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Pierce Brosnan and Spike TV Developing Crusades Television Series

Spike TV and Pierce Brosnan's Irish DreamTime, along with Mark Sennet Entertainment, are coming together to develop an event series called The Crusaders, fittingly, based on the crusades.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series takes place after the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin’s armies during the Third Crusades. The series centers on two knights who travel from Scotland to the Holy Land for vastly different reasons. When they arrive they’ll be up against their own past as well as historical figures such as Richard the Lionheart, Saladin and the assassins known as the Hashshashin. The series promises to be filled with political intrigue, war and betrayal. No word on how many episodes the series will run for, however.

Predators writer Michael Finch and Oscar-winning writer David Franzoni for Gladiator will pen the screenplay and executive produce along with Brosnan, Beau St. Clair, Mark Sennet, Craig Sheftell, and Brian Gary.

This is the second crusades themed show announced in recent months with History announcing back in May that they were developing a four-hour miniseries which follows three brothers during the First Crusade. Their journey through the Holy Land eventually culminates in the creation of the Knights Templar.

The Crusaders marks Spike TV’s continuing push back into original scripted television. This push kicks off with Tut, Spike’s first scripted series in seven years, which will be released in 2015 with Ben Kingsley attached. Spike is also working on an adaption of the Stephen Grey best-seller The Chairman, as well as The War at the Shore, based on the Richard D. “Skip” Bronson book and Carl Hiaasen’s Basket Case.

Here’s the official press release from Spike TV:

Spike TV is teaming up with Pierce Brosnan’s Irish DreamTime, Mark Sennet Entertainment, Michael Finch and Academy Award-winning writer David Franzoni to develop a script for an event series based on the one of the seminal events in world history, the Crusades.

Spike TV’s event-series, “The Crusaders” will be Executive Produced by Brosnan and Beau St. Clair from Irish DreamTime, Mark Sennet (“Bag of Bones”), Brian Gary (“Jefferson Davis: An American President”), and Craig Sheftell from Sennet Entertainment. Michael Finch (“Predators”) and David Franzoni will Executive Produce and write “The Crusaders.” Franzoni won an Oscar in 2000 for “Gladiator” (Best Picture).

The event-series takes place during the Third Crusade, after the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin’s armies, and centers on two very different knights who journey from Scotland to the Holy Land for very different reasons. There, bound together in the crucible that is war, politics and betrayal, they will encounter and be forced to overcome, among others, Richard the Lionheart, Saladin, the Hashshashin and ultimately their own personal demons.

Sharon Levy, Executive Vice President, Original Series, Spike TV and Justin Lacob, Vice President, Original Series, will oversee the project.

Spike TV will premiere its first scripted event series in seven years, “Tut,” in 2015. The network recently announced script options for “The Chairman,” based on the Stephen Frey best-seller “War at the Shore” based on Richard D. “Skip” Bronson’s book, and “Basket Case” by prominent author and journalist Carl Hiaasen.

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