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Robert Lantos wanted to avoid a Hollywood take on European history and insisted that characters in his period epic Rise of the Raven spoke in their native tongues and that talent was sourced from the countries in question.
“I’ve always shot in English, but this is a story that is so deeply rooted in a specific moment in time, specific geographic places, I didn’t want to have everybody speak some kind of a mid-Atlantic English,” the veteran film and TV producer told Deadline.
That also meant the casting pool was smaller and the team had to work harder to find its on-screen talent.
“Global stars tend to be from the English language world, with rare exceptions,” Lantos said. “I thought it was a price was worth paying that we wouldn’t have any global stars, only local ones, from the actual countries that are involved in this history, and we’ll keep it real. I just wanted to feel that this was authentic. I have seen so much of the opposite.”
Hungary-born and Canada-based Lantos (Eastern Promises) is at MIPCOM for the world premiere of the series. ORF (Austria), TV2 (Hungary) are behind the show, which is from Serendipity Point Films, Twin Media, HG Media, MR Film and Beta Film. Beta is across distribution and making a major push with buyers at MIPOM in Cannes this week.
Lantos hopes the world has opened up to international stories that are not told in the English-language. “I think this [series] may not have been possible to do ten years ago, but courtesy of the streamer world, mass audiences have actually developed a kind of, maybe not love, but tolerance of subtitles. Shogun and Squid Game are among the top shows on television,” he said.
Rise of the Raven is one of Deadline’s selection of Drama Hot Ones – a roster of the choice scripted titles launching at MIPCOM.
