SEE JULIO PENA AND ALESSANDRO BORGHI IN TEASER FOR 16TH CENTURY HISTORICAL ADVENTURE THE CAPTIVE ON THE YOUTH OF DON QUIXOTE'S AUTHOR

   THE CAPTIVE TEASER  

ALEJANDRO AMENABAR'S HISTORICAL MOVIE

We have first teaser for Oscar winner Alejandro Amenabar's THE CAPTIVE with Julio Peña as “Don Quixote” author Miguel de Cervantes, a prisoner of Ottoman corsairs, and Alessandro Borghi as his captor. Out in Spain October 17th, the film has been sold around Europe as well.

 

  THE FILM IS SET IN ALGIERS

in 1575 when Cervantes, a wounded 28-year-old Spanish Navy soldier, is held prisoner by Ottoman corsairs. A cruel death awaits him should his fellow countrymen fail to pay his ransom soon; but within the confines of his cell, Cervantes discovers a surprising refuge — the art of storytelling. Crafted from resilience and hope, his stories capture the attention of Hasan, the enigmatic and feared Bey of Algiers, igniting a secret affinity between captor and captive. Suspicions rise amidst growing tensions in the city, and Cervantes, driven by an unwavering sense of optimism, devises a daring plan for freedom. 

SEE FIRST TRAILER AND AIR DATE FOR BBC AND STAN'S PERIOD SET SERIES TEN POUND POMS SEASON 2

    TEN POUND POMS  

FIRST TRAILER FOR THE SECOND SEASON

The new season starts next week

BBC has sent us the first trailer for the second season of their period set series TEN POUND POMS which sees the return of Michelle Keegan as nurse Kate Thorne, and Faye Marsay and Warren Brown as Annie and Terry. The series will return March 9th to BBC airing on Sunday evenings and will also stream on Stan at some point in Australia. You can check out the trailer for the new season below and tell us what you think.

 

WHAT IS THE SECOND SEASON STORY?

After a challenging first year in Australia, series two follows nurse Kate Thorne (Michelle Keegan) and the Roberts family (Faye Marsay and Warren Brown) into 1957 on their adventure down under, each determined against all odds to achieve their slice of the Australian dream. As Kate, Annie and Terry settle into their new lives, they each struggle to reconcile their hopes for the life they were promised with the harsh realities they face at Galgownie. We will also be introduced to the Skinner family, who arrive in Australia from Ireland ready to enjoy their new lives in the sunshine, plus unscrupulous landlord Benny Bates, who makes Terry an offer he can’t refuse as he attempts to put down roots for his family.

 

PATRICK WILSON JOINS AMY ADAMS AND JAVIER BARDEM IN CAPE FEAR THRILLER TV SERIES AT APPLE TV +

 

   CAPE FEAR TV SERIES  

AMY ADAMS JOINS JAVIER BARDEM

Two weeks ago I told you that Apple TV + is preparing new thriller TV series CAPE FEAR with Amy Adams and Javier Bardem in the lead roles and now our dearest Patrick Wilson has joined them as well. The ten episode series is based on John D. MacDonald novel “The Executioners” which has been previously adapted a couple of times but for the big screen. The plot of the new series: a storm is coming for happily married attorneys Anna (Amy Adams) and Tom Bowden (Patrick Wilson) when Max Cady (Javier Bardem), a notorious killer from their past, gets out of prison.

MGM + ROBIN HOOD SERIES FINDS THEIR LADY MARIAN, FRIAR TUCK, LITTLE JOHN AND WILL SCARLET!

  ROBIN HOOD TV SERIES  

ROUNDS UP LEAD CAST AT MGM+

After casting Jack Patten as the lead hero and Sean Bean as Sheriff of Nottingham, MGM + has rounded up cast for their new ROBIN HOOD adventure series. Lauren McQueen has been added as Marian with Lydia Peckham (as Priscilla of Nottingham, the Sheriff’s daughter who understands the rules of power and plays them to her advantage), Steven

Angus Castle Doughty, Henry Rowley and Jack Patten

Waddington (Earl of Huntingdon, a ruthless Norman lord and the father of Maid Marian), Marcus Fraser (Little John, Robin’s most loyal ally), Angus Castle-Doughty (Friar Tuck, a principled young monk who aligns himself with Robin Hood’s outlaws in pursuit of true justice) and Henry Rowley (Will, a young man caught between two worlds who wants belonging, respect,

Lauren McQueen and Lydia Peckham will take female leads

and a future beyond the shadows of the forest) also joining. After the Norman invasion of England, Rob, a Saxon forester’s son, and Marian, the daughter of a Norman lord, fall in love and work together to fight for justice and freedom. As Rob rises as the leader of a band of rebel outlaws, Marian infiltrates the power at court, as both work together to thwart royal corruption and bring peace to the land.

