CIARAN HINDS, PAUL READY AND ADAM NAGAITIS ALSO JOIN THE SERIES
NEW YORK, 30 September 2016 – AMC announced today that Jared Harris (Mad Men, The Crown) has been cast as the lead actor in the network’s anthology drama series, The Terror, an adaption of the bestselling novel by Dan Simmons. David Kajganich (True Story, A Bigger Splash) and Soo Hugh (The Whispers, The Killing) are serving as executive producers, writers and co-showrunners with Scott Free, Emjag Productions and Entertainment 360 producing the series in association with AMC Studios. Production begins this winter in Budapest with the 10 one-hour episodes set to premiere in 2017. AMC Global will premiere the series exclusively within minutes of broadcast on AMC U.S. across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
The Terror is set in 1847, when a Royal Naval expedition crew searching for the Northwest Passage is attacked by a mysterious predator that stalks the ships and their crew in a suspenseful and desperate game of survival.
Harris will play Francis Crozier, Captain of the HMS Terror and second in command of the expedition. He is a brilliant sailor and captain, but an Irishman who has reached his glass ceiling in the British Royal Navy and has become disillusioned with its pomp and politics.
Additional casting includes Ciaran Hinds (Game of Thrones, Rome) as Sir John Franklin; Paul Ready (Cuffs, Utopia) as Henry Goodsir; Adam Nagaitis (Houdini and Doyle, Suffragette) as Cornelius Hickey. All will play integral members of the crew aboard the ships. Tobias Menzies (Outlander, Game of Thrones), who was previously announced, rounds out the casting as James Fitzjames, a member of the Royal Navy.
“The story of man’s battle with nature and an unknown predator makes The Terror a gripping and imaginative series, and calls for a special kind of actor,” said Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV. “We are thrilled to expand our relationship with Jared Harris and look forward to watching him transform into the complex and fascinating character of Captain Crozier. We are also delighted to work with this versatile and talented cast to share with audiences the despair and horror inside this journey of survival, hope and recognition.”
About AMC Global
AMC Global, a business unit of AMC Networks International, commemorates favourite films from every genre and decade and showcases acclaimed first run original programming to bring audiences something deeper, something richer, Something More. The network has created some of the most award-winning series of the past decade that have re-defined dramatic storytelling. In addition to being widely distributed throughout North America, AMC is available in over 125 countries. AMC Global is a premier entertainment destination that is available in HD and SD and across all platforms, including on-air, online, on demand and mobile.
About AMC Studios
AMC Studios is the in-house studio and production operation for AMC Networks Inc., which owns and operates the AMC, IFC, SundanceTV, WE tv and BBC AMERICA television networks. AMC Studios’ first series was “The Walking Dead,” which is the highest-rated basic cable program in the history of television and has been the #1 show on television among adults 18-49 for the past four years. Since then, AMC Studios has produced several critically acclaimed, award-winning and culturally distinctive series, including AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead,” which delivered the highest-rated first season in the history of cable television, “TURN: Washington’s Spies,” “Halt and Catch Fire” and “Into the Badlands,” the Peabody Award-winning “Rectify” and “Hap and Leonard,” for SundanceTV and, for BBC AMERICA, the upcoming original series “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.”
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