Irish director Neil Jordan is heading back to the small screen once more for a new drama for Sky Atlantic. Set in the South of France, the ten-part thriller will be called Riveria and will arrive on the channel in 2017.
The Oscar-winning director is teaming up with fellow Irish man and Booker Prize-winning author John Banville to write the new series, which is based on an idea from former U2 manager Paul McGuinness. Yep...it's certainly a melding of some great Irish minds.
The series will be directed by the award-winning Philipp Kadelbach, while it will see actress Julia Stiles take the lead.
The Bourne series star will play Georgina, who is only just married to billionaire Constantine Clios when he is killed in a yacht explosion. It turns out her husband was quite the wheeler-dealer and with the help of his first wife, Georgina has to step up to the plate and into a life of crime to maintain the Clios mansion and save the family from its enemies.
Commenting on the role Julia Stiles said: "What attracted me to Riviera is the setting, a romantic and glamorous world where not everything is as it seems, and the opportunity to explore a character who is also not as she appears. Georgina is the classic anti-hero, ultimately a good person, but compromised by the corruption around her."
While Anne Mensah, Sky’s head of drama added: "Neil Jordan has created the most audacious show in the most exquisite and luxurious of settings. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect actress for the role of Georgina than Julia Stiles. This show is the perfect thriller for a Sky Atlantic audience – ambitious, compelling and clever. Quite simply, you won’t have seen anything like it on television before."
Riviera will be shot on location in summer 2016 and can be seen exclusively on Sky Atlantic in the UK and Ireland in late 2017.
