Reports indicate that a new 10 part series is based on H. Rider Haggard’s classic swashbuckling adventures is on the way from Sonar Entertainment and Ecosse Films.
PRESS RELEASE:
CANNES, APRIL 2 – Sonar Entertainment Inc. and Ecosse Films have joined forces to develop and produce Quatermain. The new 10×60 action-adventure series is based on the classic swashbuckling stories by iconic Victorian-era author H. Rider Haggard. The announcement of the project, which is being introduced at Cannes during MIPTV, 2012, was made today by Stewart Till, CEO, Sonar Entertainment and Douglas Rae, Founder, Managing Director and Executive Producer, Ecosse Films. Rae will serve as executive producer on the project. Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle (Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal) are the writers.
Allan Quatermain, a rugged expedition leader based in the busy, wild port of Durban, has recently turned his back on the lucrative but bloodthirsty practice of game hunts. He is approached by Baron Henry, a wealthy German noble, and Clarice Good, the beautiful but disgraced daughter of a US Governor, to help them find Baron Henry’s brother, who’s been missing since embarking on a dangerous attempt to locate the lost diamond mines of King Solomon.
Quatermain resolves to take on the mission to pay for his young son’s schooling in London – a boy he hopes to give a life very different from his own. Using a rough-sketched map left behind, Quatermain and his African tracker Umbopa lead Baron Henry and Clarice set off across the scorching desert, where they encounter constant dangers and incredible, non-stop adventures along the way.
“Allan Quatermain is one of the greatest adventure heroes in all of literature. In the years since his introduction, he has subsequently inspired many hugely successful characters and franchises, including the Indiana Jones series,” said Till. “We are extremely excited about this opportunity to partner with Ecosse as we introduce Quatermain to a new generation and bring his timeless exploits into the 21st Century.”
“We are delighted to be developing this ambitious new international series with such an experienced and inspiring company as Sonar Entertainment,” added Rae. “Quatermain has huge potential for an international audience.”
About Ecosse Films
Ecosse Films is a multi award-winning company, specialising in high-quality drama for film and television, producing 11 films and over 300 hours of network television for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Showtime, Starz Channel and WGBH. Credits include the hugely successful film Mrs Brown, starring Judi Dench, Charlotte Gray starring Cate Blanchett, Becoming Jane starring Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy, Brideshead Revisited starring Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon, the global family hit The Water Horse and the BAFTA nominated film Nowhere Boy, the teenage biopic of John Lennon.
TV series include BBC1’s acclaimed long-running drama Monarch of the Glen and more recently the BBC 1 hit series Mistresses. Ecosse’s $50 million international drama, Camelot, a 10 part series for Starz Channel and Channel 4, stars Joseph Fiennes, Jamie Campbell Bower, Tamsin Egerton and Eva Green.
About Sonar Entertainment, Inc.
Sonar Entertainment, Inc. is a leading developer, producer and distributor of award-winning television series, mini-series and movies for the global television marketplace. Sonar owns rights to over 1,000 titles comprising more than 3,500 broadcast hours of programming. The company maintains strategic creative and licensing partnerships with producers and broadcasters throughout the world.
