‘Army Of Shadows’: Paddy Considine, Kit Harington, America Ferrera & Alex Hassell Star In British-Set Authoritarian Near-Future Thriller Series From Ronan Bennett 

Ronan Bennett, the creator of shows such as “MobLand” and “The Day of the Jackal,” is putting together a new high-profile TV project with “Army of Shadows.” The British-set drama series at Channel 4 and CANAL+ (hailing from StudioCanal and Two Cities Television as well) will be set in an occupied authoritarian and near-future version of the United Kingdom (sounds like it’ll be taking some tiny tonal/narrative cues from “V for Vendetta” and “Man in The High Castle“) and has enlisted an impressive grouping of talent to lead it.

Those actors selected for “Army of Shadows” as revealed in a recent report from Variety include Paddy Considine (“House of the Dragon,” “Red Riding Trilogy,” “MobLand”), Kit Harington (“Industry,” “Game of Thrones”), America Ferrera (“Bus,” “Barbie”), and Alex Hassell (“The Boys,” “His Dark Materials”). While not a direct adaptation/remake, Bennett is going to be “reimagining” elements (assumed with a dystopian sci-fi twist) of the Jean-Pierre Melville‘s 1969 film and Joseph Kessel’s original novel, “which famously dramatized the emergence of the French Resistance to the Nazi Occupation of France during WWII.”

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“Set in a Britain that looks almost normal, but the flags are different, the news is careful, and nobody says certain things out loud anymore. But everyone can feel it. Somewhere beneath the surface of ordinary life something has gone terribly, quietly wrong,” the show discription/logline reads from the outlet’s announceement. “But out of the shadows emerges a former soldier known only as Berry, who starts building a secret resistance network. He knows one thing above all else: don’t act before you’re ready. An unlikely group starts to coalesce around him — people who’ve decided they can’t look away any longer: a soldier, a student, a radiographer and a journalist. These are ordinary people with ordinary lives making an extraordinary and irreversible choice. Against them is a state with unlimited reach, a ruthless minister who’ll do whatever it takes to maintain order, and an American intelligence operative called Jessie, who is very good at her job.”

Another fanastic tidbit mentioned is that the six-episode run will be helmed by director Lisa Gunning, who previously worked on “Black Doves” and “The Power.” Production on “Army of Shadows” has already kicked-off with filming locations set to feature Manchester, Liverpool, London and Paris.

Bennett’s other projects from over the years consist of “Top Boy,” Harington’s “Gunpowder,” and he co-wrote the script for Michael Mann‘s period gangster flick “Public Enemies,” which chronicled the pursuit and death of infamous bank robber John Dillinger at the hands of law enforcement.

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We’re sure that more cast members for “Army of Shadows” will be named in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned for those updates as the show sounds EXTREMELY promising.