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Vampires, zombies...then pirates and now...Vikings!

  • 24-05-2011 7:34pm
    #1
    Richard Dower
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 21,634 ✭✭✭✭


    :eek:

    Yesterday we had pirate drama Port Royal, then ANOTHER pirate show got greenlit:

    http://www.deadline.com/2011/05/ahoy-matey-fox-eyes-pirate-limited-series-from-ridley-and-tony-scott/

    And today....we have VIKINGS! :D

    http://www.deadline.com/2011/05/mgm-television-partners-with-the-team-behind-the-tudors-for-viking-series/

    Mummies might just be next! ;)


    ________________________________

    EXCLUSIVE: In one of the highest-profile TV projects to come out of post-bankruptcy MGM, the studio has teamed with The Tudors and Camelot masterminds Michael Hirst and Morgan O'Sullivan for Vikings (working title), a drama series about the famous Scandinavian warriors. Hirst, creator of Showtime's The Tudors and co-creator of Starz's Camelot, created Vikings and will executive produce with Irish-based producer O'Sullivan and producers/managers Sherry Marsh and Alan Gasmer. The series is eyed to begin production on a 10-episode first season next year at O'Sullivan's soon-to-open studio facility in Ireland. It will be an Ireland-Canada co-production in the mold of O'Sullivan's production model for The Tudors and Camelot. MGM, which has been involved in the development of the project, will finance 100% of the cost outside of Canada and Ireland and will distribute the series in the U.S. and internationally. Vikings is considered better suited for cable, and, because of the appetite for big, historic epics on pay TV, a pay cable play appears likely.

    The idea for a Viking series started with Marsh, who took it to fellow producer/manager Gasmer. The two pitched it to MGM EVP International TV Distribution Chris Ottinger, who suggested taking the international co-production route and brought in O'Sullivan. O'Sullivan called up frequent collaborator and avid historian Hirst, who turned out to be a Viking buff and had written an unproduced feature script about the famous barbarians years ago. Hirst is working on a bible for the series and is expected to write most or all episodes. (He famously wrote every single episode of The Tudors.) The series will chronicle the Vikings' exploits as warriors, explorers, builders, merchants, pirates and mercenaries through what is known as the Viking Age of Scandinavian, British and Irish history from the late-8th to the mid-11th century. It will center on Ragnar Lodbrok, one of the most popular Viking heroes, a great commander who briefly ruled Denmark and Sweden and was linked to two shieldmaidens and a queen.


    While Jack Sparrow is frolicking on the big screen in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, his brethren are becoming a hot commodity on TV. Just as FX and Fox International Channels teamed with producers Graham King and Gale Anne Hurd for 17th century pirate drama Port Royal, another pirate series is setting sail at Fox. The network is in negotiations for the project, Pyrates, which is envisioned as a 10-13-episode event-type limited series for summer 2012. The series was created by Law & Order/Numbers veteran Barry Schindel, with Stephen Hopkins (24) on board to direct the first episode. Indie producer Ensemble Entertainment is producing in association with Ridley and Tony Scott's Scott Free Prods. Based on historical events, Pyrates is described as a gritty portrayal of the men and women who pulled off the largest heist on pirate history -- the capture of the Spanish silver fleet in 1628 -- sparking the golden age of piracy, a time when there was greater honor amongst thieves than those who hunted them. Ensemble is exploring an international co-production model for the project and is scouting potential locations for the production, including the Caribbean and Australia. Endemol will handle international distribution for Pyrates through the first-look deal with Ensemble the company signed last fall.

    Additionally, CAA-repped Ensemble, which was founded last year by Tony To, Jin Ishimoto, Patrick Murray and Ashley Stern, is developing with Scott Free Security, a drama series project created by Bruce McKenna that explores the privatization of law enforcement and the military and centers on an American private-security firm.


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