Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jeff Pope (“Philomena”) and Xavier Marchand of “Nautilus” producer Moonriver TV are teaming up on “Citadel of the Eagles,” a six-episode restricted collection primarily based on the true story of Allied POWs who staged a daring jail break from a fortified Italian citadel throughout World Battle II.
The duo might be presenting the venture to an trade viewers in Rome through the MIA Market, which runs Oct. 14 – 18.
Written by Pope and primarily based on the ebook of the identical identify by Mark Felton, “Citadel of the Eagles” is produced by Marchand for Moonriver and Pope for his manufacturing label Etta Footage, which is a part of ITV Studios. “Harry Potter” star Jason Isaacs, who performed Cary Grant within the four-part ITV biopic “Archie” written by Pope, is connected in a lead position.
The collection begins in 1943, with struggle raging throughout Europe and a few two dozen Allied troopers and officers imprisoned in Castello Vincigliata, a near-impregnable fortress perched excessive over the Tuscan countryside that has been transformed into a jail by the Fascist military of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
Among the many prized captives are two British knights of the realm, an air marshal and 12 generals and brigadiers — a number of the most senior-ranking officers to be captured and imprisoned throughout WWII. They’re joined by a pair of brigadiers from New Zealand, who had been seized by Italian troops in Libya throughout Mussolini’s North African marketing campaign.
Removed from peculiar troopers, the POVs possess a number of the Allied forces’ most prized secrets and techniques — together with the data that the British have cracked Enigma, Nazi Germany’s practically unbreakable code for transmitting top-secret messages. If the prisoners are transferred to Adolf Hitler’s gestapo, World Battle II — and the destiny of Western civilization — might be hanging within the steadiness.
“The stakes had been big,” mentioned Pope, who heads ITV’s factual drama division. The screenwriter, who received a BAFTA for ITV’s 2006 two-part drama “See No Evil: The Moors Murders,” mentioned the collection wouldn’t solely inform the riveting story of the POWs’ miraculous jail break — which required them to dig tunnels beneath the fortress’ partitions — however discover the advanced forces that had been driving the struggle effort and reshaping the political panorama in Europe.
“It’s many issues in a single. It’s a thriller. It’s a psychological drama. There’s a social commentary, as properly, in the way it examines the Nazi and Italian captors,” Pope mentioned. “We additionally have a look at extremism and the way that may break folks aside…It’s stuffed with motion and drama within the conventional sense. However underpinning all of it [are broader themes] we wish to discover.”
Former eOne Options president of manufacturing Marchand described “Citadel of the Eagles” as “a phenomenal story of male camaraderie.” “It’s a really emotional piece about older males making an attempt to return to the struggle effort,” he mentioned. He added that the present’s creators hope to seek out an Italian co-producer or broadcasting accomplice throughout MIA, with an eye fixed towards filming on location in Tuscany.
The veteran producer arrange his London-based shingle Moonriver in 2016, with credit together with the Lesley Manville- and Isabelle Huppert-starring “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” Paramount+ and Showtime’s adaptation of Amor Towles’ best-selling novel “A Gentleman in Moscow,” and “Nautilus,” the Captain Nemo origin story impressed by Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Below the Sea,” which might be launched by AMC and Prime Video.
Marchand additionally govt produced the 2018 Laurel and Hardy biopic “Stan & Ollie,” which was written by Pope — a venture that first introduced the award-winning scribe along with the veteran producer.
“[‘Castle of the Eagles’] was born out of [‘Stan & Ollie’], as a result of Xav and I spent loads of time collectively engaged on that, which was an actual ardour venture for each of us,” mentioned Pope. “I feel we each have a ardour for the early twentieth century. Despite the fact that they don’t look like bedfellows…Stan and Ollie’s heyday was simply earlier than the Second World Battle. It’s an period that pursuits us.”
The collection hearkens again to iconic WWII dramas like John Sturges’ “The Nice Escape,” which starred Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough as Allied prisoners who stage a daring escape of a number of hundred POWs from a Nazi jail camp.
A key distinction with “Citadel of the Eagles,” nonetheless, is that many of the senior officers who broke out of Castello Vincigliata had been “most likely near my age now,” in line with Pope.
“Whereas ‘The Nice Escape’ was younger officers on the peak of their bodily powers, what we had right here had been older males, many of their 50s and 60s, who…had one thing to show to the world and to themselves about their bodily powers, and the way they refused to simply accept the truth that they had been older,” he mentioned.
“The notion of escape is one thing that’s elementary to all of us. However to then have a world and characters to play with that had been so uncommon, and so totally different from different escape motion pictures: all of that put collectively, I discovered irresistible.”
