Prime Video takes European rights to Peacock gladiator series ‘Those About To Die’

Those About To Die, Roland Emmerich’s upcoming gladiator series for Peacock, has been picked up by Prime Video for streaming in Europe.

The historical drama will launch next year on the Amazon streamer in the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Turkey, Andorra, Monaco, Luxembourg and Belgium.

Set in Rome in 79 AD, the large-scale drama is set within the complex and corrupt world of gladiatorial sports and will introduce an ensemble of diverse characters across the many layers of Roman society where sports, politics, and business intersect and collide.

Anthony Hopkins heads the cast, alongside Iwan Rheon, Tom Hughes, Sara Martins and Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson.

The series is inspired by Daniel Mannix’s 1950s non-fiction book of the same name and comes from AGC Television, with co-financing from High End Productions, the firm set up by Herbert G. Kloiber and Constantin Film, which has taken European distribution rights and will co-finance the show with Peacock.

AGC International, the content licensing and distribution arm of AGC Studios, will meanwhile handle worldwide distribution rights outside of Europe.

Emmerich, who is behind blockbusters including Independence Day, White House Down and 2012, will also executive produce through his company Centropolis Entertainment, while Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot) will write and exec produce.

Other exec producers include Hollywood Gang’s Gianni Nunnari (The Departed), Street Entertainment’s Harald Kloser (2012), High End’s Oliver Berben, Herbert G. Kloiber, Martin Moszkowicz, and Jonas Bauer, aand AGC CEO Stuart Ford and CCO Lourdes Diaz.