ANYA TAYLOR JOY AND DREW STARKEY TO LEAD APPLE TV + SERIES LUCKY WITH ANNETTE BENING AND TIMOTHY OLYPHANT

  APPLE'S LUCKY TV SERIES 

TO STAR DREW STARKEY & ANYA TAYLOR JOY

Apple TV Plus has rounded up the cast for their new limited series LUCKY executive produced by Reese Witherspoon. Drew Starkey and Anya Taylor Joy will lead the cast that will also has Annette Bening, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Timothy Olyphant. Based on Marissa Stapley’s bestselling novel it centers on a young woman (Taylor-Joy) who left behind the life of crime she was raised in years ago, but must now embrace her darker, criminal side one final time in a desperate attempt to escape her past. Starkey will play Cary, Lucky’s husband.

NEW SF TV SHOW ADAPTATIONS: CONSIDER PHLEBAS AT AMAZON, AND REMAKE OF VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, LAND OF THE GIANTS AND THE TIME TUNNEL

  NEW SF TV ADAPTATIONS  

CONSIDER PHLEBAS AT AMAZON

A bunch of sf novels are getting new TV adaptations, starting with Amazon Studios who are turning CONSIDER PHLEBAS a novel by Iain M. Banks

The series was planned back in 2018 as well

into a TV series. Charles Yu will write and executive produce  In the science fiction novel, while war rages between the utopian Culture and the Idiran Empire, a Culture Ship AI “Mind” takes refuge on a forbidden planet. Both Horza, a shape-shifting mercenary working for the Idirans, and Balveda, a “Special Circumstances” Culture agent, have been tasked with retrieving it to tip the balance in a galaxy-spanning conflict. Consider Phlebas pits sentience against AI in an epic and bloody quest across the cosmos. 

3 SF SERIES BASED ON IRWIN ALLEN'S WORK

Meanwhile, Akiva Goldsmith will reimagine three of Irwin Allen's classic sf shows over at Legendary Television. VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA (an underwater adventure that follows the nuclear submarine Seaview), LAND OF THE GIANTS (about a sub-orbital space vehicle the Spindrift whose crew gets shrunk after getting caught up in a sand storm) and also THE TIME TUNNEL (about two scientists who accidentally end jumping through time as those left behind attempt to bring them back to the present time) are supposed to get new TV series versions bringing modern sensibilities to their timeless appeal.

 

MARTIN COMPSTON REPLACES RICHARD ARMITAGE IN THE SECOND SEASON OF HIGH SUSPENSE DRAMA RED EYE

   MARTIN COMPSTON  

TO LEAD RED EYE SERIES SEASON TWO

After Richard Armitage who was the lead in the first season, ITVX has cast Martin Compston as the new hero of the second season of RED EYE

Martin Compston will lead the new season

series with  Jing Lusi back in the high conspiracy drama as DS Hana Li! Jemma Moore will also return as her journalist sister Jess, along with Lesley Sharp as MI5 boss Madeline Delaney. As you remember, in the first season she was escorting via airplane back to UK Richard Armitages character Dr Matthew Nolan, the medical professional accused of murdering the daughter of a senior Chinese politician. Martin Compston will now play the centre of a new conspiracy in the six part series which is currently shooting. It will be a new conspiracy in a highly pressurised world.

SANDRA HULLER TO LEAD 17TH CENTURY MOVIE ROSE SET AT THE END OF THE THIRTY YEARS WAR

   SANDRA HULLER  

TO LEAD NEW HISTORICAL FILM ROSE

As Variety reports, Austrian-German production company Schubert has set German star Sandra Huller as the lead in their new historical movie ROSE which has been shot already and is currently in post production for a release later this year. Coming from director Markus Scheinzer, it will follow a 17th-century woman who, disguised as a man, begins a new life in a protestant village at the end of the Thirty Years’ War.

