova (played by our favourite Russian superstar Svetlana

Tsar Fedor Romanov, tsar Boris Godunov, and tsar Ivan the Terrible!

Khodchenkova), his sister Irina (who was married to the previous tsar and was childless which is how Boris managed to seize the throne. She is played by

Tsarina Irina, tsarina Mariya, princess Xenia!

Anna Mihalkova) and daughter Xenia (who will later on become the mother of the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty. She is played by Mariya Andreyeva)! Famous tsar Ivan the Terrible is played by Sergei Makovetzkiy.

DEZZY'S HISTORY LESSON

The rule of Boris Godunov, who was of Tatar origin, was at first prosperous and popular among the people as he brought many educational and social reforms by allowing foreign teachers to work in Russia and sending young

Prince Fedor, queen Maria of Livonia, and prince Vasiliy

Russians to study abroad and allowing certain religious freedoms in the empire. Later on, sadly, his rule gave birth to the institution of serfdom in its most oppressive form during which the peasants were turned into slaves. 

RUSSIAN WEEKEND: EPIC RUSSIAN TV SAGA BLOODY MISTRESS ON INFAMOUS 18TH CENTURY BARONESS AND SIBERIA SET 17TH CENTURY ADVENTURE TOBOL FROM THE TIME OF PETER THE GREAT!

  'TOBOL' TRAILER

FROM THE TIME OF PETER I

The movie should hit cinemas next month

Since Hollywood is still celebrating Thanksgiving or recovering from Black Friday mania, your trusted spy will take you on a journey through time, deep into adventurous past and straight into brave old Russia in our Russian Weekend! We will start it with sweeping historical epic movie TOBOL (Тобол) which should arrive into Russian cinemas sometime next year. This epic adventure will take us back into the time of Peter I, with the plot based on real events from rich history of Russia.

MANY ARE CALLED, BUT ONLY FEW ARE CHOSEN!
The movie will see Russian star Ilya Malanin playing Ivan Demarin, a young officer of tsar Peter I’s First Guard, who, on the instructions of the great tsar, finds himself in the depths of frozen Siberia in the frontier city of Tobolsk. Here Ivan meets his first love and, together with his regiment, finds himself drawn into the conspiracy of local princes, who are hunting for gold in the Yarkand river. Its fortress is surrounded by hordes of wild Dzungars and there’s no way to wait for help!

  'BLOODY MISTRESS'

RUSSIA'S ELIZABETH BATHORY

The 15 episode saga already aired in Russia

Another interesting historical project coming from Russia was epic TV series BLOODY MISTRESS (Krovavaya Barinya) which aired earlier this year on their national television,  based on the biography of XVIII century landowner Darya Saltykova who lived during the rule of Catherine II. Yuliya Snigir plays the baronnes who was called Saltychikha by her serfs. She was infamous for brutally torturing hundreds of peasants, for which "Russian Elizabeth Bathory" was imprisoned in an underground prison, where she spent 33 years until her death. The series

Svevolod Sokolovskiy plays the male lead in the series!

tells how a young girl who was brought up in a monastery turned into a monster? Catherine the Great, whom Yuliya Snigir herself played in one of the recent epic TV series, is played here by Severija Janusauskaite! The male lead is played by Svevolod Sokolovskiy.

SUPER GORGEOUS DISNEY'S LIVE ACTION THE LION KING MOVIE TEASER IS HERE WITH THE NEW KING OF THE AFRICAN SAVANNAH!

  'THE LION KING'

BEHOLD THE FIRST TEASER!

The new CGI Lion King arrives next July!

You have probably seen it by now as it was the highlight of Thanks giving TV progra- mme last night, but for you who haven't here it is - the first trailer for Disney's live action version of THE LION KING together with the first poster as well! With James Earl Jones returning as Simba's father Mufasa, Donald Glover leads the voice cast as Simba himself, the future king of the African savannah who must overcome betrayal and tragedy to assume his rightful

Jon Favreau has previously directed live action version of The Jungle Book

place on Pride Rock. Directed by Jon Favreau, the movie will start roaring next July worldwide 25 years after the original animated adventure! Everybody's favourite meerkat Timon and warthog Pumbaa are back too with voices from Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen! Simba's evil uncle Scar will get his voice from Chiwetel Ejiofor while Alfre Woodard will voice Simba's

You will also see the live action version of Disney's Aladdin next year

mother, Sarabi. Four songs from the original animated version 'Can You Feel The Love Tonight', 'Hakuna Matata', 'I Just Can't Wait To Be King' and 'Circle of Life' will be in this one as well together with a new one written by Elton John and probably sung by Beyonce. 

PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON FRENCH 18TH CENTURY ADVENTURE THE EMPEROR OF PARIS WITH VINCENT CASSEL AND OLGA KURYLENKO!

  'THE EMPEROR OF PARIS'

 EPIC ADVENTURE WITH VINCENT CASSEL & OLGA KURYLENKO

Since Hollywood is currently mass murdering poor little turkeys and feasting on Thanksgiving, your trusted spy is doing what he knows you love best: going fully international, or, in this case, popping over to French capital Paris! Not

The film opens in France this December!

the modern one, though, but the smellier, dirtier 18th century one! Earlier this spring I was, as always of course, one of the first ones to inform you that the French are preparing a lavish new period set adventure, and now we have the first trailer and magnificent character posters for THE EMPEROR OF PARIS (L'Empereur de Paris) in which our favourite French star Vincent Cassel takes the lead role, alongside always lovely and stunningly charismatic Russian star Olga Kurylenko, in the story  of François Vidocq, the legend of the underground, the only man to

Olga Kurylenko plays baroness De Giverny in the movie!

successfully have escaped from the greatest penal colony in the country! Freya Mavor, Denis Menochet, August Diehl, Denis Lavant, James Thierree, Patrick Chesnais, Fabrice Luchini are also in the

Vincent Cassel is Eugene Francois Vidocq!

international cast. Directed by Jean Francois Richet, the historical thriller should storm French cinemas December 19th and will move across Europe throughout winter and spring.

WHAT'S THE FILM ABOUT?
Under the reign of Napoleon, François Vidocq,  the only man to have escaped from the biggest prisons of the country, is a legend of the Parisian underground. Left to die after his last spectacular escape, the ex-convict tries to be forgotten in the guise of a simple trader. His past caught him, however, and, after being accused of a murder he did not commit, he offered a deal to the chief of security: he joined the police to fight the underworld, in exchange for his freedom. Despite exceptional results, it provokes the hostility of his fellow police officers and the fury of the underworld who put a price on his head ... alive or dead.

PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON BBC'S 19TH CENTURY SET MINI SERIES DEATH AND NIGHTINGALES WITH JAMIE DORNAN, MATTHEW RHYS!

   'DEATH AND NIGHTINGALES'

STARTS NEXT WEEK AT BBC TWO

BBC has released some new photos from the small screen adaptation of Eugene McCabe's 19th century set novel DEATH AND NIGHTINGALES which starts airing November 28th on BBC Two starring Jamie Dornan and Matthew Rhys in the story of love, betrayal, deception and revenge, set in the beautiful haunting countryside of Fermanagh in 1885 when all of the country is an undivided province of the British Empire!

A HAUNTING TALE OF LOVE  
 and deception, it is a place where neighbours observe each other and inform; a world of spies, confessions and double dealing; where a pervading sense of beauty is shot through with menace and impending doom. Set over a

The series will air in three episodes starting next week

desperately tense 24-hour period, it’s Beth Winters’ (Ann Skelly) 23rd birthday - the day she has decided to join the charming Liam Ward (Jamie Dornan) and escape from her limited life and difficult and complex

Ann Skelly and Jamie Dornan play the couple in love

relationship with her Protestant landowner stepfather Billy (Matthew Rhys). As decades of pain and betrayal finally build to a devastating climax, Death

Matthew Rhys plays Beth Winters' stepfather in the series

and Nightingales is a powerful and gripping drama that follows a woman struggling to control her own destiny and will illuminate tensions that tear both families and nations apart.

HULU'S CATHERINE THE GREAT SERIES WITH ELLE FANNING, NICHOLAS HOULT CASTS PHOEBE FOX! GLORIOUS TRAILER FOR SERBIAN EPIC WW1 MOVIE KING PETER I!

   CATHERINE THE GREAT SERIES

HIRES PHOEBE FOX AS COURTIER

Phoebe Fox will be Catherine's right hand lady

Although most of the attention is on Sky and HBO's Catherine the Great series with Helen Mirren, let us not forget that Hulu is also preparing THE GREAT limited series in which Elle Fanning is supposed to play (or at least try) the famous Russian tzarina at the time when she, as a very young Prussian princess, got married to Russian prince Peter (to be played by Nicholas Hoult) although she will mostly detest him later on, throw him over and kill him in the end. The latest name to join the cast is Phoebe Fox who will play her court lady Marial. Catherine and Peter's explosive relationship, filled with insanity and adultery, ended up with her organizing officers who admired her (or were her sex toys) and overthrowing him just six month after he took the throne from his aunt Empress Elizabeth. Actors Sacha Dhawan and Charity Wakefield have also been cast in unspecified roles!

