Screen Actors Guild® Award winner Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) has joined the cast of the new six-part limited series GUERRILLA in the lead role of "Jas Mitra." Set to air on Showtime and Sky Atlantic next year, GUERRILLA centers on a couple, "Jas" and "Marcus" (casting to be revealed soon), whose passion propels them into making the leap from political activism to radical militancy. Academy Award® winner John Ridley (American Crime) will write, direct and executive produce the limited series. Golden Globe® winner Idris Elba (Luther, Beasts of No Nation) will co-star and serve as an executive producer through his Green Door Pictures. Ridley will write the majority of the episodes and will direct the first two episodes and the finale, with Emmy Award nominee Sam Miller (Luther, No Good Deed) directing the other episodes.
Pinto will play the role of "Jas Mitra," a passionate and politically driven individual. As a member of a newly-formed radical
UNDERGROUND cell, "Jas" helps liberate a charismatic convict from prison in an effort to lead the street fight against social injustice in 1971 London. GUERRILLA is a love story set against the backdrop of one of the most politically explosive times in U.K. history. It tells the story of "Jas" and "Marcus," whose relationship and values are tested when they form a radical
UNDERGROUND cell. Their ultimate target becomes the Black Power Desk, a true-life, secretive counter-intelligence unit within Special Branch dedicated to crushing all forms of black activism. Whilst the series is set against a background of social and political activism, at its heart GUERRILLA is about a relationship under pressure, and the reality that for any couple there comes a point when the choices they make have real and lasting consequences.
"I'm thrilled to be working with an artist like John Ridley who has written these compelling scripts filled with thoughtful and complicated characters," said Pinto.
Along with Ridley and Elba, the executive producers will be Patrick Spence and Katie Swinden for Fifty Fathoms, Tracy Underwood for
ABC Signature and Michael McDonald for Stearns Castle. The series is set to begin production in London late this summer, and will be a co-production between Fifty Fathoms and
ABC Signature.
Internationally-acclaimed actress Freida Pinto is best known to audiences for her award-winning role in the Oscar®-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. A former model, Pinto was discovered by director Danny Boyle and cast in her first feature to play the female lead "Latika." Pinto was honored with a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award win for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for her work in the film. Her additional feature credits include Jungle Book, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Immortals, Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups, Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, and the upcoming indie Love Sonia shooting now in India.
Image courtesy of Showtime
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