Apple TV Picks Up Ascension, Starring Caitríona Balfe
Apple TV has picked up Ascension, a new drama from multi-Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón (Disclaimer, Roma, Gravity) and starring and executive produced by BAFTA TV Award winner and five-time Golden Globe nominee Caitríona Balfe (Outlander, Belfast).
The series will be co-showrun by Natalie Erika James (Apartment 7A, Relic) and Christian White (Apartment 7A, Relic), and will be written by James, White, Alfonso Cuarón and Carlos Cuarón. James will also serve as lead director.
The project hails from Apple Studios and is executive produced by Alfonso Cuarón under an overall deal with Apple through his production company Esperanto Filmoj and produced by Anonymous Content.
Inspired by the novel Last Days by Adam Nevill, Ascension is a one-hour psychological horror thriller following Rose, a relentless documentary filmmaker and recently divorced mother who is brilliant at uncovering others’ truths but struggling to resolve her own.
When Rose begins a project on a mysterious 20th-century cult known as the Church of Ascension, she finds unexpected refuge in its teachings — until she discovers something far more insidious beneath.
Ascension explores evil and innocence at the highest level, while asking how far we’ll go — and what we’ll sacrifice — to protect the ones we love, even when the greatest threat to them may be ourselves.
Apple Studios will serve as the studio, and Esperanto Filmoj’s Gabriela Rodriguez and Richard Schwartz will executive produce alongside Alfonso Cuarón and Carlos Cuarón. Steve Golin, David Levine and Zack Hayden will executive produce for Anonymous Content. Co-showrunners James and White also serve as executive producers.
Ascension marks the latest collaboration for Alfonso Cuarón, Anonymous Content and Apple TV following acclaimed limited series Disclaimer, which landed Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG and Critics Choice Award nominations for stars Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline.
The series also marks the second project for Apple and star Caitríona Balfe, who is next set to appear in Apple Original Films’ Tenzing. Anonymous Content also produces a number of Apple Originals, including the highly anticipated upcoming series Neuromancer and 12 12 12.
