BAFTA Award-winning director Sam Miller (Surface, I May Destroy You, Luther) is set to direct and executive produce the upcoming U.K. drama series A Gentleman in Moscow for Paramount+ and Showtime.
The limited-run series, which will star Ewan McGregor, as unveiled this summer, will debut exclusively on Paramount+ internationally in 2023 and on Showtime in the U.S. Due to commence production early next year, the adaptation of Amor Towles’ best-selling novel of the same name is produced by eOne in association with Paramount.
McGregor (Star Wars franchise, Trainspotting) is leading the cast as Count Alexander Rostov “who, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, finds that his gilded past places him on the wrong side of history,” according to a plot summary. “Spared immediate execution, he is banished by a Soviet tribunal to an attic room in the opulent Hotel Metropol, threatened with death if he ever sets foot outside again. As the years pass and some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold outside the hotel’s doors, Rostov’s reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. As he builds a new life within the walls of the hotel, he discovers the true value of friendship, family and love.”
Miller most recently directed and executive produced the Apple/Hello Sunshine psychological thriller series Surface. Before that, he directed Michaela Coel’s series I May Destroy You, for which he won a BAFTA. He has also received three Emmy nominations for that series and for his work on crime drama Luther. Miller is repped by UTA, Roxana Adle at Lark Management and Ragna Nervik.
A Gentleman in Moscow is written by showrunner and executive producer Ben Vanstone (All Creatures Great and Small, The Last Kingdom). It is the first production to come through eOne’s first-look deal with Tom Harper’s Popcorn Storm Pictures. Harper (War and Peace, Peaky Blinders) will also executive produce the show with Xavier Marchand (Nautilus, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris), McGregor and Towles.
The series is part of Paramount+’s strategy to commission 150 international originals by 2025. It will debut on the streamer next year in the U.K and all international markets where the service is available. Paramount+ has continued to roll out in foreign markets and is set to launch in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France later this year.
A Gentleman in Moscow is one of the first original dramas commissioned in the U.K. that will debut across Paramount+ internationally. Additional series that will do the same include The Flatshare, Sexy Beast, No Escape and The Burning Girls.
