For the first time, Amazon in the U.S. has teamed up with UK’s Sky for a co-production, Deadline reports. The series is called Britannia and will written by Jez Butterworth. This will actually be Amazon’s first series entirely produced overseas. The cast for the original drama series includes Kelly Reilly, David Morrissey (The Walking Dead), Zoë Wanamaker (Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone) and Stanley Weber (Outlander).
Vertigo Films (Monsters) will produce the 10-part event drama in association with Penny Dreadful’s Neal Street Productions. The story is set in 43 A.D. and follows the Roman invasion of what would become Great Britain. The dedicated, yet fearful, Roman Imperial Army returns to crush the Celtic heart of Britannia, a mysterious land ruled by wild warrior women and powerful priests who can channel the forces of the underworld.
Playing arch-rivals Kerra and Antedia are Reilly and Wanamaker who must set aside their differences to face the invaders, led by the towering figure of Aulus Plautius (Morrissey). Other cast members include Hugo Speer, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Stanley Weber, Eleanor Worthington-Cox and Ian McDiarmid round out the cast.
Vertigo’s James Richardson will serve as executive producer alongside Pippa Harris and Nicolas Brown from Neal Street, and Anne Thomopoulos (Rome, Band of Brothers). Star Wars’ Rick McCallum will produce and Jez and Tom Butterworth (Fortitude) are lead writers with Richard McBrien (Spooks).
Butterworth, whose credits include Spectre, Black Mass and Edge of Tomorrow stated that the drama will be “the Heavyweight Clash of All Time, the one which most shapes who we are today. And we see it all from a human perspective, of individual survival, ambition, courage, lust, loss, revenge.”
Britannia will shoot on location in Prague and Wales and will air on Sky 1 in the UK & Ireland. The series will also be available on Amazon Prime Video Stateside in 2017.