When it comes to their original series, Netflix doesn't seem to want to be associated with any one specific genre. Tackling politics with House of Cards, supernatural drama with Hemlock Grove and prison drama with Orange is the New Black, the streaming video service seems to favor variety among its dramas. It seems they're aiming to tackle adventure and historical drama with Marco Polo, the Weinstein Company's planned series, which has officially begun production. Here's a look at the series' star, Lorenzo Richelmy, who's playing the title character:
We learned back in January that Netflix was moving forward with Marco Polo, a series that's actually been in development for a couple of years. Created by John Fusco, with Harvey Weinstein on board as executive producer (along with Fusco), the first two hours of the 10-hour series will be directed by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales directors Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, and the drama is slated to arrive on Netflix later this year (2014). Here's the official description:
The famed explorer’s journey takes him to the center of a brutal war in 13th century China, a world replete with exotic martial arts, political skullduggery, spectacular battles and sexual intrigue. The global cast includes Lorenzo Richelmy (IL TERZO TEMPO) as Marco Polo, Benedict Wong (PROMETHEUS), Zhu Zhu (CLOUD ATLAS), Tom Wu (SKYFALL), Remy Hii (TREADING WATER) and Rick Yune (OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS).
Also set to executive produce and direct two episodes is Dan Minahan (Game of Thrones. Netflix says the series will be filming its first season in various locations, including Italy, Kasakhstan and the new Pinewood Studios in Malaysia. Given that Marco Polo was a bit of a traveler and an adventurer-- to say the least -- it makes sense that TWC will be blocking off various locations for this series.
Netflix is presumably going to drop all ten episodes of this series on viewers at once, as has been their strategy for all of their other live-action original series. (Their release strategy for Turbo FAST was a bit more scattered). With the full-season release assumed for this drama, I'm excited to see how that plays out for an adventure series. Those of us who dedicated a weekend to plowing through Netflix's riveting drama House of Cards or the humorous and sometimes shocking events of Orange is the New Black are surely developing an appetite for season-at-a-time viewing. Netflix didn't invent binge-watch viewing behavior, but it sure has made it more accessible and enjoyable, not only with their original programming but with the other series they have available.
Netflix already has a Twitter account set up for the series, with a lone Tweet...
And there's also this image:
