World Without End, the sequel to Ken Follett's groundbreaking masterpiece, The Pillars of the Earth, has been optioned by TANDEM COMMUNICATIONS to be made into a television series. Ridley Scott and Tony Scott's Scott Free will be producing this worldwide bestseller together with Tandem. The Pillars of the Earth writer John Pielmeier is back to adapt World Without End for a possible eight-hour series. Starz is co-funding the writing portion with Tandem and is in first position to be the U.S. home for the new project, as it is for Pillars. According to published reports, the miniseries will feature stage veterans Ben Chaplin, Peter Firth, Cynthia Nixon, and Charlotte Riley. Also set to join them are Miranda Richardson and Tom Weston-Jones.
World Without End is an epic thriller of intrigue, passion and murder that unfolds from the heart of a troubled England and across a Europe ravaged by pestilence and scourged by the bloody chaos of the Hundred Years' War. The story centers on Kingsbridge, the town that also lies at the center of The Pillars of the Earth -- but takes place two centuries later, in a time just as turbulent and perilous.
On All Hallows Day, four children -- a thief, a bully, a boy genius, and a girl who wants to be a doctor -- venture into the woods near Kingsbridge. None of them realizes that the hours to follow, in which they witness the murder of two men and the burial of a secret letter so vital to those in power that its contents could change the course of history. These events will shape and twist their lives for decades, as they journey through landscapes of prosperity and famine, pandemic disease and war, and are drawn together once more by ambition, greed, love and revenge... always moving under the shadow of the unexplained killing they witnessed long ago.
World Without End has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide since its release in 2007 and spent 30 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. Ken Follett was one of the very few writers ever to hold two other slots on the List at the same time -- for the trade paperback and mass market paperback editions of The Pillars of the Earth. This rare and unusual achievement confirms the irresistible pull of Ken Follett as one of the world's most popular writers, with nearly a hundred million books in print to date.
This year Scott Free Films has produced the highly-anticipated Robin Hood, directed by Ridley Scott, starring Oscar®-winners Russell Crowe and
Cate Blanchett, also starring Matthew Macfadyen, who plays the "Prior Philip" in the up-coming 8-hour series The Pillars of the Earth. Previously, Scott Free Films produced the box-office smash, American Gangster, starring
Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and Body of Lies starring
Leonardo DiCaprio, both directed by Ridley Scott. Tony Scott recently directed Unstoppable, starring
Chris Pine and
Denzel Washington and previously collaborated with Washington and
John Travolta on the actioner The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3. Tony Scott is also director of Man on Fire, Spy Game and Top Gun while Ridley Scott is responsible for the classic films Gladiator, Thelma & Louise, Alien and Blade Runner.
Starz Entertainment, LLC, is a premium movie service provider operating in the United States. It offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz® and Encore® brands with approximately 16.9 million and 30.6 million subscribers, respectively. Starz Entertainment airs more than 1,000 movies and new original series every month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HD, Encore HD, Starz On Demand, Encore On Demand, MoviePlex On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore HD On Demand, MoviePlex HD On Demand, and Starz Play. Starz Entertainment (www.starz.com) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, which is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, and is attributed to Liberty Starz, a tracking stock group of Liberty Media Corporation.
Photo Credit: Kevin Thomas Garcia
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