Chiwetel Ejiofor has been turning in great performances since Steven Spielberg spotted him and cast him in “Amistad” back in 1996, but it wasn’t until almost a decade later he started to make himself known to wider audiences in the likes of “Children of Men,” “Inside Man,” and, of course, “Serenity.” We’re particularly looking forward to a couple of his upcoming movies, “Half of a Yellow Sun” and Steve McQueen’s “Twelve Years a Slave,” but he’s also got an interesting looking project coming soon to the small screen.
In late 2011 he starred in the BAFTA-winning BBC miniseries “The Shadow Line,” and he’ll next be seen in another BBC miniseries, “Dancing on the Edge,” which is directed by the acclaimed British playwright and television dramatist Stephen Poliakoff (“Glorious 39”). The five-part dramedy will follow a group of black jazz musicians, the Louis Lester Band, as they found fame performing at the parties of London’s upper class society during the 1930s.
The show has a brand new trailer describing it as “a story of love, music and ambition,” and “an epic new drama,” has been launched ahead of the show’s BBC2 premiere date, which is actually as soon as February 4th. Ejiofor co-stars in the series with a cast that includes Matthew Goode, John Goodman, Anthony Head (“Buffy The Vampire Slyer”) and Jenna Louise-Coleman (“Doctor Who”) amongst others. Hopefully the series will make its way across the Atlantic before long, but regardless this looks set to be quite a year for Ejiofor. [Shadow & Act]