Penny Dreadful star Eva Green is going back to the 19th century, but she’ll be a long way from Victorian London.
Deadline reports Green has been cast in The Luminaries, a new six-part period drama set in New Zealand during the 1860s gold rush. It tells the story of Anna Wetherell (Eve Hewson), who has arrived from Britain to begin a new life, and instead encounters a world of shipwreck. murder, greed, blackmail and betrayal.
Eva plays Lydia Wells, the scheming owner of a gambling house who quickly gets Anna in debt. New Zealander Marton Csokas, who played the Elf Celeborn in Lord of the Rings, is her paramour, Francis Carver.
Hewson, who’ll take the lead role of Anna, previously starred in The Knick and played Maid Marian in this year’s Robin Hood alongside Taron Egerton. She also has the trivia-tastic distinction of being the daughter of Bono (real name Paul Hewson).
Eleanor Catton, who wrote the whopping, 800-page, Booker Prize-winning novel it’s based on, also penned the script for this adaptation, and managed to squish the entire thing into six one-hour episodes.
“Eleanor has written a series of brilliant screenplays,” says Eva. “I loved her original novel and it’s so exciting that her own screen adaptation reveals yet more exquisite material.”
Not only that, but it’s being made by Working Title, the production company responsible for Gypsy starring Naomi Watts and mystery thriller London Spy. It will be helmed by Claire McCarthy, who recently directed Daisy Ridley in feminist Hamlet remake Ophelia.
There’s no air date yet but we’re curious to see how this epic book translates to the small screen.
Do you like the sound of The Luminaries?