   'KING PETAR I' TRAILER

FORGOTTEN TRAGEDIES OF WW1

Speaking of epic projects, first, deeply moving, trailer has been released for Serbian war epic KING PETAR I which, out next month in Serbia, depicts the tragic and heroic retreat of weakened Serbian army in 1915, after German,

The movie will be turned into TV series later on

Austro Hungarian and Bulgarian armies invaded the kingdom from all sides following Serbia's heroic efforts to stop the enemy in successful battles at Cer and Kolubara which were some of the first major battles of WW1 but have cost Serbia around 170,000 people even before the exodus. The Serbian army, lead by Serbian King Petar I (Lazar Ristovski), retreated through the frozen mountains of Albania in order to save its remains. During the long march, some 240,000 retreating Serbs died from the cold, starvation, disease and combat with Albanian tribesmen. The survivors who managed to get to the Greek island of Corfu either died there from weakness, hunger, wounds and illnesses, (which is why Serbs call the sea around the

The film also follows a Serbian mother who asks the king to take warm socks she knitted to her young son who is lost somewhere among hundreds of thousands of retreating soldiers. The king finds him too late, already frozen somewhere along the way but will ask to be buried in those very socks years later after his own death

island the Blue Tomb as the island is small and the dead had to be thrown into the sea, thousands of them) or moved to the Greek front where they will join the fights again. French and British allies sent ships to save the survivors only after Russian Emperor threatened that he would leave the war if they don't help Serbs.

PRE WW1 RICH BANKING DYNASTY EPIC TV SAGA IN WORKS BASED ON NATASHA SOLOMONS' HOUSE OF GOLD NOVEL!

   'HOUSE OF GOLD' TV SERIES

ABOUT PRE WW1 EUROPE'S MOST INFLUENTIAL BANKING DYNASTY

Here's a new period set saga for you: Tall Story Pictures (owned by ITV) will turn Natasha Solomons' novel HOUSE OF GOLD on a rich European

House of Gold is becoming a TV series!

banking family into TV series! As Deadline reports, the story set on the eve of World War I describes the opulent life of banking dynasty the Goldbaums whose world is about to shatter.

Their influence reaches across Europe; they are the confidantes and bankers of governments and emperors. Little happens without their say-so and even less without their knowledge. But Greta Goldbaum has no say at all in who she’ll marry. Greta’s union with cousin Albert will strengthen the bond between the Austrian and the English branches of the dynasty. It is sensible and strategic, however, Greta is neither. But just as she begins to taste an unexpected happiness, war is looming and even the Goldbaums can’t alter its course. For the first time in two hundred years, the family will find themselves on opposing sides.

PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON MARY POPPINS RETURNS WITH EMILY BLUNT, BEN WHISHAW, COLIN FIRTH, JULIE WALTERS, EMILY MORTIMER, MERYL STREEP, ANGELA LANSBURY

   'MARY POPPINS RETURNS'

THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is something you, sadly, won't hear in this one (for reasons unknown) but MARY POPPINS RETURNS is still ready to

Mary Poppins Returns December 19th!

fly down into cinemas near you December 19th just in time for Christmas holidays! What can we expect from the latest movie adaptation of P. L. Travers' (who never liked the first movie) book on the famous nanny? We should probably stay reserved given that it was directed by Rob Marshall who is known for lack of substance and depth in his musicals, but Emily Blunt in the lead role might just save the thing in the end! Set in 1935 London, 25 years after the events of the original film, it sees Poppins, the former nanny of Jane and Michael Banks,

The film arrives 54 years after the original one

returning after a family tragedy.

BACK TO CHERRY TREE LANE  
Set in 1930s London, the story follows Michael (Ben Whishaw) and Jane Banks (Emily Mortimer), who are now grown up. Michael is living with his three children (Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh, and Joel Dawson) and housekeeper Ellen (Julie Walters), in the house on Cherry Tree Lane. After Michael has a personal loss, Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt)

Annie Liebovitz has done a photoshoot with Emily Blunt for Vogue

comes back into the lives of the Banks family to help them rediscover the missing joy and wonder.

THE REST OF THE MERRY CAST

When she returns, 54 years after the original movie, she is joined by a street lamplighter named Jack (played by Lin Manuel Miranda), and an eccentric

Sandy Powell is doing costumes for Disney again after Cinderella

cousin named Topsy (Meryl Streep). British star Colin Firth appears in the movie as William Weatherall Wilkins, the current president of Fidelity

Rob Marshall fought with Disney for the usage of hand drawn animation

Fiduciary Bank, while legendary Angela Lansbury stars as The Balloon Lady. The film will have original new songs which will feature on the film's

Dick van Dyke is the only member of the original cast that returns again

soundtrack to be released two weeks before the movie. Some of the scenes will feature old school hand drawn animation!