Danish director Bille August (a two-time recipient of the Palme d’Or with Pelle the Conqueror in 1988 and The Best Intentions in 1992) is now helming a new English-language adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s famed novel The Count of Monte Cristo. The project is currently being filmed on location in France, Italy and Malta, and the five-month shoot is set to wrap in mid-December. The news was first reported by Variety.

The cast is toplined by Peaky Blinders star Sam Claflin, who plays Edmond Dantès, a 19-year-old sailor who was falsely accused of treason and is imprisoned without trial in the Château d’If, a grim island fortress off Marseille. After many years of captivity, he finally escapes and, under the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo, plans to take revenge on those who have wrongly accused him. Other confirmed cast members include Ana Girardot, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Blake Ritson, Karla-Simone Spence, Michele Riondino, Lino Guanciale, Gabriella Pession and Nicolas Maupas.

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The project is the first series to be entirely produced within Mediawan and be represented by its distribution arm, Mediawan Rights. Italy’s Palomar is producing the eight-part show in collaboration with France’s DEMD Productions and in association with Entourage Ventures alongside RAI Fiction and France Télévisions, which are also the commissioning broadcasters.

August’s series is part of Mediawan’s strategy “to pursue prestige scripted projects with strong international potential under its €100 million co-development agreement signed earlier this year with private-equity firm Entourage Ventures”.

Sébastien Pavard, of DEMD, billed the series as “a story about love and treason” and “the revenge of the underdogs against the powerful”. Moreover, the show promises “to place a larger emphasis on the characters’ psychological depths, emotions and motivations”, while sporting “stronger female characters, including the young Haydée, who isn’t a frightened slave as she is in the book, but rather a brave and empowered woman”. August was compelled by the project, as “it’s all about relationships and the complexities of human beings, and in that sense, it’s very modern and timeless”.

Mediawan holds the worldwide distribution rights, in co-operation with CAA for North America, and with the participation of Entourage.