SENDS GUGU MBATA RAW AND SAM WORTHIN GTON TO CRIMEAN WAR
She already played a daring real life woman of colour in Belle, a role which made her name known around the globe, and now Gugu Mbata Raw will join Sam Worthington in SEACOLE historical drama, a true life story of Mary Seacole. She will take the lead role of the pioneering Jamaican nurse who became known during the Crimean War for her care of wounded British soldiers. Seacole’s self-sacrifice on the front lines and fierce, adversarial relationship with Florence Nightingale during the war made her famous in her time. Spiderman's Numan Acar will play The Pasha, a high ranking officer in the Turkish army, a lover not a fighter, who helps Mary build her hotel.
Sylvia Hoeks and Sean
It
is not known whom will Australian star Sam Worthington, who is
currently shooting Avatar sequels, play in the period set movie Seacole.
Delaney will also star in the film to be directed by Charlie Stratton film later this year in UK and Romania.
'ANNA KARENINA'
HITS SMALL SCREENS AGAIN?
There were a lot of Karenina film adaptations recently
Good news, people, as Deadline reports, a new small screen version of famous Russian classic ANNA KARENINA is in works, the bad news, it will be done by Gwyneth Hughes, who massacred Thackeray's Vanity Fair recently over at ITV turning it into one of the most dull series we've seen in recent times. Fingers crossed she does not rape and kill Tolstoy's novel the same way. It is a complex story which follows dozens of major characters similar to his War and Peace. It mainly follows Russian noble woman Anna Karenina who has an affair with a dashing cavalry officer that scandalizes Saint Petersburg social circles. The pair initially flee to Italy before returning to Russia, where their lives further unravel. I'm guessing it will also be at ITV as Hughes is doing a Keeley Hawes thriller for them currently.
Now here's something exquisitely lavish for your delight today coming straight from the good old Imperial Russia! Earlier this month Russian national broadcaster has started airing their new historical mini series ANNA KARENINA! The story of the eight episodes is based on the legendary literary classic by one of world's greatest writers Leo Tolstoy, his story "On the Japanese War" and the cycle "Stories about the Japanese War" by V. V. Veresaev.
In the new television production, director Karen Shakhnazarov presents viewers with a new look at the great novel.
COUNT VRON- SKY'SSTORY 1904 year. The Russo Japanese War. Manchuria. Together with the army,
the hospital train departs. Doctor Sergei Karenin takes over the management of the hospital as
the senior resident. The hospital is located and settled
in a semi abandoned Chinese village. Karenin operates on a wounded colonel.
Hearing the name of his surgeon, the colonel shudders, he knows him.
The wounded colonel is Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky. At night Sergey
Karenin comes to the ward to Vronsky and asks him to tell him why his
mother, ANNA KARENINA, whom the Count knew thirty years ago, rushed
under thetrain. Count Vronsky, in turn, learns that the doctor is the
very Sergei Karenin. After some doubts, the count agrees to tell the
story of his tragic love with Anna Karenina, noting that people remember
only what they are comfortable remembering. Vronsky begins the story ...
SERIES CROWNED WITH A MOVIE
In a tradition characteristic for many Slavic countries, the end of the airing of the television series on the small screens will be marked by the cinematic release of a movie version of the same story. The big screen version titled ANNA KARENINA: VRONSKY'S STORY should arrive into Russian theatres this summer June 8th and the producers will start seeking foreign distributors after the domestic release! The movie and the eight part series were shot and produced at the very same time. The movie wasn't cut from the series material, it was rather shot following a separate script written for the big screen version. If I got it right and if my Russian serves me right, the story of Levin, which makes a huge part of the novel, has been omitted in the series to give more space and focus on the love story between Anna, Vronsky and Karenin. The lead actress Elizaveta Boyarskaya has admitted that it took her about half a year to prepare for the role and study the script and the backstory. Most of the movie, which is considered one of the most lavish ones in the post Soviet Era, was shot under natural lighting including the famous scene of the legendary ball with the biggest number of props and decorative items in any Russian television project in history. Candles that burn for more than eight hours have been produced specially for the shooting and it took about 45 minutes to light them all on the ballroom chandeliers.
STARS IN THE CAST Elizaveta Boyarskaya plays Anna Karenina, Maxim Matveyev is Aleksey
Vronsky, Vitaliy Kishenko is Aleksey Karenin, Kiril Grebenshchikov plays
their grown up son Sergey Karenin thirty years older than in Tolstoy's
saga.Tatiana Lutaeva is Countess Vronskaya, Ivan Kolesnikov is Stiva
Oblonskiy while Victoria Isakova is Dolli Oblonskaya. Anastasia Makeyeva
is Princess Tverskaya, with Alexander Gorbatov as Prince Yashvin. Yuriy
Beleyev plays emperor Alexander II of all Russia! Above is the series trailer, below the movie one!