FIRST IMAGES FROM CHANNEL 5'S THRILLER MINI TV SERIES THE AU PAIR WITH DAVID SUCHET, KENNY DOUGHTY, SALLY BRETTON, VIRGINIE LEDOYEN

 CHANNEL 5'S THE AU PAIR 

FIRST IMAGES FROM THE NEW MINI SERIES

He hasn't been on the telly for more than half a decade but David Suchet is now starring in Channel 5's six episode series THE AU PAIR and today you can see the first images. He will play George, a diabetic father who moves next door to daughter Zoe Dalton (Sally Bretton). Zoe seems to have it all, including successful husband Chris (Kenny Doughty), but when she hires an au pair, Sandrine (Ludmilla Makowski), the beguiling young French woman triggers an unsettling shift in the household as instincts and suspicions arise, hinting at hidden agendas! The series delves deep into the complexities of family, trust and hidden truths, against the backdrop of the picturesque British countryside! Virginie Ledoyen will play a whistleblower, whose pivotal role kicks off in the opening scene and spans the rest of the show. Canal + will air it in France and on Channel 5 it starts March 10th. I will ad a trailer to this post as soon as it is released.

PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON NEW NBC DRAMA GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY WITH BEN RAPPAPORT, MATTHEW DAVIS, ANNA SOPHIA ROBB

   PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON  

GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY TV DRAMA

New series hits NBC tonight

With the cancellation of Territory over at Netflix, Reba's Happy's Place and Georgie and Mandy's Second Marriage sitcoms getting second seasons ordered and the launch of Marie Antoinette second season and A Thousand Blows first season, we had a busy TV week which ends today with the start of NBC's new drama GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY which follows four members of a suburban garden club all from different walks of life, who get caught up in murder and mischief as they struggle to make their conventional lives bloom. The series starts tonight, February 23rd as the new Sunday evening show. You can check out the exciting series trailer below the post and tell us what you think, will you be watching?

SOME SECRETS ARE TOO BIG TO BURY

 Ben Rappaport is Brett, cool in a threadbare kind of way, he put his owndreams of starting a car restoration business on hold so his wife (now ex wife) could finish law school. He continues his job as a manager of a garden store so he can take care of the kids. Melissa Fumero is Birdie. Entitled, rich, swathed in Chanel, a smoker, a drinker, self-destructive at times, toxic at others, but not without real pain beneath her facade, she is a successful author whose memoir, “Digging for Gold: Dancing Through Divorce,” is a bestseller. Matthew Davis is Joel, a police officer and a father of adopted son Tom,whom Birdie takes an interest in. Burned out by his job and life in this suburban town, he just needs the slightest push to embrace a dark side of his own. Anna Sophia Robb is Alice, your favorite high school English teacher, a dreamer whose best dreams are crashing down on her. Alexander Hodge plays Doug, Alice’s husband. He once had dreams of being a wildly successful artist, but like Alice, his dreams have dwindled over the years, and now fills his time by painting signs for local restaurants. Aja Naomi King plays Catherine, an unhappily married mother of two younger children, a realtor who works off some of her loneliness with a very juicy secret.

 

SEE FIRST IMAGES FROM NETFLIX MADRID 1880s SET COSTUME DRAMA THE LADY'S COMPANION WITH ALVARO MEL

  THE LADY'S COMPANION 

NEW NETFLIX PERIOD SET SERIES

If you are looking for a new costume drama to watch this spring, Netflix is bringing us Spanish period set series THE LADY'S COMPANION (Manual Para Señoritas) which starts streaming from March 28th with a potential of getting new seasons if proved successful. To celebrate the announcement, Netflix has released first images and you can also check out below the Spanish language trailer just to get the feel of what to expect in the new series which comes from the creators of Cable Girls historical drama.

BRAND NEW EIGHT EPISODE SERIES IS SET IN 

Madrid, 1880. Elena Bianda is the most sought-after lady-in-waiting in the entire city. Despite her youth, more than 20 ladies have already had decent courtships and marriages under her tutelage. Her success lies in being rigid in morality with their families and sensitive to the concerns of the ladies. A complicated balance that Elena handles perfectly. She was born for it: seeing them successfully walk down the aisle is, quite simply, her whole life. All this changes when she arrives at the Mencía house and has to take care of 3 sisters.

 

 WHO IS IN THE CAST?

Leading the cast for the series are Álvaro Mel as Santiago, Nadia de Santiago as Elena, and Isa Montalbán as Cristina, with the remainder of the cast for the new show including Zoe Bonafonte, Iratxe Emparán, Tristan Ulloa, Carloto Cotta, Paula Usero, Candela Pradas, Maria Barranco, Itziar Manero, Maria Caballero and Gracia Olayo.

