Sam Claflin Vs. Pierre Niney: another Count of Monte Cristo is being filmed for television
An ambitious European production, under the direction of Danish filmmaker Bille Augus, double winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes.
While the team of Three Musketeers is currently developing a major film adapted from Count of Monte Cristothe masterpiece by Alexandre Dumas, France Télévisions announces today that another adaptation project is in progress.
Under the leadership of Mediawan and the Alliance – which brings together several European broadcasters to boost budgets – the production of this series of 8 episodes of 52 minutes has already started in Italy, and it will continue in France and Malta until mid-December.
The fiction is currently produced by Bill Augustone of the rare filmmakers to have two Palme d’Ors (for Pelle the Conqueror in 1988 and The Best Intentions in 1992) and an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
The 74-year-old Danish filmmaker leads a spectacular international cast, led by the British actor Sam Claflin (revealed by Hunger Games and recently seen in Daisy Jones and the Six). He will play the iconic Edmond Dantès in this version filmed in English and his performance will inevitably be compared to that of Pierre Nineywho will play the same character at the same time in the cinema.
At her side, we will find the Frenchwoman Ana Girardot in the role of Mercedes, but also Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Blake Ritson, Karla-Simone Spence, Michele Riondino, Lino Guanciale, Gabriella Pession and Nicolas Maupas.
The pitch of the series: “Wrongly accused of treason, Edmond Dantès, a nineteen-year-old sailor, is imprisoned without trial at the Château d’If, a sinister fortress off the coast of Marseille. After many years of captivity, he finally escapes and, under the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo, he plans to take revenge on those who unjustly accused him.”