PETALING JAYA, Jan 21 — It’s official: Netflix is setting sail with Marco Polo and filming is set to begin at the new Pinewood Studios in Johor, Malaysia soon.
The Marco Polo series is set during a war in 13th century China, and features martial arts, sexual and political intrigue, and battle scenes, Netflix said.
Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, who made the 2012 Oscar nominated feature “Kon-Tiki,” will direct the series, joined by executive producer and director Dan Minahan, and executive producer and creator John Fusco, according to the statement released online.
The series will feature a global cast, with talents to be announced later.
Netflix, the largest subscription streaming service, reached an agreement to carry the original TV series about the explorer from Weinstein Co, the independent film studio.
“With the glowing success of ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Orange is the New Black’, it’s clear that Netflix is breaking tremendous ground in the realm of streaming original content,” Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of The Weinstein Company, said, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
The nine-episode series will be available to subscribers of Los Gatos, California-based Netflix late this year.
There have been a few televised series about the adventurer, but lots of documentaries and docudramas including In The Footsteps of Marco Polo in 2008.
The famous Venetian traveller (1254–1324) inspired others to set forth, once his dictated account of his travels to the Far East in the manuscript The Travels of Marco Polo started to make the rounds of Europe.
“Marco Polo” will be Netflix’s first epic and historical drama.
