This week cameras have begun rolling on A Gentleman in Moscow, an adaptation of Amor Towles’ internationally best-selling novel. The Paramount+ series has also announced that Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Birds of Prey) has joined the cast as production kicks off. The limited run series is produced by eOne in association with Paramount, and will debut exclusively in Paramount+ markets around the world, and on SHOWTIME® in the U.S.
Winstead will star as Anna Urbanova, a glamorous, independent, and self-made film actress, at the height of her fame. She uses her wit and beauty to dazzle Count Alexander Rostov, played by Emmy Award winning actor Ewan McGregor (Star Wars). She’s an enigmatic character, who keeps her cards very close to her chest. Reluctant to reveal her true self, Anna plays a role off-screen as well as on. The Count and Anna’s sizzling chemistry is clear from the moment they meet in the Metropol Hotel where he has been banished by a Soviet trial, but will this be true love, or just the latest in a long line of roles Anna is playing?
Winstead will next be seen in a starring role in “Ahsoka”, the next installment in the Star Wars/Disney+ universe. She recently wrapped filming on Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s independent feature “Rich Flu”, which was produced by Pablo Larraín’s Fabula. Winstead played the title character in Netflix’s No. 1 worldwide hit action-thriller “Kate” opposite Woody Harrelson, and starred alongside Margot Robbie in the Warner Bros/DC feature “Birds of Prey”, directed by Cathy Yan. Winstead earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead for James Ponsoldt’s critically acclaimed “Smashed”.
A Gentleman in Moscow follows Count Alexander Rostov (McGregor) 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.
The series is produced by eOne in association with Paramount. The series is written by showrunner and executive producer Ben Vanstone (“All Creatures Great and Small”, “The Last Kingdom”). It is the first production to come through eOne’s first look deal with Tom Harper’s company Popcorn Storm Pictures. Harper (“War and Peace”, “Peaky Blinders”) will also executive produce alongside Ewan McGregor, Xavier Marchand (“Nautilus”, “Mrs Harris Goes to Paris”) and the novel’s writer, New York Times best-selling author Amor Towles. BAFTA® award winning director, and Emmy nominee Sam Miller (“Surface”, “I May Destroy You”, “Luther”) serves as director and executive producer.
