After the acclaimed and Emmy-winning series “Widow’s Bay,” there are some high expectations for “Ascension.” A new Apple TV series project is hailing from Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity,” “Roma”), who is said to be co-writing and executive producing via his Esperanto Filmoj banner and is part of an overall TV deal with Apple.
They’ve now landed British actor Bill Nighy to co-star alongside lead actress Caitríona Balfe (“Outlander,” “Ford v. Ferrari”). As pointed out in the past, the one-hour show is inspired by the Adam Nevill novel “Last Days.”
That casting update comes to us from Variety, which adds that the writing team also features the director’s brother, Carlos Cuarón, alongside co-showrunners as well as Natalie Erika James (“Apartment 7A,” “Relic”) and Christian White (“Apartment 7A,” “Relic”); all four are going to be executive producers on “Ascension” (Balfe is also part of the exec producer team).
A logline from the report for “Ascension”:
“Rose (Balfe), a relentless documentary filmmaker and recently divorced mother, 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.”
Of course, Apple Studios will serve as the main studio, and Esperanto Filmoj’s Gabriela Rodriguez and Richard Schwartz will also be part of the aforementioned exective producer team with Steve Golin, David Levine and Zack Hayden of Anonymous Content, part of the group, too.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed that Apple TV can convince Cuarón to do some directing on “Ascension,” unless that is already their plan (even if it’s just for a single episode). Although James is named as “lead director” in the reporting.
Anywho, the project is coming together nicely, with the two major lead actors, Nighy and Balfe, now set to top-line it.
