A&E has secured the U.S. broadcast rights to ITV Encore’s upcoming Sean Bean fronted drama series The Frankenstein Chronicles after striking a deal with international distributor Endemol Shine International, TVWise has learned.
The Frankenstein Chronicles is set in Regency London in 1827 and follows Inspector John Marlott, a talented investigator who discovers what at first glance appears to be the body of a dead child, but on further examination proves to be a crude assembly of body parts arranged in a grotesque parody of a human form. The Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel then recruits Marlott with one mission: track down the perpetrator of this heinous crime.
Sean Bean leads the cast of the six part series as Inspector John Marlott. Rounding out the cast is Stuart Graham, Tom Ward, Anna Maxwell Martin, Charlie Creed-Miles, Ed Stoppard, Elliot Cowan, Hugh O’Conor, Joe Tucker, Kate Dickie, Patrick Fitzsymons, Richie Campbell, Robbie Gee, Ryan Sampson, Samuel West, Shaun Mason, Steve Wilson, Steven Berkoff and Vanessa Kirby.
Originally commissioned for ITV’s pay channel ITV Encore, The Frankenstein Chronicles was created by Benjamin Ross & Barry Langford and is being produced by independent production company Rainmark Films. David Tanner and Carol Moorhead are the series producer, while Tracey Scoffield, Frank Doelger, Justin Thomson-Glover and Patrick Irwin serving as executive producers. Co-creator Benjamin Ross is the director.
The Frankenstein Chronicles joins a scripted line-up at A&E that includes flagship series Bates Motel and the former CBS drama Unforgettable, which kicks off its fourth season (the first exclusively on A&E) this November. Despite changes in leadership at A&E and parent A+E Networks, they remain committed to scripted drama and are presently developing an hour-long hip-hop crime drama set in Los Angeles in the early 1990s titled The Infamous.
“The Frankenstein Chronicles’ uniquely merges classic elements from both the crime and horror genres which pairs perfectly with A&E’s growing scripted slate,” by Elaine Frontain Bryant, Executive Vice President of Programming for A&E. “We’re excited to be partnering with Endemol Shine to bring this intriguing and sophisticated series to American audiences.”
Notably, this deal with Endemol Shine International to pick up The Frankenstein Chronicles comes mere weeks after the network acquired another British drama, The Enfield Haunting, which was originally produced for Sky Living. A&E has form for going after British drama to shore up their schedules; having previously acquired and aired the earlier seasons of BBC One’s Spooks under the title MI-5 in the early 2000s.
