Smallscreen - The Borgias
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Showtime Networks has ordered 10 episodes of a one-hour drama series based on the infamous Italian Renaissance family. This period drama is presented by The Tudors' showrunner Michael Hirst.
The Borgias were a prominent Noble family in Italy's days of yore, and Hirst at the wheel of the scribes will ensure that the drama will be loaded with plenty of intrigue, sexy affairs, and stunning costumes.
The cast of characters includes Rodrigo's two twisted sons, Cesare and Juan, as well as, of course, daughter Lucrezia, who at 14 was the most sought-after political marital match in Europe and who reputedly developed an expertise with poison.
The 13-episode season will follow the Borgia crime family in the auspicious year of 1492.
Oscar winning actor Jeremy Irons will star in the epic drama series as Rodrigo Borgia, the cunning, manipulative patriarch of The Borgia family who ascends to the highest circles of power within Renaissance-era Italy. Additionally, Academy Award winning director Neil Jordan will create and executive produce the series as well as direct the first two episodes. Veteran film and television writer/producer Michael Hirst, who created, wrote and executive produced The Tudors, will serve as executive producer/writer.
The Borgias will be a complex, unvarnished portrait of one of history’s’ most intriguing and infamous dynastic families. The series begins as the family’s patriarch Rodrigo (Jeremy Irons), becomes Pope, propelling him, his two Machiavellian sons Cesare and Juan, and his scandalously beautiful daughter, Lucrezia, to become the most powerful and influential family of the Italian Renaissance. And all that power and influence eventually leads to their demise. As Machiavelli once said about his friends, the Borgias, "Politics have no relation to morals."
The series will be produced as a Canadian-European Treaty co-production in a manner similar to The Tudors. It will go into production this spring for a debut in early 2011.
TV information
| Showing: | 2011- |
| Channel/Network: | Showtime |
Cast
| Jeremy Irons | Rodrigo Borgia |
| Joanne Whalley | Vanossa |
| Holliday Grainger | Lucrezia Borgia |
| David Oakes | Juan Borgia |
| Colm Feore | Giuliano Della Rovere |
Merchandise
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