Showtime announced today that Emmy winner Ewan McGregor (Star Wars franchise, Halston, Trainspotting) will star in and serve as executive producer on the upcoming limited series A Gentleman in Moscow, an adaptation of Amor Towles’ bestselling novel (See on Amazon).
The series is produced by eOne in association with VIS, the international studio division of Paramount Global, and is set to begin production later this year and debut in 2023 on Showtime in the U.S., Paramount + in the U.K and all international markets where the service is available.
McGregor will lead the cast of A Gentleman in Moscow as Count Alexander Rostov who, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, finds that his gilded past places him on the wrong side of history.
Spared immediate execution, he is banished by a Soviet tribunal to an attic room in the opulent Hotel Metropol, threatened with death if he ever sets foot outside again.
As the years pass and some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold outside the hotel’s doors, Rostov’s reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.
As he builds a new life within the walls of the hotel, he discovers the true value of friendship, family and love.
“It’s an amazing, wonderful story and I am very excited to get to play such a fabulous role,” said McGregor.
A Gentleman in Moscow is written by showrunner and executive producer Ben Vanstone (All Creatures Great and Small, The Last Kingdom).
Also executive producing are Tom Harper (War and Peace, Peaky Blinders), Xavier Marchand (Nautilus, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris) and the novel’s writer, New York Times best-selling author Amor Towles. Since its release, the novel has sold over four million copies worldwide.
“The book is a rare and delicious treat and I fell in love with it the moment I picked it up 6 years ago. We are thrilled that Amor entrusted this brilliant team with bringing the Metropol to life and couldn’t be more delighted that Ewan will be playing the Count,” said Harper.
