We’ll spare you the standard boilerplate about TV-being-the-place-where-great-stories-are-told and just dive into the news that two more filmmakers with plenty of big screen success are headed to the small screen to tell some big tales.
First up, Variety reports that Oscar-winning director of “The Great Beauty,” Paolo Sorrentino, is writing and directing a TV series tentatively titled “The Young Pope.” The production for Sky Italia will explore the (fictional) story of the first Italian-American pope in history. Given the premise, we presume there will be a political element to the eight, 50-minute episodes that are planned with an international cast being sought. So one to keep an eye out for.
Meanwhile, Baltasar Kormakur—busy in production on this next flick, the 3D mountain adventure “Everest“—will head back to his native Iceland this fall to shoot “Trapped.” With ten episodes, running one hour each, the crime series follows the investigation of a grisly murder of an unidentifiable man found in the water shortly after an International ferry arrives in a small town at the bottom of a fjord. Shortly after, a powerful blizzard hits the town with deadly force, making the only road in or out impassable. Sounds like it could be a screw-tightening thriller.
Let’s hope both of these projects find their way to U.S. screens, too.