Watch the First Trailer for 'A Gentleman In Moscow' Starring Ewan McGregor
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Fans of continental period drama, take note: Ewan McGregor stars in a new series about the Russian Revolution, titled A Gentleman in Moscow, coming this spring.
McGregor replaced Kenneth Branagh, who was originally announced way back in 2018 as the star. Adapted from Amor Towles’s bestselling 2016 novel of the same name, the show centers on the fictional Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov (McGregor), whose aristocratic upbringing puts him on the wrong side of history in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. The first trailer just dropped (watch above).
Here's everything you need to know about the show:
Ewan McGregor leads the cast.
As mentioned, McGregor plays Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov. The rest of the cast is as follows:
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Anna Urbanova, a glamorous, self-made film actress
Alexa Goodall as Nina, the Count's unlikely young friend
Johnny Harris as Osip, a conflicted secret police officer
Fehinti Balogun as Mishka, the Count's best friend from university
The rest of the cast includes Leah Harvey, Paul Ready, John Heffernan, Lyès Salem, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Dee Ahluwalia, and Anastasia Hille.
The show is adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name.
A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel
amazon.com
$9.41
Per Deadline, the character synopsis for Rostov reveals that after narrowly avoiding 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." The synopsis adds that Rostov discovers the true value of friendship, family and love as he builds a new life for himself in captivity, within a stone's throw of the Kremlin.
The series is created and executive produced by Ben Vanstone, who is also the showrunner for PBS Masterpiece's beloved James Herriot adaptation, All Creatures Great and Small. McGregor will be an executive producer alongside Vanstone and Tom Harper, a BAFTA-nominated director who's worked on Peaky Blinders and War & Peace. The show will be directed by Sam Miller—he previously directed I May Destroy You and Surface—who will also executive produce.
"The book is a rare and delicious treat and I fell in love with it the moment I picked it up 6 years ago," Harper said. "We are thrilled that Amor entrusted this brilliant team with bringing the Metropol to life and couldn’t be more delighted that Ewan will be playing the Count."
"It’s an amazing, wonderful story and I am very excited to get to play such a fabulous role," McGregor said in a statement alongside the announcement, which was made at the Edinburgh TV Festival.
A Gentleman in Moscow premieres on Friday, March 29.
It will stream on Paramount+ with Showtime.
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