Roland Emmerich has given the thumbs up for further cast members of his hotly-anticipated Roman gladiators TV series Those About to Die.
AGC Studios and High End Productions, which are producing Those About To Die for Peacock, announced Thursday that Lorenzo Richelmy, Tom Hughes, Sara Martins, Jojo Macari, Gabriella Pession, Dimitri Leonidas and Moe Hashim will join Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins in the new swords-and-sandals series, based on the book of the same name by Daniel Mannix.
German director Marco Kreuzpaintner (Sommer Storm, Beat) has also joined Those About To Die and will direct several episodes of the series alongside Emmerich, from scripts written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot).
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Richelmy, best known for his titular performance in Netflix’s Marco Polo, will play Tenax, an ambitious crime boss working his way up in the complex and corrupt world of ancient Rome, with its spectacle-driven gladiatorial competitions.
Hughes, last seen in Amazon Prime’s The English alongside Emily Blunt, will play Titus Flavianus, the oldest son of Roman Emperor Vespasian (Hopkins) and the apparent heir to the Imperial throne. Macari, known for his roles in Netflix’s Sex Education, who appears in the upcoming AppleTV+ series Masters of the Air, will play Vespasian’s treacherously ambitious younger son Domitian.
Martins (Paris Je T’aime, Death in Paradise), has been cast as Cala, a formidable, ruthless and fiercely intelligent trader. Hashim, who plays Moe Bumbercatch in the second season of Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso, has been case as Cala’s son Kwame, a lion-tracker and fast and adept fighter.
Pession, who appeared in Hulu’s Tell Me Lies, the NBC procedural Crossing Lines, and ABC’s Station 19, is set to play Antonia, an adept politician and ruthless patrician. Leonidas (Rosewater, The Monuments Men) will play Scorpus, a star charioteer.
Emmerich, Kreuzpaintner, and Rodat will also executive produce Those About To Die together with Stuart Ford and Lourdes Diaz of AGC, Hollywood Gang’s Gianni Nunnari, Street Entertainment’s Harald Kloser, Herbert G. Kloiber, Martin Moszkowicz, Oliver Berben and Jonas Bauer of High End Productions, and Charles Holland.
Peacock has given a straight-to-series order for Those About To Die and will stream the show in the U.S. High End Productions, the distribution and financing partnership between Herbert Kloiber Sr. and Constantin Film, have taken all distribution rights for Europe. AGC’s global sales arm, AGC International, holds remaining worldwide rights.
Marco Kreuzpaintner is repped by Independent Talent and Gersh in the US; Richelmy is repped by Independent Talent; Tom Hughes by Gordon and French; Sara Martins by Curtis Brown Group and Agence Adéquat; Jojo Macari by Curtis Brown Group and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein; Gabriella Pession by Studio Legale Associato Morandi Cascone; Dimitri Leonidas by Independent Talent; and Moe Hashim by B-Side Management. All deals were negotiated by Director of Legal and Business Affairs Conor McElroy on behalf of AGC.
