By Jesse Whittock
International TV Co-Editor
Peacock’s upcoming gladiator drama Those About to Die has added seven names to its cast, with Marco Kreuzpaintner (Beat) now signed up as co-director and exec producer.
Lorenzo Richelmy, Tom Hughes, Sara Martins, Jojo Macari, Gabriella Pession, Dimitri Leonidas and Moe Hashim will join Anthony Hopkins in the AGC Television series, which Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) will co-direct with Kreuzpaintner. Robert Rodat is the writer.
The ambitious series, which is inspired by Daniel Mannix’s eponymous nonfiction book, is set in the complex and corrupt world of ancient Rome’s spectacle-driven gladiatorial competition and features an ensemble of characters from all corners of the Roman Empire.
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Oscar winner Hopkins was last month cast as Vespasian, Roman Emperor and head of the Flavian bloodline.
Hughes (The English, Dancing on the Edge) will play Titus Flavianus, the elder son and of Vespasian and apparent heir to the Imperial throne, and Macari (Sex Education, Masters of the Air) plays younger son Domitian. Richelmy (Marco Polo, Fifteen Love) has now been cast as ambitious crime boss Tenax. Martins (Pigalle, Citadel) will play ruthless trader Cala, Hashim (Ted Lasso) is her son Kwame, Pession (Ferdinando e Carolina, Station 19) is politician and ruthless patrician Antonia, and Leonidas (The Monuments Men, Masters of the Air) plays Scorpus, the preeminent charioteer of the age.
Behind the cameras, Kreuzpaintner, known for Prime Video Germany series Beat, has signed up to direct alongside Emmerich. The pair worked together on the Kevin Kline-starring Trade – Welcome to America. Kreuzpaintner’s exec credits include Sky drama The Lazarus Project and upcoming Netflix and DC Comics show Bodies.
In the U.S., Those About to Die will stream on Peacock, which gave it a straight-to-series order last year.
The series comes from AGC Television and will be co-financed by Europe’s High End Productions, the distribution and financing partnership between Herbert Kloiber Sr. and Constantin Film, is co-financier and owns distribution rights for Europe. AGC International owns the remaining worldwide rights.
Exec producers are Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, Moonfall), Kreuzpaintner, Rodat (Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot), Hollywood Gang’s Gianni Nunnari (The Departed, 300), Street Entertainment’s Harald Kloser (2012, White House Down, Midway), High End’s Herbert G. Kloiber, Martin Moszkowicz, Oliver Berben and Jonas Bauer, Charles Holland (Black Lightning, The Quad, JAG), and AGC Studios’ Stuart Ford and Lourdes Diaz.
As we reported last month, Production will begin at Cinecitta Studios in Rome in March. Italian co-producer Wildside Productions (The Young Pope, My Brilliant Friend) will provide local production services.
Kreuzpaintner is repped by Independent Talent and Gersh in the US; Richelmy is repped by Independent Talent; Hughes by Gordon and French; Martins by Curtis Brown Group and Agence Adéquat; Macari by Curtis Brown Group and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein; Pession by Studio Legale Associato Morandi Cascone; Leonidas by Independent Talent; and Hashim by B-Side Management.
All deals were negotiated by Director of Legal and Business Affairs Conor McElroy on behalf of AGC.
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