Lionsgate preps Sebag Montefiore’s Jerusalem series

Lionsgate is working on a drama adaptation of Jerusalem, the non-fiction bestseller from historian and novelist Simon Sebag Montefiore.

The project is the first TV drama to come out of the independent studio’s growing UK TV division.

The book follows the titular holy city through the ages and will be dramatised for TV by Lionsgate Television UK.

It said the series will be a “character-driven, action-filled account of war, betrayal, faith, fanaticism, slaughter, persecution and co-existence in the universal city through the ages”.

The studio will produce the show, with Montefiore as consultant and exec producers, and handle international distribution.

“For our first television development we could not be happier or more excited than to be working with Simon to adapt his extraordinary book,” said Steve November, creative director UK Television.

“This project will bring the story of this unique city and the people who have fought and died for it alive in an epic, dynastic television saga running through multiple seasons.”

The UK Lionsgate team will work with their US counterparts on the project.

Lionsgate Television Group Chairman Kevin Beggs said:  “Under the leadership of Steve November, working in collaboration with our US creative team, this is the perfect property to launch Lionsgate Television UK’s slate of premium series for a global audience.”

Lionsgate’s UK has recently invested in production companies Potboiler Television, Bonafide Films, Primal Media & Kindle Entertainment, and co-financed the hit Channel 4 comedy Damned which is greenlit for a second series.