EXCLUSIVE: A raft of buyers have snapped up Greek period drama The Great Chimera. Adapted from M. Karagatsis’ landmark novel and starring Fotinì Peluso, it has sold to buyers including Global Series Network for Walter Presents in the U.S. and SBS in Australia.
The six-part drama featured in Deadline’s Global Breakout section earlier this year, having broken viewing records on home turf where it played on pubcaster ERT’s streaming service ERTFLIX.
Peluso’s credits include Netflix’s Everything Calls for Salvation, and she leads the cast as Marina, a restless young Italian woman fascinated by classical Greek culture. Marina falls in love with Greek shipowner Yannis, played by Andreas Konstantinou (Milky Way), and joins him in starting a new life on the idyllic island of Syros.
A love triangle forms when she falls in love with Yannis’s brother Minas, played by Dimitris Kitsos (Maestro in Blue) and she becomes trapped in a Greek tragedy of her own.
The novel was published in 1953 and is set in the 1930s. The adaptation is reckoned to be the biggest-budget Greek period drama of all time, The Great Chimera was filmed at iconic locations in Athens including the Acropolis.
Foss Productions made the series as a co-production with ERT, Mompracem, Boo Productions, and Beta Film.
“The setup is in the 1930s, but we wanted the story to be of our time,” Stelios Cotionis, the Foss boss told Deadline earlier this year.
“It’s about the protagonist’s sexuality and freedom and her childhood and sadness, and her taking what she thinks is an opportunity for a better life. It’s something that nowadays is the same, with people wanting to leave their country to find a better future elsewhere.”
The series is directed by Vardis Marinakis (Silent Road) from scripts by Panagiotis Iosifelis (The Beach).