By Stewart Clarke
Upcoming paranormal series “Rendlesham” just got some star power, with Laurence Fishburne signing on to appear in the show and exec produce.
Sony-backed Eleventh Hour Films is making the series and Sony Pictures Television is taking it out internationally. It is inspired by events that took place on a U.S. air base near the British village of Rendlesham where, in 1980, there was suspected UFO activity. UFO enthusiasts have dubbed it “Britain’s Roswell.”
“The Matrix” star Fishburne will play Tyrone, a retired American airman who was stationed at the U.S. base during the Cold War. With his wife Carol and son Brock, Tyrone returns to the area to visit Carol’s dying father, and is forced to face events that have haunted him his whole life.
Fishburne will exec produce alongside his producing partner Helen Sugland through their Cinema Gypsy banner. Eve Gutierrez and Jill Green will executive produce for EHF alongside Joe Ahearne (“Doctor Who”), who is also writing and directing.
Fishburne was last seen in Marvel’s “Ant Man and The Wasp,” and next up will reprise his role as the Bowey King in “John Wick 3.” He is repped by Paradigm, Landmark Artists and Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein & Lezcano.
Sony and EHF had already partnered on “Rendlesham” when the studio took a minority stake in the U.K.-based producer in a deal announced in September. The pair have also joined forces on an adaptation of “Point Blanc,” the Alex Rider teen-spy novel.
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A series of real-life reported UFO sightings in Britain near an air base used by the U.S. Air Force will be the basis of a new drama series, “Rendlesham.”
London-based producer Eleventh Hour Film will make the series and Sony’s international TV production arm has come on board. The studio is backing the development of the project and will handle international distribution. There is not yet a broadcaster or platform attached.
Joe Ahearne (“Doctor Who”) will helm the show, which will recount the claimed UFO landings near the air base and Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, England, in the 1980s.
A complex family drama will form the backdrop to the series, which will also fast-forward from the height of the Cold War to 2020, the 40th anniversary of the incidents, which are fabled among UFO enthusiasts and have been dubbed “Britain’s Roswell.”
Ahearne said: “When Eleventh Hour Films drew my attention to this extraordinary piece of British and American history it pressed all my buttons, and I think it will do the same for a wide audience.”
Eve Gutierrez and Jill Green will executive produce for “Collision” and “Safe House” producer Eleventh Hour Films.
“Joe is a master storyteller with a long-standing fascination for science fiction,” Gutierrez said. “Now working with Sony Pictures Television we are looking forward to bringing this timely, other-worldly story to the global market.”