 

LONDON TV SCREENINGS SPOTLIGHT: COLD WATER WITH ANDREW LINCOLN, SANDOKAN WITH CAN YAMAN, FRENCH WW1 SET FANTASY SERIES THE SENTINELS

   LONDON TV SCREENINGS  

 COLD WATER WITH ANDREW LINCOLN

Showing next week at London TV Screenings open market are many interesting new series  and among them is COLD WATER which sees Andrew Lincoln returning to TV. Done for ITV Studios, it sees him play John, repressed and raging at his stay-at-home life, who moves his family to rural idyll Coldwater. There he is befriended by Tommy, a neighbor, a seeming pillar of the community, blissfully unaware that Tommy is harbouring horrifying secrets.

SANDOKAN WITH CAN YAMAN

Also being offered to the buyers in London next week is new adventure TV series remake of famous SANDOKAN who is this time played by Turkish heartthrob Can Yaman and with Ed Westwick and John Hannah also starring in the series inspired by the novel series of Emilio Salgari! Borneo in the mid-19th century is a paradise inhabited by the indigenous Dayak tribes, who live according to their ancient traditions but are ruled by the ruthless laws of the British Empire at the height of its colonial power. Sandokan lives from day to day without taking sides. He fights for himself and his pirate crew, which includes his loyal friend Yanez. But his life changes when he meets Marianne, the beautiful daughter of the British consul in Labuan, during a raid. It is the beginning of an impossible love story between two unexpectedly similar souls: Marianne, of noble blood but with the wild spirit of someone who grew up in a tropical paradise, and Sandokan, pirate leader and adventurer who carries the blood of warrior kings. On their trail is the legendary pirate hunter Lord James Brooke, who will stop at nothing to capture Sandokan and win Marianne's heart. 

THE SENTINELS FROM FRANCE

France is, meanwhile, bringing over to London a fantasy series set in First World War THE SENTINELS which will air in France on Canal +. On a WW1 battlefield French Private Gabriel (Louis Peres) is wounded. His family is told he is dead. In fact, he has been chosen to be part of a secret research program to create a new kind of soldier. Inoculated with a mysterious serum, when he awakens, Gabriel is stronger and faster than a normal human. He is recruited into The Sentinels, a band of elite fighters. Based on the Xavier Dorison and Enrique Breccia graphic novels, the French-language drama launches on Canal+ in France later this year according to Deadline.

KIRSTEN SHERIDAN TO DIRECT A HISTORICAL MOVIE ADAPTATION OF GRACE O'MALLEY THE IRISH PIRATE QUEEN BIOGRAPHY BOOK

  GRACE O'MALLEY MOVIE  

IN WORKS ON IRISH PIRATE QUEEN

Jim Sheridan's daughter Kirsten will direct

As Variety reports, Kirsten Sheridan is set to direct a movie adaptation of Anne Chambers' book GRACE O'MALLEY: THE BIOGRAPHY OF IRELAND'S PIRATE QUEEN. The story will chronicle the extraordinary true story of a meeting between Queen Elizabeth I, the most powerful ruler in British history, and the fearless 16th century Irish rebel pirate Grace O’Malley (Granuaile). When her youngest son is taken prisoner, Grace sails right up the Thames to confront Queen Elizabeth directly. Over the course of just one week, these leaders of two warring nations question each other’s identity, pierce each other’s wounds, win each other’s respect, and come together as equals to define not only their nations, but their most intimate selves.

SEE TRAILER FOR MGM+ TAUT THRILLER SERIES NINE BODIES IN A MEXICAN MORGUE WITH ERIC MCCORMACK

  MGM+ SERIES TRAILER  

FOR NINE BODIES IN A MEXICAN MORGUE

This new thriller series will hit MGM + March 2nd

It is coming to the small screens as soon as March 2nd, so MGM+ has released a trailer for NINE BODIES IN A MEXICAN MORGUE series with Eric McCormack. The six episode series which will also air on BBC is a strikingly original and taut thriller series with a jaw-dropping reveal waiting at the end. A light aircraft with nine passengers crashes in the Mexican jungle – and everyone survives. But then, one after another, they begin to die in strange and violent ways and very soon they begin to realize that, for some inexplicable reason, somebody wants them dead. As the story unfolds in flashback, we meet the survivors as they fight against the heat, a shortage of supplies, the many dangers of the jungle – and each other. The setting becomes increasingly tense and claustrophobic until finally the identity of the killer and the truth are revealed. Peter Gadiot and Sebastian Capitan Viveros also star.